Cydney Millstein, Hon. AIA

Cydney Millstein, Hon. AIA

Since the early 1980s, Cydney Millstein, Hon. AIA, has focused her career on documenting the built environment, fostering a greater understanding of the importance of historic preservation in America’s heartland and beyond. Her extensive writings and lectures have demonstrated the significant value existing buildings hold from both a historic perspective and because of the embodied energy they contain. The entire profession has benefited from her decades of work.

With her columns on architecture in the Kansas City Business Journal, her time discussing the city’s built environment on a National Public Radio affiliate, or her wide range of historical documents on the country’s architecture, Millstein’s impact on the profession has been profound. Across four books and dozens of published articles, she has filled neglected gaps on important architectural topics. Her expertise and careful examinations have made her a recognized authority on numerous issues that are relevant to the profession.

Millstein specializes in the documentation and federal compliance process for the preservation of historic architecture. Working closely with some of the country’s leading firms and government

agencies, including the Department of Defense and National Park Service, she has documented more than 500 buildings, landmarks, and sites across the country. In Missouri, the custodians of the National WWI Museum and Memorial, one of the most meaningful landmarks in Kansas City, selected her to guide the memorial to a National Historic Landmark nomination.

She played a crucial role in preparing the landscape analysis for the 19.3-acre site that hosts the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Her work, which examined the history-rich Jackson Park originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and Calvert Vaux, ensured the center, which was fast-tracked, met its scheduled groundbreaking in September 2021. For the Army National Guard, Millstein conducted an architectural investigation of 27 armories across the country, identifying buildings that could be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and those that could be adversely affected by modifications spurred by national security concerns.

Lecturing on a broad range of topics for AIA Kansas City, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Society of Industrial Archeology, and many other organizations, Millstein has broadened the architectural and historical knowledge base. Because of her many contributions, AIA Kansas City named her preservationist of the year in 2018, and last year, the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council passed a resolution lauding her contributions to the built environment.