Michael Godzinski
Project Manager/Marine Archeological Diver/ Architectural Historian

Mr. Godzinski’s professional CRM experience since museum employment includes a wide variety of projects in several different capacities, including, archeologist, architectural historian, historian and research diver.  Mr. Godzinski has been a certified advanced PADI diver since 2004 and has recently joined ESI’s Marine Archaeology Division (MAD).  Training for this position has entailed completion of the Florida State University Academic Diving Program’s 40 hour course on surface supplied diving equipment featuring the Kirby Morgan line of hard hats and AGAs.

Since the completion of the Florida State program, Godzinski has worked with the ESI MAS on two dive projects, both in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.  In June 2008, the team investigated several magnetometer anomalies for an Air Products pipeline off the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.  He also participated on the side scan sonar survey of the lower Tchefuncte River helping the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum identify the location of the dredge New Camellia.  This project entailed diving on features identified by the side scan. 

Michael Godzinski attained a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Rutgers University.  Mr. Godzinski came to Rutgers College after attending North Carolina State University for two years.  At North Carolina State University, he volunteered in the archeology lab of Irwin Rovner.  As an engineering student with an interest in history, this was Mr. Godzinski’s first exposure to archeology.  While analyzing eighteenth-century well samples from Hampton, Virginia, which had previously been thought to be devoid of phytoliths, Mr. Godzinski discovered deposits that subsequently changed the interpretation of the site.  He has continued his volunteer service through his years in New Orleans by assisting the Greater New Orleans Archaeology Program at such sites as the Treme and Evergreen plantations.

After receiving a B.A., Mr. Godzinski began an interpretive career at the Nantucket Historical Association.  This employment began as docent interpreting the several different structures owned by the Association.  The windmill became his permanent appointment, and running, maintaining, and teaching others about this fully-functional 1745 structure was an introduction to first hand architectural/historical engineering study.  In between semesters at the Rutgers University Masters program, Mr. Godzinski remained an employee at the Nantucket Historical Association, where he assisted the Curator of Structures.  Working in this capacity entailed routine maintenance of the Association’s many architectural specimens, where Mr. Godzinski absorbed much about the architectural history of Nantucket’s historic building stock.  This experience included a myriad of New England building types and styles from the seventeenth-century saltbox through the antebellum Greek Revival style and commercial buildings.

Mr. Godzinski received a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology from Rutgers University in 1995.  The Gallier House Museum in New Orleans was the next opportunity for Mr. Godzinski to experience architectural preservation.  At the Gallier House Museum, Mr. Godzinski continued his study of historic architecture and archeology.  As Assistant Curator, he developed a public program focusing on archeology and helped with curating the historic architectural exhibits.

Archeologist/Project Manager

Since 2006, Mr. Godzinski has been involved in the archaeological side of the cultural resources business.  Numerous clients that Godzinski has ran projects for in New Orleans have included Jackson Barracks, Louisiana Army National Guard, Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), and D-Day, The National World War II Museum.  Jackson barracks entailed a Phase I and II survey of the entire barracks property.  Human remains, a significant Civil War deposit and significant buried architectural remains were identified at this nationally significant antebellum installation.  This project has included monitoring on a large scale that has identified several new archaeological loci.

In 2007, HANO started the process of demolition of four major public housing complexes.  Godzinski has served as Project Manager for all of them.  Lafitte Housing Complex in downtown New Orleans has entailed three phases of archeology, the first Phase III of which was completed in December 2008.  The next Phase III is to begin Spring 2009.  Historic sites that were excavated range in dates from turn of the nineteenth century to the early-twentieth-century and included excavation of shipping commerce sites that spread along the Carondelet Canal after its inception.

C.J. Peete Housing Complex (Phase III completed in February 2009) in uptown New Orleans was more focused on residential patterns of marginalized citizens in New Orleans’ “back of town.”  B.W. Cooper Housing Complex went as far as Phase II (completed March 2009) archeological survey and was dominated by a heavy dump deposit spread across part of the area beginning in the late-nineteenth century.  St. Bernard Housing Complex never went past Phase I.

