Sheryl Davis is a music landmarks specialist focused on places significant to the original rock 'n' roll movement of the 1950s-early 1960s and contributing roots genres with a broader dedication to documenting, preserving and interpreting the architectural legacy of American popular music. She has been recognized for her innovation in the fields of historic preservation and cultural anthropology with awards as well as ambassadorship and publication opportunities in the US and abroad. 

 

Sheryl's preliminary national inventory and preservation activity survey of buildings significant to 1950s rock 'n' roll completed during her graduate studies at the Savannah College of Art & Design in 2012 was a watershed in the beginnings of defining a national landscape for the study and preservation of rock 'n' roll's built heritage and more broadly, that of American popular music. Now, in 2023, with over ten years of independently developing this new specialization through professional practice and continued research, Sheryl is launching the American Music Landmarks Project as a national platform for her efforts to help communities across the country identify and activate the many un-and-underrepresented places that shaped our collective music history - one of the United States' greatest contributions to world culture! 

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People are at the heart of Sheryl's work. She understands the crucial importance of their emotional attachments to place that motivate preservation efforts and the continued relevancy of music landmarks for economic, cultural and environmental sustainability. This intangible value and uniquely human barometer continues to go unrecognized by institutional definitions of "historic significance" and related preservation policy decisions - an ongoing absence of opportunity to utilize the relationship between people and architecture that is hallmarked by myriad possibilities to successfully activate and sustain meaningful purpose and survival of these special places.