HSPD Description:

The HSPD was developed in response to the continuing need to
effectively "provide preservation maintenance information about
the historic and prehistoric structures in the parks to the
staffs of those parks" (Battle, 1988).  The initial attempts to
resolve this need resulted in cultural resource management
guidelines for preparing Historic Structure Preservation Guides
(HSPG) that were set forth in a park service policy called
"NPS-28".  According to the primary developer of both "NPS-28"
and the HSPD, the HSPG guidelines have several major
deficiencies.  They recommend the use of a Construction
Specifications Institute (CSI) format that has not worked well in
practice, and the lack of written information about the
maintenance of prehistoric and historic structures necessitates
extensive research which has made the production of HSPG's
expensive and time consuming (David Battle: oral communication on
12/5/88).  In addition, with the development of new materials,
technologies, and legal or environmental constraints, written
documents such as HSPG's that cannot be easily updated are
quickly rendered obsolete.

To resolve the inadequacies of the "NPS-28" guidelines, the
National Park Service decided to establish a computerized
database that could be maintained with the latest construction
specifications, maintenance techniques, and materials technology
developments.  After an initial attempt at a computerized
information system proved to be inadequate (though it did succeed
in assembling a significant volume of preservation
pseudo-specifications), work was begun on the development of the
HSPD (Randall Biallis: oral communication on 11/30/88).

<dfile15>   HSPD: Objectives
<dfile17>   HSPD: Organization