Prior to the Jackson Barracks project, the last archeology project that Mr. Godzinski worked for was the Vicksburg District, Corps of Engineers’ Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Site in 2005.  This Phase II for the proposed museum entailed the exploration of a Civil War gun emplacement, but also resulted in the identification of remains of one of the nineteenth century sawmills.

In April 2003, he was the project manager for the New Orleans District, Corps of Engineers’ Lockport Flood Control Right-Of-Way Feasibility Study, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana.  Mr. Godzinski was responsible for identifying multi-component prehistoric remains buried more than a meter below the project’s right-of-way. 

In January 2001, Godzinski led a team of field archeologists to survey western portions of Grand Terre Island for the USACE New Orleans District.  The Corps and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources are developing plans to utilize dredge spoil to bolster and rebuild portions of Grand Terre Island.  ESI’s job was to characterize the numerous archeological and architectural resources extant on the island.  The site boundaries of the National Register listed Fort Livingston site (16JE49) as well as the National Register eligible Forstall Plantation site (16JE129) were delineated and reassessed.  The Lafitte site (16JE128) was the subject of a marine survey focused on locating submerged resources.  Mr. Godzinski simultaneously supervised terrestrial excavations at two sites (16JE49 and 16JE129) separated by more than one mile of beach, as well as coordinating on cartographic issues with the marine archeologist directing the remote sensing survey at the Lafitte site.  As a result of the survey, one new site was recorded (ESI locus GT-2, historic watercraft), countless features were documented at the Forstall site, a new component of the Fort Livingston site (the Barataria Pass lighthouse) was discovered, and copious magnetometer and bathymetric data suggested the remains of numerous features associated with the Lafitte site.

Godzinski has also led and served on numerous Corps of Engineers’ flood control projects throughout plantation country.  In addition to intensive survey, Mr. Godzinski also has led NRHP test excavations.  In June and July of 1999, Mr. Godzinski led NRHP testing of one of the first nineteenth-century railroads leaving the city of New Orleans.  This project was part of the New Orleans District, Corps of Engineers’ Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, Orleans Parish, Louisiana The Hollygrove Drainage Improvements Feature was an abandoned railroad embankment right-of-way that was turned into a drainage canal.  In order to uncover the nineteenth century engineering techniques, a crew of four to six conducted backhoe and hand excavation of six 30 m trenches within the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans.  The excavation of this railroad embankment provided valuable information regarding the construction of early railroads through wetlands.

In fall 1998, Mr. Godzinski led a team to Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, to survey a parcel for the Phase I Cultural Resources Survey and Inventory of the Proposed Vermilion River Dredge Maintenance Project, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana.  Mr. Godzinski led the survey of the property, which contained an African-American Cemetery.  Magnetometer survey delineated the boundaries of the cemetery, so that the engineers could coordinate the dumping of dredge spoil from the Vermilion River.

In July 1998, Mr. Godzinski served as a field supervisor on the Sonat-North Alabama Phase II excavation at 1MG772.  Mr. Godzinski was responsible for detecting and interpreting architectural features located at this multi-component, early Archaic through late Woodland site.  Additionally, in August of 1998, Mr. Godzinski supervised unit excavation at Mary-Deneufbourg Plantation in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. 

In 1996 and 1997, Mr. Godzinski regularly supervised two to four field technicians on Phase I pipeline survey projects in Alabama on the Sonat-North Alabama Pipeline Project, in Mississippi on the Destin Pipeline Project, and in Louisiana on the Koch and Breaux Bridge Pipeline Projects.  In Texas, during the 1997 ANR Katy to Eunice Pipeline Project, Mr. Godzinski served as Assistant Project Manager and was responsible for the management of a crew of ten.  Later, Mr. Godzinski was simultaneously supervisor of a crew of six during a block survey of a 35 acre site on the Vermilion River in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana; a crew of four at the Breaux Bridge Pipeline Project nearby; and a team of two at the Lafayette Parish Courthouse for the Lafayette Flood Control land title project.  Coordinating the three projects necessitated skills as legal historian as well as archeologist and human resources diplomat.

