Preservation, put simply, is an act of keeping the past alive. In hopes of reviving an abandoned nineteenth century fort, the 2013 CRIPE/ ACSA competition called for design solutions, invoking the slogan, "Preservation as Provocation". As fourth year architecture students, we were given the opportunity to collaboratively engage in extensive research of the fort's historic past, develop our own stance on preservation, and iteratively design a feasible and winning solution. Analyzing my own competition work, I record the process and thinking behind developing an individual position in historic preservation and leave behind a manifesto of sorts for future students of design.