by Jean-Christophe Simon (RMHF1993), Inspecteur Général des Patrimoines, Collège des Monuments Historiques and Ruth Todd FAIA (RMHF1994)

Page and Turnbull, Inc San Francisco (CA), Principal

RMH Fellows in Toulouse – Carcassonne – Albi

Those three days spent together in Toulouse gave us the opportunity to meet, exchange ideas with all the actors involved in preservation and heritage enhancement

• Landowners and policy-makers
• Project managers and general contractors
• Scientific and technical control experts
• Public institutions in charge of opening to the public policy
• And let us not forget the artisans of another heritage: gastronomy. We have in mind the foie gras, and the elaborated wines served so generously by the Chateau de Serres.
  The continuity, the vitality of our common heritage, depends on the good will and the cross hands investment of all those actors with whom we cross ideas along these days of studies.
  Albi is the perfect synthesis of our work covering the three topics studied during our workshops:
• The monument in its environment
• The accessible monuments
• The creation within monuments

From your contributions and reflexions, I shall retain that to be alive heritage has to be totally part of the city; that not only we work first for the inhabitants but also for the visitors and monument amateurs. I am deeply convinced that heritage is the common property of the nation and of humankind.

To have a real meaning it has to be accessible to all, it has to be part of everyone’s life.

We, French and American architects, share totally these opinions.

Our concerns bring us together. They are fully personified in the values of the Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship.

By those exchanges, by those “Regards Croisés”, clearly we understand how similar our worries are and how much we can bring to each other.

These crossed experiences, this network of the Fellows finds here its justification.

I, greatly and sincerely thank you for the value of your contribution and for the strength of your commitment.

Ruth Todd, FAIA adds:

Since 1994, not much have change in America regarding our preservation process. At reverse, I feel that in France, much has changed. Boundaries have expanded and urbanism is now an important issue in preservation. With the information age, technology makes it easier to communicate and participate.

We, the RMH Fellows, have achieved a critical mass and each year is raising the quality of the fellowship. We owe this to the commitment of our “chaperones”.