Norma Barbacci

Norma Barbacci is a preservation architect with more than 35 years of international experience in cultural heritage conservation, historic urban preservation, cultural tourism, and project management. She is the principal of Norma Barbacci Preservation Consultants LLC, established in 2017, advising governments, multilateral organizations, and non-profit institutions on heritage conservation, interpretation, adaptive reuse, and capacity building.

Since 2023, she has taught Historic Preservation in the 21st Century and co-directed the Civita di Bagnoregio Summer Program at the Yale School of Architecture, where she also served as Robert A.M. Stern Visiting Professor of Architecture in 2020.

Her recent work includes managing the Monasterio de San Francisco rehabilitation project in Santo Domingo with ARS Progetti; leading Ruta del Río Grande, a community-based tourism initiative in Oaxaca for CHiFA; directing cultural interpretation studies in Lima and Ayacucho, Peru; managing CyArk documentation and interpretation projects in Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico; and advising the EU, IDB, and WMF on heritage projects in Peru, Suriname, Panama, and Cuba.

From 2001 to 2017, she was Program Director for Latin America, Spain, and Portugal at the World Monuments Fund, managing more than 100 conservation projects at major heritage sites, including Easter Island, Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, Chankillo, San Pedro de Andahuaylillas, the Alhambra, and the Segovia Aqueduct. Previously, she worked for 12 years at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners in New York.

She holds a B.A. in Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, where she received the AIA School Medal and the Adams Fund Certificate for Excellence in the Study of Architecture, and an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, where she received the Historic Preservation Thesis Award.