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California State Historic Building Code: Practical Tools for Preservation, Safety, & Adaptive Reuse

Practical Tools for Preservation, Safety, and Adaptive Reuse

Join CPF for a two-part intermediate-level seminar focusing on the California Historic Building Code.

The California Historic Building Code (CHBC) provides a specialized framework for the rehabilitation, repair, alteration, and adaptive reuse of historic buildings—helping communities preserve important resources while addressing contemporary requirements for health, safety, accessibility, and building performance.

Successfully applying the CHBC, however, requires more than understanding individual code provisions. Planning and building officials, design professionals, preservation consultants, property owners, and advocacy organizations must understand how the Code fits within the broader regulatory process and dovetails with meeting the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, when its provisions may be applied, and how to develop practical solutions that balance historic preservation with modern health and life safety requirements.

This online professional education program provides a practical, interdisciplinary introduction to the CHBC, with an emphasis on real-world application, regulatory coordination, and appropriate, defensible decision-making. Participants will examine the purpose and structure of the CHBC, eligibility and documentation considerations, and key differences between conventional code requirements and the specialized provisions available for historic buildings.

Through examples and case studies, the program will explore common challenges involving fire and life safety, means of egress, accessibility, seismic and structural safety, changes of use, and other building-performance requirements. Participants will learn how thoughtful application of the CHBC can support the continued use and adaptive reuse of historic buildings while preserving character-defining features, protecting occupants, and maintaining appropriate, well-reasoned standards of health and safety.

The program is designed to foster better coordination among planning and building and safety departments, consultants, design professionals, preservation organizations, and other stakeholders—and to demonstrate how the CHBC can serve as a practical tool for both historic preservation and safe, sustainable community revitalization.

This practical, cross-disciplinary training on how the CHBC can be used to make sound, appropriate, and defensible decisions about historic properties is not just a code-compliance seminar. The planned content appeals broadly to public-sector planning and building and safety staff, consultants, design professionals, and preservation/advocacy organizations alike and supports continuing-education credit, including health and life safety.

Part 1: Origin, Purpose, Regulatory Intersection, Applicability, and Structural Emphasis

Thursday, November 5 2026 | 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

     Introduction: 11:00 AM – 11:05 AM

1. Introduction to the CHBC - 11:05AM – 11:20AM
Lauren Whalen, Materials Conservationist, Page & Turnbull

2. Applying the CHBC to Structural Rehabilitation - 11:20AM – 11:50AM
Marc Steyer, Structural Engineer, Tipping Structural Engineers

3. From the Building Official - Role & Perspective - 11:50PM – 12:35PM
Oscar Davalos, Assistant Director and Chief Building Official, City of Alameda Planning, Building, and Transportation Department

     All-Speaker Panel Q&A/Discussion: 12:35 PM – 1:00 PM

Part 2: CHBC Engagement, the SOIS, Case Studies, & the SHBSB

Thursday, November 12, 2026 | 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

     Introduction: 11:00 AM – 11:05 AM

1. Design Panel - 11:05AM – 11:25AM
Jen Mermilliod, Principal Architectural Historian, JMRC

2. CHBC & Materials Conservation - 11:25AM – 11:45AM
Lauren Whalen, Materials Conservationist, Page & Turnbull

3. Structural Case Studies - 11:45AM – 12:00AM
Marc Steyer, Structural Engineer, Tipping Structural Engineers

4. Role of the SHBSB & Division of the State Architect 
Eric Driever, Principal Architect & Executive Director of the State Historical Building Safety Board, Division of the State Architect

     All-Speaker Panel Q&A/Discussion: 12:35 PM – 1:00 PM

Bios and additional details coming soon!

Posted in: Adaptive Reuse, Building Technology, Standards, & Codes, Energy Conservation and Building Envelope, Sustainability, Webinars, Workshops