Protect historic properties. The Historic Charleston Foundation in Charleston, S.C., is protecting its historical homes from developers who are drawn to the homes’ big lot size in prime downtown areas. When these properties are for-sale and are at risk of being redeveloped into big condominiums, the foundation buys the home with a funding initiative it started to protect historic properties. The foundation holds onto the property until it can resell it to a preservation-minded buyer.

Sustainable retrofits. Protecting historical properties further, 400 properties—including office buildings and residential homes—in Charleston are under easement with the foundation. That means property owners of these structures must get the foundation’s permission for such changes to the windows or exterior color so that the foundation can recommend ways to retrofit the houses that stays true to its heritage.

Use old homes as a model for designing new. Think beyond the McMansion, conference speakers said. Older homes often were built smarter and more energy efficient, such as side windows that offered cross-ventilation for cooling a home instead of relying on an air conditioner, said urban designer and author Marianne Cusato, a featured speaker during the conference. Newer homes often make the machines do all the work to heat and cool a home. But with escalating costs, older homes can serve as a model of smarter design, said Cusato, who gave several tips on how to add value of homes (see “5 Ways to Give Your Home Character”).

Enhance design throughout the city. Ron Fleming, author of “The Art of Placemaking,” said that public art can be used to remind a city of its heritage by incorporating distinctive features into new and old city structures—from the city benches to highways. For example, towns can have art that replicates the city’s skyline on highway overpasses, murals in public transportation that showcases its ethnic identity, and extra detailing that reflects nature or the city’s history on benches around town that make it more than just a cement block. Or, placemakers of what’s no longer there from the city’s heritage can also serve as reminders, such as corn statues along a road in Delaware, Ohio, where cornfields used to be.

Take a long view of city planning. A long view plan for preservation can help the city know where it’s going and what it wants to protect as new construction moves in. Charleston has a plan all the way to 2030 that also accounts for a projected 128,000 new households during that time. In Florida, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach partnered with University of Miami School of Architecture and Preservation to evaluate the best case for preservation, in which students and faculty completed drawings of historic structures and presented ideas for preserving the city.