Artefact, Inc.

Artefact, Inc. is an architectural practice located in South Bethlehem, PA and founded in 1986 by Christine Ussler.  Italian-Swiss architect and partner, Lucienne Di Biase Dooley, joined Artefact in 2008 and brings to the firm a European perspective, planning expertise, and unusual creative energy. Artefact has designed new buildings along with renovations and additions to many existing and historic buildings in eastern Pennsylvania and has worked as far away as Barbados, West Indies.  Artefact offers architectural design services, historic preservation assistance, master planning and feasibility studies, interior design, and sustainable design.  Past projects include private residences, multi-family adaptive-reuse projects, commercial storefronts, campuses, restaurants, theatres, museums, and recreation facilities. Typical clients are homeowners, private developers, municipalities, universities, and non-profit organizations.

Artefact has been involved with historic preservation consulting since 1988.  Christine Ussler has been the Historic Officer consultant for the City of Bethlehem since that time.  This work entails the review of all construction in the Central Bethlehem National Register Historic District and the new South Bethlehem Historic Conservation District, providing research and design recommendation for the Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) and Historic Commission, advising property owners about historically appropriate alterations, reviewing City HUD rehabilitation projects for conformance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, writing and editing brochures and design guidelines, and coordinating these activities with the State Bureau for Historic Preservation at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC).