Historic preservation

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Historic preservation or Heritage management is the theory and practice of creatively maintaining the historic built environment and controlling the landscape component of which it is an integral part. The Secretary of the Interior of the U.S. government defines the historic environment as districts, sites, buildings, structures, objects, and landscapes which are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.

People practice preservation for many reasons. Preservation helps maintain identity, educates people about history, is an economic tool for planners and governments, and creates dialogues about shared values.

The adaptive reuse of obsolete structures dates to the end of the 4th century in Europe, when the Theodosian decrees had rendered pagan temples obsolete, and Christian basilicas began to be built within those that were not demolished. Sacred wells became baptisteries from the 5th century. Adaptive reuse of historic structures remains at issue today.

In England, Antiquarian interests had been a familiar gentleman's pursuit since the mid 17th century, developing in tandem with the rise in scientific curiosity: Fellows of the Royal Society were often also Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries (Summerson). The UK's Ancient Monuments Act of 1912 officially preserved certain decayed and obsolete structures of intrinsic historical and associative interest, just as Modernism was lending moral authority to destruction of the built heritage in the name of progress. The UK's National Trust began with the preservation of historic houses and has steadily increased its scope. In the UK's subsequent Town and Planning Act (1944) steps were undertaken towards historic preservation on an unprecedented scale.

New York Pennsylvania Station's main waiting room, circa 1911. Torn down in 1964.
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New York Pennsylvania Station's main waiting room, circa 1911. Torn down in 1964.
1848 Duncan House, Cooksville, Wisconsin
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1848 Duncan House, Cooksville, Wisconsin

In the United States, cultural resistance towards any kind of zoning as a form of intrusive interference, slowed the formation of preservation trusts with a government connection. Though a Ladies' Association had already taken responsibility for the preservation of Washington's Mount Vernon in 1889, the Richmond, Virginia-based Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities was the United States' first statewide historic preservation group. The US National Trust for Historic Preservation, another privately funded non-profit organization, began in 1949 with a handful of privileged structures and has developed goals that provide "leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to save America's diverse historic places and revitalize our communities" according to the Trust's mission statement [1]. In 1951 the Trust assumed responsibility for its first museum property, Woodlawn Plantation in northern Virginia. Twenty houses in all have subsequently become part of the National Trust, most of them architecturally elite. In New York City, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station in 1964 shocked many in that city into supporting preservation. Under the direction of James Marston Fitch, the first university historic preservation program was begun at Columbia University in 1964.

In his 1947 essay "The past in the future" Sir John Summerson gave a rough weighted listing of types of building that in certain circumstances may deserve protection. In retrospect they seem self-evident, almost axiomatic, mixing values that were esthetic and "literary" (historic or associative), and they bear quoting, to which a one-word criterion is added to sum each up:

The former Penn Station concourse and tracks.
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The former Penn Station concourse and tracks.
  1. The building which is a work of art: the product of a distinct and outstanding creative mind. [Aesthetic value]
  2. The building which... possesses in a pronounced form the characteristic virtues of the school of design which produced it. [Contextual value]
  3. The building which, of no great artistic merit, is either of significant antiquity or a composition of fragmentary beauties welded together in the course of time. [Picturesque value]
  4. The building which has been the scene of great events or the labours of great men. [Associative value]
  5. The building whose only virtue is that in a bleak tract of modernity it alone gives depth of time. [Memorial value]

Contents

[edit] Historic districts

While the preservation movement has initially focused on buildings, many cities have expanded the scope of historic preservation to entire neighborhoods where certain architectural styles predominate. In a challenge to its reputation as a city with no respect for history, Los Angeles is perhaps the nation's leader in this movement by means of its Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) program. Beginning in the Highland Park district in the 1980s, the HPOZ program has spread across the city to encompass districts built in styles ranging from Victorian and Craftsman (Highland Park, West Adams) to Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco (Carthay); one Mid-Century Modernist neighborhood (on the West Side) has also been so designated, and one in the San Fernando Valley is pending.

Other cities with district-wide preservation areas include New York, Boston, and St. Louis.

Miami has recently been on the historic preservationist agenda. Both the Miami Circle and the Freedom Tower were purchased by the state of Florida. The Freedom Tower has recently been in the news, when historic preservationists Armando Gutierrez Jr, Rafael Penalver, and Dade Heritage Trust would not allow the tower to be torn down for a condo. Also in the Miami news are the Jackie Gleason Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse and Wynwood.

Originally, urban areas with a high percentage of buildings that retain historic integrity, such as the French Quarter in New Orleans or parts of Charleston, S.C., were considered to be proper candidates for historic districts. These kinds of places are rare in the U.S., yet there has been explosive growth in the number of cities creating historic district ordinances. Many attribute this to political pressures that seek to undo existing zoning laws and institute unchallengeable government control of building size and of architectural expression. Rules become fuzzy and useful, exploitable tools for politicians with ulterior motives. As a consequence of such politics, "historic preservation" is sometimes referred to as "hysterical preservation".

[edit] Preserving historic landscapes

The United States led the world in the creation of National Parks, areas of unspoiled natural wilderness, where the intrusion of civilization and the apparent hand of history are intentionally minimal.

In addition to preserving the natural heritage, the U.S. Park Service also maintains the National Register of Historic Places to recognize significant buildings and places, including historic parks, battlefields, National Historic Landmarks, memorials and monuments.

[edit] Canadian approaches to heritage conservation

In Canada, the phrase “historic preservation” is sometimes seen as a specific approach to the treatment of historic places and sites, rather than a general concept of conservation. “Conservation” is taken as the more general term, referring to all actions or processes that are aimed at safeguarding the character-defining elements of a cultural resource so as to retain its heritage value and extend its physical life.

Two of the primary conservation tools of Canada's Historic Places Initiative are the Canadian Register of Historic Places and the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada. This document was the result of a major collaborative effort among federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, heritage conservation professionals, heritage developers and many individual Canadians. A pan–Canadian collaboration, it is intended to reinforce the development of a culture of conservation in Canada, which will continue to find a unique expression in each of the jurisdictions and regions of the country. In the document, conservation approaches are broken down in three categories: Preservation, Rehabilitation, and Restoration. As published in the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada, these conservation approaches are defined as follows:

Preservation: the action or process of protecting, maintaining, and/or stabilizing the existing materials, form, and integrity of a historic place or of an individual component, while protecting its heritage value. Preservation can include both short-term and interim measures to protect or stabilize the place, as well as long-term actions to retard deterioration or prevent damage so that the place can be kept serviceable through routine maintenance and minimal repair, rather than extensive replacement and new construction.

Rehabilitation: the action or process of making possible a continuing or compatible contemporary use of a historic place or an individual component, through repair, alterations, and/ or additions, while protecting its heritage value.

Restoration: the action or process of accurately revealing, recovering or representing the state of a historic place or of an individual component, as it appeared at a particular period in its history, while protecting its heritage value. [1]

[edit] Sources: development of historic preservation movements

  • Murtagh, William J. Keeping Time: The History and Theory of Preservation in America. New York: Sterling Publishing, Co., 1990.
  • Summerson, Sir John, 1947. "The past in the future" essay collected in Heavenly Mansions 1963.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Standards and Guidelines - Definitions of Some Key Terms

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources: historic preservation today



List of World Heritage Sites

Americas | Europe | Africa | Asia & Australasia | Sites in danger
U.S. National Register of Historic Places - (List of entries)

National Park Service . National Historic Landmarks . National Battlefields . National Historic Sites . National Historic Parks . National Memorials . National Monuments
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