 

Architectural Historian/Project Manager

Mr. Godzinski also has a great deal of experience assessing buildings, structures and objects using NRHP criteria (36CFR 60.4 [a-d]).  Major projects that Mr. Godzinski has served as project manager for include: FEMA architectural surveys of Orleans Parish in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; the Bywater and Holy Cross neighborhoods historic preservation plans, as a part of the mitigation for the New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lock Replacement Project; the Desire Streetcar Line; the Gulf Coast MagLev Demonstration Study; and the Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit System.  He has served ESI as architectural historian for surveys in Orleans, Ascension, Assumption, Lafourche, Lafayette, Ouachita, St. Martin, Iberia, St. Mary, St. Tammany, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Bernard, Jefferson, Iberville, Beauregard and Jefferson Davis parishes in Louisiana as well as in Mississippi, Alabama and New Jersey.  Many projects included impact assessment including application of the NRHP’s criteria of adverse effect as defined by 36 CFR part 800.

In 2006, Mr. Godzinski led ESI in the completion of HABS documents in Orleans Parish at Jackson Barracks and the D-Day Museum.  In both instances, the institutions are planning post-Katrina expansion of facilities that warrant demolition of eight existing contributing elements of historic districts; Jackson Barracks and the Upper Central Business District are both NRHP districts.  Both projects have been designated for HABS Level III documentation which entails large format photography, sketches of the floor plans, and a history of each building.

 

After Hurricane Katrina, numerous historic resources in the affected area were at risk.  Mr. Godzinski and ESI assisted FEMA in their assessment of building that were threatened by demolition.  This project manifested itself in many capacities beginning in autumn of 2005.  The first was in helping FEMA to identify potential NRHP historic districts and individual properties.  Then, Mr. Godzinski and ESI surveyed the new NRHP historic districts of Edgewood Park and Pontchartrain Park.  The former was an early- to mid-twentieth-century residential neighborhood in the Gentilly area of New Orleans and the latter was a ca. 1950s and 1960s subdivision and golf course/park near Lake Pontchartrain and the Industrial Canal.  Additions to several existing NRHP districts were also surveyed.  These districts included Bywater, Holy Cross, Esplanade Ridge, and Carrollton and totaled over 3000 buildings.

 

After the surveys of new districts were completed in 2005, Godzinski served ESI and FEMA in the architectural survey of “red tag” buildings.  These surveys consisted of buildings in St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Orleans parishes that had been slated for demolition.  Mr. Godzinski led teams of surveyors in evaluating the buildings in terms of NRHP criteria (36CFR 60.4 [a-d]).  Many of the buildings on the list were found to be contributing elements of both NRHP and City of New Orleans Historic Districts Landmark Commission (HDLC) historic districts. 

 

Another capacity that Mr. Godzinski has served FEMA as architectural historian since Hurricane Katrina has been in the re-survey of existing NRHP/HDLC historic districts.  As a mitigation of the loss of buildings to federally subsidized demolition in Orleans Parish, FEMA has identified several NRHP/HDLC districts for an update survey.  The historic fabric of the various New Orleans historic districts has changed as the result of the hurricane and many of the districts were placed in the Register decades ago.  These new surveys document the current composition of the districts and indicate buildings that have been lost since placement in the Register.

 

In 2002, Godzinski orchestrated historic conservation plans for the Bywater and Holy Cross neighborhoods of New Orleans as a part of the mitigation for the New Orleans District, US Army Corps of Engineers’ Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lock Replacement Project.  The fieldwork portion of the project entailed the survey of approximately 3,000 buildings in the two districts.  When refined, the Corps will furnish this information to the City of New Orleans’ Historic Districts Landmarks Commission (HDLC) in order to update their property files for regulatory purposes.  An innovative, user-friendly computer program to be accessible by the public was devised for the survey.  The data from the surveys were used to develop a comprehensive conservation plan for the revitalization and sustainability of the affected historic districts.

