Changing Venues, or Who Can Do Preservation Best?

1. Changing Venues, or Who Can Do Preservation Best?

2. Historic Preservation? Preservation is a multi-faceted activity. To ask questions about the future of Historic Preservation it is first necessary to declare what elements of HP are being examined or explored. Domain of activity—a field of action. Philosophy(s) of how to approach that field Professional practice(s) Tools, knowledge, and skills An agenda(s) A community of active participants A value structure(s) An audience(s)

3. What is the emphasis of Historic Preservation? Material culture–history as represented in objects, buildings, districts, and landscapes–is the strength of our national program. How can preservation practice demonstrate the relationship between material culture-a building, a group of buildings, a landscape, a structure, an archaeological site–with the larger set of intangible social and environmental values we seek to portray and preserve? If the preservation movement does not speak out for retaining, documenting, and respecting old buildings, places, and neighborhoods, no one else will.

4. Has Preservation attempted to absorb too many social concerns? 1. Heritage Tourism 2. Economic development 3. Open space protection 4. Heritage education 5. Rehabilitation of historic buildings 6. Community conservation 7. Affordable housing 8. Neo-traditional planning 9. Sustainable development 10. Downtown revitalization 11. Cultural celebration 12. Archeology 13. Design and craftsmanship 14. Energy conservation 15. Reducing pollution 16. Global warming 17. Preservation of everything that is irreplaceable.

5. Where does “historic preservation” end? What are its proper boundaries? 1. The preservation community must recognize that direct, active involvement with issues related to environmental protection, growth management, and land-use planning, though achieving societal ends, also has the potential to seriously jeopardize the identity and effectiveness of the historic preservation movement itself.2. [Expansive philosophy] If preservation takes inflexible stands in opposition to big-box retailing and promotes preservation as an either-or alternative to sprawl, it will not only confront powerful and well-organized construction, investment, and real estate interests whose political strength is well established, it will also run the risk of losing the support of an equally powerful (and numerically greater) compromise-minded segment of its customary constituency.3. [Philosophy of achievement] On the other hand, if it concentrates on the rehabilitation of older neighborhoods and the landmark buildings such as schools and churches that anchor them, finding acceptable design compromises on the new forms of retailing and on the revitalization of downtowns, demonstrating their benefits to the public, it can make a difference.4. Avoid oversimplified opposition. The growth patterns that presently disturb environmentalists and preservationists alike have emerged from historical patterns that are inextricably interwoven with cultural and historic places that have long been an important focus of the preservation movement.

6. Places The 1980s a discussion began to move beyond academic categories to the experience of people through the concern for place. Underlying all is an emphasis on local initiative and cooperation. The downside to such an approach is that some of the values and interests inherent in the concept of heritage areas are difficult to measure, to describe, and to quantify. Stipe says, “the reality is that since 1966 we have become quite competent at saving historic carpentry, but we remain relatively incompetent at saving historic context.” Preservation can support the concept of heritage, but conceptually and for practical purposes, each of the two approaches must be regarded as distinctive and separate, each supportive of the other.

7. Changing Imperatives for Preservation The American preservation movement has made serious, sustained, successful efforts to become much more inclusive of human values. Native Peoples have sought and received support for protection of their cultural heritage. Concerns for rural and urban constituents have been addressed. The gay and lesbian community, have sought public acknowledgment of their special contribution to historic preservation. What is the long-term effect of this emphasis on diversity? Will it lead to a greater appreciation and acceptance of diverse groups? Will it lead to resentments and alienation? Will these efforts knit the nation together into a coherent whole? Will these efforts lead to the unraveling of national unity?” Is it possible to manage situations in which one historical tradition conflicts with another, or where jurisdictions overlap, and whose history is the more important?

8. Preservation changes as the core disciplines change The three disciplines most closely associated with Historic Preservation are history, archaeology, and architecture. History. At the heart of preservation practice is the ability to assemble and associate information about past events with surviving objects and artifacts. Essential to this work is the creation of documents about objects in such a way as to allow the use of the documentation in telling historical narratives. The accurate documentation of the buildings, sites, and objects of the past must continue. At the core is the physical examination of the object. The opportunities to expand the means of documentation through examination, recordation, and monitoring continues to grow. Preservation documentation will be science-driven. Preservation documentation will be technology-enhanced. The individual observations will increasingly need to be folded into larger documentation data sets. This will drive the need for meta-data. However, the role of interpretation remains within the realm of preservation practice. The new technology creates new types of documents that never have all the content or capacity of the technology it replaces.

