chris@toddypond.org

   Chris has directed his own preservation planning and development consulting business in both NH and now Maine, since 1979. For more than 40 years Closs has specialized in advising on the use of federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits, while managing 69 Certified Rehabilitation projects across 10 states, many of them abandoned textile mills, helping leverage millions in public and private investment for affordable housing, office and retail uses. 

   He was the Preservation Planner with the National Trust’s New England Regional Office in Boston from 1977 - 1979; and later led the formation of the NH Main Street Program and was its founding chair (1994-1997). In  2007 - 2009 he served as Adjunct Professor in Historic Preservation in the graduate program at Plymouth State University. More recently, he served as the Field Services Advisor for Maine Preservation from 2009 – 2019. 

   Chris holds a BA in European History from Boston University and MS degrees in both Natural Resource Planning and Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont. Chris is also a talented restoration carpenter and stonemason, having rehabilitated two older properties, including the historic,  John Clay Farmstead complex in Candia, NH  where he applied both a preservation covenant and conservation easements protecting the property in perpetuity upon future re-sale. 

   An avid sculler with the Amoskeag Rowing Club for 27 years, Closs also enjoys walking, wood-cutting – and volunteerism - and now ressides on Toddy Pond in Penobscot, ME.