Wise Consultants

Wise Preservation Planning LLC
   Main Office
      1480 Hilltop Road
      Chester Springs PA 19425
      Phone (484) 202-8187
 
   Northeast Pa. Office
      115 West 3rd Street, 2nd Floor
      Berwick PA 18603
      Phone (570) 218-4028

Robert J. Wise Jr.

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Robert J. Wise Jr., President, started Wise Preservation Planning LLC (originally Robert Wise Consulting) in 1997 after working as Senior Planner Historic Preservation at the Brandywine Conservancy's Environmental Management Center in Chadds Ford, Pa. Mr. Wise holds a M.S. in Historic Preservation (planning) (1993) at the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's of Management, Business Administration at the Penn State Malvern Professional Campus (1993). One of his major accomplishments at the Brandywine Conservancy was the drafting of the Section 7 text on planning for historic resources, a text outlining the historic preservation toolkit that remains in use throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. Through his company or with the Brandywine Conservancy, Mr. Wise has completed 20 National Register and National Historic Landmark Nominations with over 2,000 individual resources, including the Mill Creek Historic District (Boundary Increase) in Lower Merion Township, Fetters Mill in Lower Moreland Township, and most recently, the Thornton Historic District in Thornbury Township, Delaware Co., Pa. As a member of the Brandywine Battlefield Task Force, Mr. Wise helped set up and coordinated a two-county, five-municipality program to identify critical battlefield sites, developed a cost analysis for protecting those sites, and initiated a multi-million dollar program to purchase development rights and conservation easements on those sites. Today, most of the critical parcels on that battlefield are protected. A key element in Mr. Wise's work was garnering support for the project from leaders of all levels of government.

Mr. Wise leads and / or volunteers on several boards to share this experience with the community. He is former President of the Chester County Historic Preservation Network, a county-wide historic preservation advocacy and information organization which he helped form, currently with over 700 members. For ten years, he served on the Tredyffrin Township Historical and Architectural Review Board (HARB), serving as chairman for five years. In 2001, facing the threat of losing a major historic resource in his community, Mr. Wise established the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust. The Trust is now a major participant in the township of 30,000 people. Mr. Wise also served as a board member of the Eagles Mere Conservancy, which protects over 1000 acres in and around the historic village of Eagles Mere, Pa. (Mr. Wise prepared the National Register nomination for Eagles Mere Borough in 1996). In the past, Mr. Wise has served as a board member of the Open Land Conservancy of Chester County and the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia.

Mr. Wise exceeds the Professional Qualification Standards for architectural historians as set forth by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in 48 FR 44716 and 36 CFR 61. He holds a certificate in community planning and has been certified by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's Cultural Resource Essentials program.

Click here to read Bob Wise's C.V.

Seth Hinshaw, Senior Planner

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Seth Hinshaw joined Wise Preservation Planning LLC in 2001 and is now Senior Preservation Planner. Seth graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Masters of Science in Historic Preservation. He specializes in GIS planning, digital document and graphic preparation, historic property research, and genealogical research. His projects include the Oxford Historic District National Register nomination, the Garrett Farm National Register nomination, the East Bradford Township Historic Resource Survey, and the Isaac Hunsicker House Historic Structure Report. Seth currently serves as of the Downingtown (Pa.) Historical and Parks Commission, where he participates in review of proposed renovation projects in the Borough's National Register historic district and helps oversee the Downingtown Log House (c. 1703). He also served on the Committee that planned the borough's 150th events in 2009.
 
Among his interests has been the architecture of houses of worship. Seth has written on the architecture of Friends (Quaker) meeting house design (1670-2000) as well as an article for the Tredyffrin-Easttown Historical Society Quarterly entitled How Colonial is Colonial Religious Architecture? which documented the tie between religious architectural trends in England in the 1600s and religious architecture of Anglicans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and Baptists in the English colonies prior to the Revolution. Seth serves on the board of the Friends Historical Association, a nationwide association of Quaker historians, and he has consulted with congregations who worship in 18th century houses of worship.
 
Mr. Hinshaw exceeds the Professional Qualification Standards for architectural historians as set forth by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in 48 FR 44716 and 36 CFR 61. He holds a certificate in community planning and has been certified by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's Cultural Resource Essentials program.
 
Click here to read Seth Hinshaw's C.V.