Helen Erickson

Project Director, Heritage Conservation Program

Programs

  • Heritage Conservation
  • School of Landscape Architecture and Planning
Helen Erickson
hbe@arizona.edu

Areas of Expertise

  • Cultural asset mapping
  • Historic landscape documentation
  • Historic preservation planning
  • Viewshed analysis

Biography

Helen Erickson holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Graduate Certificate in Heritage Conservation from the University of Arizona. As an intern with Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, she completed the conservation master plan and the draft National Register Nomination for the Eckbo-designed landscape at the Tucson Community Center. Other recent and current projects include landscape documentation and analysis at the Faraway Ranch Historic District in the Chiricahua National Monument, architectural assessment at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and cultural landscape planning at the Fort Apache Historic District. Appointed to the Tucson-Pima Country Historic Commission and Plans Review Subcommittee, Helen also chairs the Historic Landscapes Subcommittee. She is active in the Arizona Chapter of the Historic American Landscapes Survey and is a member of the national ASLA HALS Subcommittee. She holds a BA from Harvard University and an MMus from the Yale University School of Music, and spent the first part of her career as a performing arts teacher and administrator.

News, Research and Projects

Camp Naco

Award-Winning Heritage Conservation Efforts by CAPLA Faculty and Students Lead to $4.6M in State Restoration Funding for Buffalo Soldier Camp

CAPLA Heritage Conservation Program Project Director Helen Erickson and graduate students Sarah McDowell and Teresa DeKoker have been instrumental in efforts to preserve Camp Naco, a borderlands Buffalo Soldier camp located near Bisbee, Arizona, resulting in awards for their story map and new funding to preserve the site.

Camp Naco

Student and Faculty Research Leads to ‘Most Endangered Historic Places’ Designation for Buffalo Soldier Camp

Thanks to research by CAPLA's Heritage Conservation Project Director Helen Erickson and graduate students Sarah McDowell and Teresa DeKoker, the Buffalo Soldier military establishment Camp Naco in Southeastern Arizona has been listed by the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation's as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2022.