Between 1999 and 2003, Earth Search, Inc. assisted the City of New Orleans’ Regional Transit Authority on their planning of the Desire Corridor Streetcar Line, and Mr. Godzinski served as the project manager.  The Desire Corridor Major Investment study in 1999 included an evaluation of over 600 historic structures along eight alternative routes that crossed the Vieux Carré, Esplanade Ridge, Marigny, and Bywater historic districts.  Mr. Godzinski also evaluated the potential effects of the different routes and ranked the alternatives in order of preference with regard to historic preservation.  In 2002, the preferred alternative was subjected to an intensive survey comprising approximately 1000 buildings.  This survey provided the baseline information for the assessment of effects on the corridor.  This included effects on historic resources from both the construction as well as the operation of the line.  Vibrations emanating from the construction and operation of the line as well as the visual and audible elements not in character with the historic districts were included in this assessment.  Mr. Godzinski and ESI were instrumental in negotiations concerning the mitigation of the project’s potential adverse effects.

The Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit System Capitol Extension project focused on 424 historic buildings in downtown Trenton.  Not only did this project include the preliminary assessment of effects on historic buildings, but it also went to a second, in depth phase of assessment when a single alternative was chosen to be studies for the Environmental Impact Statement.  In this phase, each building was assessed as either eligible or ineligible for nomination to the NRHP/NJRHP.  The specific effects of train movement, construction impacts, and the visual effect of having a modern (i.e., incompatible) entity moving through the historic district, as well as the physical and visual impact of the train stations and their construction on the historic areas were assessed.  The most compatible designs and mitigative measures for potentially adverse effects on historic resources were evaluated in this phase of the investigations.

Other transportation corridor projects for which Mr. Godzinski led architectural surveys include the Gulf Coast MagLev Demonstration Study; I-49 South Route US 90, Wax Lake Outlet to Berwick, Lafayette, St. Martin, and Iberia parishes, Louisiana.  Also, in Florida, for FDOT, he supervised the architectural evaluation and recording of hundreds of buildings in historic Pensacola.  All of these projects entailed the evaluation of thousands of buildings.  Similar to the Desire Corridor project, they were conducted with the objective of assessing the potential effects of the proposed impact with regard to historic preservation. 

Other Louisiana projects entailing architectural history include the Texaco-Bridgeline Pipeline Project, in which Mr. Godzinski conducted the architectural survey of buildings in plantation country around the town of Edgard, Louisiana; the LADOTD’s expansion of Chatham Road in Lincoln Parish, where Mr. Godzinski evaluated buildings to be razed for highway expansion; the Koch Pipeline Project, and the Breaux Bridge Pipeline Project, both of which included NRHP evaluations of historic buildings.

Projects that Godzinski participated in, as opposed to being in charge of, included the Historic American Engineering Record that documented the Caryville Bridge in Washington County, Florida.  In Alabama, for a Sonat pipeline project, Mr. Godzinski identified and evaluated outbuildings near Bellmina Plantation that had previously been thought to be unrelated and not significant.  In Memphis, for the U.S. Navy, he participated in the NRHP evaluation of some modern era buildings that were utilized by the Navy in developing test models for the first nuclear submarines.  In Mississippi, for the City of Jackson, he participated in an intensive architectural NRHP evaluation of a cross section of some 20,000 buildings in the city.  Assorted pipeline projects have also led Mr. Godzinski to evaluate and record buildings in Georgia and Mississippi.

Historian

Mr. Godzinski also served as historian on projects ranging from land title procurement to land use history to history of the Mississippi valley.  In Lafayette, Louisiana, Mr. Godzinski directed a USACE real estate project to procure land ownership of approximately 400 properties that were to be affected by a proposed flood control project.  Another USACE project on which Mr. Godzinski served as historian was the SEIS project.  This project entailed travel to SHPOs throughout the Mississippi Valley from Louisiana to Illinois.  Mr. Godzinski coordinated several trips to Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee to obtain records about Mississippi River levee development and archeology.  A final USACE project that entailed extensive SHPO research involved NAGPRA.  In order to comply with the NAGPRA laws, the USACE was coordinating comprehensive SHPO research to better evaluate their responsibilities with accords to those laws.  Mr. Godzinski researched all sites on USACE property in Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware that contained NAGPRA items.