Gambrel & Peak

Mission

Gambrel & Peak is a multifaceted historic preservation consulting firm, owned and operated by Heather Veneziano. Its focus is to preserve shared cultural heritage environments, historic architecture, and landscapes through documentation, archival and contemporary research, fieldwork, education, and advocacy. With a strong emphasis on traditional building crafts and place-making Gambrel & Peak is able to identify more to the story than what initially meets the eye. While serving as Principal, Heather has worked with a diverse set of clients throughout the gulf region, including property owners, non-profits, universities, museums, and private organizations. In all of the firm's projects it strives for high-quality workmanship and professionalism. Great value is placed on client relationships and services are tailored to best suit any given project.

HEATHER VENEZIANO, PRINCIPAL

Heather Veneziano is based in New Orleans where she works as a preservationist, conservator, historian, and independent researcher focused on vernacular architecture, deathscapes, ritual, craft, and architectural/landscape preservation. She established the preservation consulting firm of Gambrel & Peak in order to work directly with clients, to help guide them through the process of understanding the nuances of their property and making it as sustainable as possible.

Prior to establishing Gambrel & Peak, she held a variety of positions in related craft-based fields. From working as an assistant professor of Fibers & Material Studies, to apprenticing as a cypress casket maker with Benedictine monks, to gaining hands-on experience as a masonry conservator with a focus on cemetery architecture, she continues to expand upon her knowledge in the field of craft studies. 

She holds a Master of Preservation Studies from Tulane University, a Master of Fine Art from the University of Edinburgh, and a Bachelor of Fine Art in Craft and Material Studies from the University of the Arts. Through her educational and professional experience she possesses hands-on knowledge of traditional building techniques and materials, and is therefore able to confidently act as a liaison between property owners and contractors. She has lectured nationally as well as internationally on her work and is currently the co-chair of the Louisiana Chapter of the Association for Gravestone Studies, vice chair of the Vieux Carré Commission, and serves on the Executive Council of the Louisiana Historical Society. Ms. Veneziano is also a Professor of Practice and Interim Associate Director of the Historic Preservation Program of Tulane School of Architecture at Tulane University.

Her Master's Thesis, "Politics, Poverty, and Preservation: A Case Study of the Preservation of Hart Island," was awarded the Distinguished Thesis Award in 2015 by Tulane School of Architecture. In 2019, her role as a digital archivist and architectural historian was recognized within a joint Special Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation granted to the Vieux Carré Virtual Library project by the Louisiana Landmarks Society and in 2022 she was awarded the 2022 Preservation Award by the Louisiana Colonials, an award that celebrates ongoing preservation work within the State of Louisiana and a commitment to scholarship in the field of Louisiana history.

Over the years she has contributed a number of articles to Preservation in Print, a magazine published by the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans and the Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office. In addition, she is the co-author, co-editor, and designer of Gateway to New Orleans: Bayou St. John, 1708-2018, published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press for the Louisiana Landmarks Society. She also acted as a Cultural Heritage Advisor for Sacred Ground: The Cemeteries of New Orleans, published by Princeton Architectural Press in October of 2019.

In addition to consulting and documentation projects, she is also available for lectures and workshops.