Our built heritage gives our country and our communities a distinctive character and identity that cannot be replicated and, once lost, is lost forever. Today, many of our historic buildings are in need of restoration, strengthening, and adaptation if they are to survive into the future, and continue to offer social, economic, and environmental benefits.

Chessa Stevens is a Conservation Architect and Built Heritage Consultant, specialising in the assessment, preservation, restoration, management and maintenance planning for heritage and historic structures.  She understands that decisions about the conservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of heritage and historic structures must be underpinned by careful research and a fully developed understanding of cultural heritage value, along with expertise in materials and deterioration mechanisms.

Chessa is registered with the NZ Registered Architects Board, and has a Master’s with Distinction in Conservation Studies (Historic Buildings) from the University of York, UK, where she was awarded the Duncan Gillard Memorial Medal.  Having started her first restoration project when she was 19, she has more than two decades’ experience in the field, ranging from work at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK down to the preservation of some of the smallest and least recognised historic structures in Aotearoa.