Watch: Historic Masonry Restoration, Do's and Don'ts (Preserve Iowa Summit 2026)

At the 2026 Preserve Iowa Summit in Ankeny, TNT owner Josh Smyser presented "Historic Masonry Restoration: Essential Do's and Don'ts for Protecting Iowa's Built Heritage," with structural expertise from Nathan Harres, RA, of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (WJE). The session gave owners, architects, and design teams a practical framework for making sound repair decisions on historic masonry, one contractor and one engineer in the same room. You can watch the full session below.

Why This Session Mattered

Iowa is full of buildings worth saving: courthouses, churches, schools, and downtown blocks that give our communities their character. Restoring them well takes more than a mason. It takes a shared understanding between the people who own these buildings, the architects and engineers who design their repairs, and the contractors who execute the work.

That was the whole point of this session. Presented for AIA continuing education credit (1.5 LU, course PI2601), it paired a contractor's field perspective with an engineer's structural perspective, so owners and design teams could hear both sides of a restoration decision at once.

The Real Goal: a Successful Restoration Honors the Building

Everything in the talk came back to a single idea: a successful restoration honors the building. In practice, that means three things.

• Honor the history. Every building has a story. A good restoration extends that story, it never overwrites it.
• Use compatible materials. What we put back has to live with what's already there. The wall tells us what it needs, and our job is to listen, matching new mortar and materials to the original construction.
• Pass it forward. The repair we make today determines what the next generation gets to inherit.

And, as the session stressed, that outcome only happens when the project team is aligned.

Restoration Is a Team Sport

One of the session's central themes: historic restoration is never one trade. Every player has a stake, and the order they enter the project matters. The owner sets the goal, funds the work, and lives with the outcome. The architect designs and specifies, and coordinates the team. Preservation consultants protect historic accuracy. Engineers diagnose why a building is failing and define what it needs. And the restoration contractor confirms what will actually hold up in the field, with materials that match the original.

Owners who bring these perspectives together early spend less, avoid false starts, and get a building preserved for the next generation rather than patched for the next few years. It's the same philosophy behind our historic preservation and masonry restoration work, and it starts with early investigation and budgeting.

Watch the Full Presentation

The full session walks through the do's and don'ts in detail, with real examples from Iowa buildings. Whether you steward a historic property, design for one, or simply care about the buildings that anchor your community, it's worth the watch.