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Service

Cultural Resources

SWCA's nationwide experts have the skills and experience to support the high-level consultation and planning efforts needed to properly address important cultural resources.

Overview

With more than 500 cultural resources experts, SWCA is one of the largest cultural resources consultants in the U.S. Our nationwide presence means we have the capacity, reliability, and experience to support projects of all sizes, types, and complexity. We provide a full suite of services to private and public clients, led by experts in archaeology, historic preservation, management and planning, and Tribal relations and ethnography.

We leverage strong relationships with federal agencies, Indigenous governments, and State Historic Preservation Offices, enabling us to understand the specifics of regulatory processes in particular geographic areas. With this knowledge, we provide our clients with effective support and tailored guidance to meet their project objectives. Our cultural resources experts are well versed in consultation concerning the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), cultural resource management for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process, Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), and various state laws and regulations.

Cultural Resource Management and Planning 

Cultural resource management often requires more than simply completing field surveys, and no other firms match SWCA’s expertise when it comes to meeting our clients’ advanced cultural resource management needs. Our consultants provide regulatory understanding and the consultation support skills needed to meet the cultural resource management and planning needs of any project, no matter how simple or complex. Our nationwide presence means that we have experts with local resource knowledge and experience working with local stakeholders anywhere projects are located.

Relevant Services

  • Cultural Resources Monitoring and Detection Plans
  • Ethnography and Ethnohistory
  • Historic Preservation
  • Historic Properties Management and Treatment Plans
  • Programmatic Agreements and Memoranda of Agreement
  • Public Outreach and Interpretation
  • Visual Effects Analysis

Archaeology

SWCA’s archaeologists focus their expertise on finding solutions for our clients that balance project goals with preservation. Our nationwide capacity means we can handle projects of any size and complexity anywhere in the U.S. We provide a comprehensive suite of archaeological services to meet any compliance need, including geoarchaeology, marine archaeology, historic archaeology, and a variety of laboratory analyses.

We produce results that advance projects and meet scientific and regulatory standards through comprehensive studies, archaeological surveys, full-scale excavations, and thorough analysis of artifacts, sites, and other evidence of the past. SWCA’s archaeological services provide efficient, accurate, and cost-effective data collection using state-of-the-art electronic field equipment, remote sensing devices, and data processing systems. Our full-service archaeological program offers robust modeling applications and geoarchaeological techniques that rapidly and reliably help scope projects and identify cultural resources.

Relevant Services

  • Archaeological Surveys
  • Archaeological Testing and Data Recovery Investigations
  • Cultural Deposit and Site Integrity Interpretations
  • Deep Test Excavations
  • Desktop Assessments and Predictive Modeling
  • EM Conductivity
  • Geoarchaeology
  • Geomorphology and Micromorphology
  • Geophysics
  • In-House Laboratory Analysis
  • Magnetometry
  • Maritime Archaeology
  • Mechanical Excavation and GeoProbe Coring
  • Probability Monitoring
  • Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System (RTK GNSS) Mapping
Field technicians perform archaeological excavations behind Emily Dickinson's Homestead.

Historic Preservation

We are trusted partners on our clients’ projects from proposal through completion, resulting in cost-effective, compliant, legally defensible, and innovative solutions. Our nationwide team manages historic compliance and planning projects across federal, state, and local regulatory frameworks, dedicated to delivering comprehensive historic research and insightful analysis.

Our historic preservation experts have a wide range of experience from compliance with Sections 106 and 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act, to analysis under Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, understanding of unique permitting challenges, and the steps necessary to procure tax incentives for projects. We have experience working with a variety of historic property types including buildings, structures, districts, and landscapes.

Relevant Services

  • Archival Research
  • Architectural and Landscape Documentation
  • Heritage Documentation Program Documentation (HABS, HAER, HALS)
  • Historic Contexts
  • National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) Nominations
  • Preservation Planning
  • Preservation Tax Credits

Meet the Experts

Impact In Action

  • Q&A with Lawrence S. Semo Scientific Achievement Award winner, Suzanne Griset.

  • In preparing for the future, you may run into evidence of the past: artifacts, sites, structures...

SWCA Newsletter

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“Your work sets a standard of excellence, safeguarding California’s irreplaceable architectural and cultural heritage. Your efforts not only protect our past but also inspire communities to embrace and invest in preservation for future generations.”

Cindy Heitzman
Executive Director, California Preservation Foundation

“In all my dealings with SWCA, I have been impressed with their skills, suggestions for improvements, and opportunities to be creative with solutions. It has been my on-going pleasure to work with such dynamic and knowledgeable staff.”

Leslie Negritto
CFO & COO, Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County

See How We Can Address Your Needs

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