9. Preservation changes as the core disciplines change Archaeology. Though the discipline has brought substantial organizational, narrative power, and investigative innovation to all preservation, archaeology is essentially history with a special domain and special tools of documentation. Archaeology will continue to be important for the narratives of the periods prior to the thresholds of standing structures. This threshold is a moving line. To be clear archaeology has never been so constrained in its consideration of the artifact assemblage as architectural study. Much archaeology is done as a business and those businesses will expand to offer documentation for clients with both above and below ground resources. After R. W. Brunskill, Handbook of Vernacular Architecture

10. Preservation changes as the core disciplines change Architecture. Architecture cleaves into two main activities, recordation and conservation, whose tools and goals differ. Architectural history uses of the documentation of standing structures, and the descriptions of architectural expressions surviving as paper records in telling historical narratives. The majority of the contemporary standing architecture has either no surviving documentation, or incomplete documentation because buildings are constantly changing through use and deterioration. At the core is the physical examination of the object, although a large number of architectural historians are not disposed to engage in documentation. The opportunities to expand the means of documentation through examination, recordation, and monitoring continues to grow. Preservation documentation will be science-driven. Preservation documentation will be technology-enhanced. Architectural Conservation is the task of identifying the causes of premature failure in the life-cycle of building materials and stabilizing, or reproducing the features to retain structural or visual integrity. Architectural conservation is distinct from object conservation insofar as the conservator must work with the building on site. Conservation is science-driven. Conservation is technology-enhanced. Conservation is currently too expensive for most buildings.

11. Fundamental Elements of Local Preservation There continues to be division between local government preservation and the preservation efforts in the volunteer and nonprofit sectors. Volunteers remain the heart and soul of the preservation movement. The task of “making preservation real” at the local level is still carried by the volunteer and local nonprofit sector. The heavy reliance on most local government regulation of private property. Principally enforced under Euclidian zoning. Zoning is only as effective as the knowledge and documentation that under lies its decision-making. Preservation that seeks to make the present mimic the past will be unsucessful. Local citizens play an extremely important role in the regulatory area involving the administration of historic district and landmarks ordinances. The members of the Architectural Review Boards are not professionals. Each generation disposes of time outside of work in different ways. Alienation caused by shared social discourse will continue to make the social satisfactions of participation in local historical narratives attractive. The networking of local preservation must include a face-to-face component, but it will be mediated by the technology of modern communication. The narratives of local preservation must continue to be told—enacted—to maintain participation. Some predict increased participation as other mediums of social interaction whither to virtual replacements.

12. How Do We Prepare for the Next Twenty Years? Is it time for a new paradigm for the preservation movement? Important to recognize that if, or as, the paradigm changes, so will the list of our supporters (and detractors) In the political context in which we work, some institutional interests and players will move up, others will move down. The movement will gain some new supporters and inevitably lose some old ones. The future direction of the American preservation movement will depend to some extent on the emergent physical form of our cities and towns. It is hard to imagine that countervailing economic or technological centripetal forces will pull us back to a more compact, physical form of development.

13. Historic Preservation in the mainstream Owner repair of homes and “restoring” features is a national business, though not controlled by the Secretary of Interior Standards.Teaching heritage through objects will continue moving into public education. The resources are now being created. The National Park Service developed “Teaching with Historic Places” Can preservation be a mass media experience? Not as we have defined it, but the likely semantic drift of the expression “historic preservation” will force the profession to constantly re-define the core. Heritage areas force governments to consider concepts as “stability” and “accustomed comfort” to be sustainable as tourist destinations. Focus on place is most difficult to administer at the local level, though easiest to identify at that scale.

14. The future for Federal programs Relative increase in federal support for state programs, but less federal involvement in defining their content and administration. There may be an increasingly important role for the expanded or supplemental use by States of state registers. If, as many argue, real preservation happens at the local level, the argument for unrestricted block grant funding at both state and local government levels is greatly strengthened. If this occurs the results will be identical to earlier efforts of this kind—monies will be shifted from the supplier goal to meet the tactical goals of the local community. Block grants mask the need for citizen agreement on new spending. Need to protect the National Register.Will moved buildings solve some issues?Will reduced funding clog the system?Should properties of local significance be on the National Register?

15. What legacy will there be for the next generations? We cannot determine their history. The concerns of the future are beyond our reach. We can extend the life of some, but not all of the past objects that were left to us. We can create rich documentation of objects, properties and structures that preserves the possibility of re-interpretation. We can maintain and strive to improve the standards of accuracy and avoid approaches that compromise the reputation of our field, or movement. Each generation must essentially re-create the body of documentation and interpretation for succeeding generations. How well are we doing?