In the course of my fourteen years of practice in historic preservation, the work of the Roman architect/engineer/planner/master builder Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (Vitruvius), as set forth in his seminal text The Ten Books of Architecture, has provided me with a frequent touchstone for my own work. With a Rome Prize in historic preservation, I propose to follow in the footsteps of Vitruvius, utilizing his methodology of direct observation of existing buildings (the details, materials, and methods of their construction, and their current condition) to derive the lessons these buildings have to teach us regarding long-term durability and preservation.