Chrisanne Beckner is a Senior Architectural Historian and the lead of the Architectural History Program, based in our Olympia, Washington office. She joined HRA in 2014 after working previously as both a private preservation consultant and journalist. When asked what she likes most about working at HRA, she said: “survey and inventory field work with my colleagues. I have so many great memories of getting to know people while traveling together, staying in quirky hotels, documenting amazing resources not generally accessible to the public, and reviewing historic photos, maps, newspapers, and sometimes private correspondence that bring the past to life.” She particularly enjoys working on projects that result in historic property nominations to registers of historic places, such as the multiple property documentations for park systems in Seattle and Spokane, Washington, both of which were associated with the Olmsted Brothers, Landscape architects, “the firm that literally shaped our most significant networks of urban parks and boulevards.”

Celebrating 50 years of HRA in 2024!