Columbia University GSAPP Students Talk with ALF about Owls Head and Wood Island Light Stations

A team of Columbia University graduate students in historic preservation and urban planning visited ALF’s Owls Head Lighthouse on October 16th as part of their research for a studio course, Heritage on the Front Lines: Lighthouses as drivers of coastal adaptation and community resilience.

Owls Head was one of fourteen Maine light stations visited by the student group from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) during their research trip to Maine from October 11th through the -17th.

The studio team is working in cooperation with the American Lighthouse Foundation, World Monuments Fund, and Maine Preservation to examine how the long and dynamic history of adapting lighthouses to changing environmental, economic, political, and technological conditions can inform contemporary efforts to advance community and coastal resilience, while ensuring the continued use of these iconic structures.

According to the Advanced Preservation Planning & Policy Studio created by Professor Erica C. Avrami of Columbia University’s GSAPP, “Lighthouses are on the front lines of climate change. Rather than simply asking how lighthouses might be protected, this studio reframes the question to examine how the frontline locations of light stations can make them drivers of climate action in ways that capitalize on them as a system. The intention is to explore how they might further protect and/or benefit communities—their economies, livelihoods, and built environments—through co-learning, participatory planning, networked programming, and innovative research and projects.”

Prior to their visit to Owls Head Lighthouse, three days earlier, the students met with representatives from the American Lighthouse Foundation and its chapter – Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse, at the Biddeford Pool Community Center, to discuss climate vulnerabilities at Wood Island Light Station. Conversation focused on the serious erosion concerns threatening the historic lighthouse on the east side of the island, and the wooden boathouse on the west side of the island.

Moving forward, stay tuned for a complete overview of Columbia University’s fieldwork. Once the studio is completed, a public report will be released in spring 2027 on the student’s research and findings.