Preservation Dallas' New Executive Director Should Be a Fine Hire

We've been hearing for weeks that Preservation Dallas has finally chosen a replacement for former executive director Dwayne Jones, who left for the Galveston Historical Foundation late last year. And this morning, Jones' temporary replacement -- Katherine Seale, who's done an excellent job during the first half of a very busy 2007 -- confirmed that, yes, we'd heard correctly. And it turns out that Preservation Dallas' new exec director is a very big-deal hire: His name is Adrian Scott Fine, and he comes to Dallas after having been the director of the Northeast Field Office for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Fine's known among preservations for his commitment to the cause: He's known to show up and speak in cities where historic properties are endangered, he's been featured on National Public Radio talking about expansion versus preservation, and he's written several papers for the Trust, among them "Eminent Domain: A Double-Edged Sword for Historic Preservation," which is readily available here. But he's best known for having co-authored the Trust's paper Taming the Teardown Trend, in which Dallas is chief among the cities studied and cited.

Seale will remain with Preservation Dallas, where she has finally gotten off the ground a rotating trust to buy and preserve endangered properties, the opening of a salvage warehouse and a new conservation easement program. Fine will be introduced, most likely, in August -- after he's found a place to live, says Seale. Oh, may we suggest one of these fine historic properties, then? --Robert Wilonsky