Her Story
About Maria
Maria Curry is a historic preservation specialist with over 50 years of experience. She started as an architectural engineer and earned a Master's in Restoration in 1989. Curry is a PhD candidate at Cornell with her dissertation completed. She has combined roles as an activist, academic, professor-researcher, and public official, including work for the Baja California Government. Curry serves as Vice President of ICOMOS in Mexico and holds board positions with two preservation organizations in the U.S. Her work was deeply influenced by the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, leading her to integrate academic teaching, grassroots efforts, and professional restoration projects. She emphasizes the multidisciplinary nature of historic preservation, addressing history, architecture, economics, politics, and community leadership to protect buildings and improve urban sustainability.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Maria
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My advisor at Cornell told me that I could do everything I wanted with a PhD. That gave me a lot of confidence. You don't feel afraid to talk to an investor, a big shot, a politician, a property owner, a community leader, anybody. Being able to be confident in what you do.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's a good area for a woman, because women care about the family. Women care about the house, the community, so we are very good at historic preservation. In many cases, the ones that lead the efforts to preserve something are women.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
We always have to deal with convincing developers, property owners, that preservation is good for them, as well as for everybody. Economically, not just from a historic point of view. Historic preservation is good for improving the life and sustainability of cities and towns. It's a big challenge always to educate, convince people that this is good for them, and avoid destroying the past, the historic buildings. Historic preservation is multidisciplinary. We deal with not just the history, understanding the architecture, structures, but also economics, also politics. Many times being kind of a psychologist to know what people want, kind of being a leader.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Life. Because as I mentioned, 1985 earthquake, I was dealing with the destruction of the city, and the most important thing was saving lives. So it's always an issue when someone wants to demolish a building, they say it's dangerous. We always make sure that's not gonna be the issue. When there are disasters, which now we have many with this global change situation, you always care about life. It's the most important issue, personally too. Historic preservation even helps to fight crime and making cities safer, because you improve the environment in many ways. You create jobs and different things.
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