[1] The organization’s first four aims and objectives, as published in the first Newsletter in April 1969, were:[2] The founding members were Alice Allison, David Bartlett, Gerald Budner, Jacques Dalibard, Oliver Torrey Fuller, George MacBeath, Pierre Mayrand, Jeanne Minhinnick, Lee Nelson, William Patterson, Charles E. Peterson, Jack Richardson, and Peter John Stokes.
Early members, including Martin E. Weaver, the organization’s fifth president,[3] and Morgan W. Phillips, were instrumental in establishing the field of architectural conservation.
APT’s mission is “to advance appropriate traditional and new technologies to care for, protect, and promote the longevity of the built environment and to cultivate the exchange of knowledge throughout the international community.”[4] The initial impetus of the founders to combine the dissemination of scholarly studies of the history of building with discussions about the application of the philosophy and practice of heritage conservation technology resulted in a conference at the Pine Brook Conference Center in Upper Saranac Lake, New York, in 1969.
From their inception, the conferences and training courses have been characterized by exchanges of ideas among practitioners, program managers and policy makers.
The most recent publications are the second edition of Introduction to Early American Masonry by Harley J. McKee[7] and The Structure of Skyscrapers in America, 1871–1900: Their History and Preservation by Donald Friedman.