I have attached the Green reading from Preservation of What? For Whom? below. This is part of your assigned reading for next week.
The Social Construction of Historical Significance
BLOG POST #1 Reflect on the assigned readings, incorporating concepts from last weekâs class discussion (400 words).  Post your reflection as a comment on this post below.Â
I believe that historical preservation is different throughout the whole world. In the article reading what stood out for me the most was the segregated school and how it impacted the community that surrounded the building more than it did the country as a whole since, since that preservation preserves something not very good that happened in the country’s history. This also reminded me of when in class we spoke about the shoe factory which was brought up by the speaker that we watched on the video. She said that it meant a lot to her after realizing that in that building her grandfather had worked, and pretty much everyone in that area had someone or is themselves someone that had worked in that building since the town was a company town. It may not mean much to the people that don’t live in that town, but to the people that have lived there their whole lives, it’s the reason that town still exists till this day, itâs the beginnings of that town. I believe that historic preservation is a much more broad way of preserving buildings, buildings that have impacted the country as a whole or a main era, or big change. But what about the small but yet very significant if not more significant than historically preserved areas and buildings for certain people that live in a certain area. Yeah you canât go and preserve every single building and this makes the topic a little controversial about what buildings should remain preserved and how many we can preserve. But I believe that preservation criteria should be left in the hands of the people that are going to be affected by the building being preserved or being knocked down. Professionals will not always know all the answers let alone be directly affected by the decision that they make on either preserving that specific area or building, or knocking it down. What is more controversial is that the people that decide on what happens to a communities precious structure or area is done by people that have never lived close by or just recently learned about it making it very controversial. I think that the definition of historic and historical is very controversial and will always be changing depending on who you ask and what you are asking about. Not everyone is going to agree, but I believe that NHPA can find ways to be able to preserve buildings that also matter to the community.
I have mixed feelings about historic preservation and some of the nuisances it might entail for expansion, especially for big metropolitan cities. I think it is very economical to reuse old buildings thus saving the historic value of the site. However, This is a means for preservationists to achieve their goal. They dont necessarily believe in being more economically efficient. On the basis of preserving hugely historic sites, such as national monuments, then preservationists are more accepted as guardians of such sites. In my opinion, historic preservation starts to stray off coarse when they decide to preserve on the sole basis of an event that took place that might have mattered to individuals in the area. For example, my graduation ceremony took place in the now demolished building across the street from the Naam building on Jay street. Although this event is very dear to me, i wouldn’t want to halt the development in the area. I accepted the fact that things change and so did the hundreds of graduates with me. The development of City tech or Downtown Brooklyn is not going to halt for us, And this is for the better not for the worse. When preservationists look upon a site that “matters” to a group of people, they should also understand that that site also “matters” to developers. No matter how many memories are attached to paces, there will also be new ones.
Jean Reginald Saintange
Arch 3640
Prof. Inna Guzenfield
Fall 2014
HWK #1
What is historic preservation? What does the term significance means in term of preservation? Questions such as those were asked during class and from the readings. The term Significance canât be classified or defined in rapports to preservation. Through accounts, the notion of preservation have altered from what is deemed significant at that epoch. The 19th century goals of preservation were âcuratorial and Memorialâ while contemporary preservation have âexpanded to number of different agendasâ (64). Groups ranging from developers to the old ladies with running shoes, vehemently protesting at city hall trying to ensure or make cognizant the preservation of an old department store. âOnce defined, significance is used as a basis for policy, planning and design decisionsâ (64). âConceptually, the heart of historic preservation lies in the intellectual and emotional connections we make between memory and environment what Iâll call the âmemory/fabric connectionâ (64). While in class a video was shown and in that video a preservationist spoke and broke down her interpretation on what the science behind preservation is and how it has impacted her life and views on preservation. During her speech, she shared with the audience a life experience which is what drove her to being part of the preservation movement. While driving she said âshe noticed a factory in which one of her relative worked, was being demolished. At that moment she felt a part of her past was being omitted from her history. Being nostalgic and having that emotional attachment dictates the value of what is being preserved. As time goes on, certain things lose and gain value. A building or site can typically be the best source of information of historical remnants like social event, major events, major figures and neighborhood of the many examples. When I walk throughout my neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant, I can picture life ranging from the late 1880s to current time based on the buildings, houses and the different styles they encompass. That feeling of walking through history everyday intrigues my interests in learning more on preservation.
Bassem Elashrafi
Prof. Inna Guzenfield
Arch 3640
Fall 2014
HW #1
I think that historic preservation is a great thing to do. Putting old structures to use is very cost effective and also preserves the history incorporated with the structure. Not only does preserving historic buildings and sites create jobs but it also increases surrounding property values. Research finds that heritage tourists stay longer and spend more per day than traditional tourists at culture based historic structures. Substantially more people visited historic districts than went to amusement parks, beaches and golf courses. Preservation projects save 50 percent to 80 percent in infrastructure costs compared to new developments. Building re-use almost always offers environmental savings compared to demolition and new construction. Architecture is a direct and substantial representation of history and place. By preserving historic structures, we are able to share the very spaces and environments in which the generations before us lived.Historic preservation is the visual and tangible conservation of cultural identity.
Christopher Poujol
HW1
Howard L green clearly states the significance of meanings to buildings or places that want to be redeveloped. The first example that he came across personally was in New Orleans. I re developer wanted to develop across a place where citizens gave emotional feelings from a fictional story that never happened, but the night club had become famous because of it. But to Green, since he never read the book, the place meant nothing to him. This is a clear conflict that we face today. In this case this is an example of the expanded definition of historical significance, if the case was ever to be submitted to the courts. I definitely agree with the author and that the word history has really no straight definition and means something different to each and every one of us. It is something biased and something can have a major significance to one person and no meaning to another. Green tries to explain two means of definitions for history. For the first definition according to the NHPA, is to assist projects that will assist economic growth and development. The concept of preservation does not come after events that give meaning to places, but comes after. This concept relates to the future rather than the past which is most likely considered historical. For âhistoryâ it relates to something that has happened in the past and we carry memory in present time. I also agree that historians cannot write history without be subjective. We all remember textbooks that we have studied in the past. When we re-read these facts, we can clearly see that it was very subjective to the Unites states and makes the US seem powerful than other countries. It also excludes some stuff that people do not want to listen or believe that Americans took such harsh actions. I donât think that history can ever be written to not be subjective. The only thing that can actually tell history is the buildings and artifacts that are physically left behind. The major authority always plays a role in how things are written and produced and are most likely very broad. Green also mentions that âhistorical facts is in someoneâs mindâ. âthe past is dead to us except through our ideas about it in the presentâ.
Ye Hwee
ARCH 3640
Prof. Guzenfeld
âNot every space a place.â
âWithout a story no one cares.â
These are some of the issues we discussed in the beginning of the class. How does one decide what is important or invaluable to preserve. After the class discussion and reading âFixing Historic Preservation: A Constructive Critique of âSignificanceââ by Randall Mason, it became obvious that idea of preservation is something controversial. One of the most basic problems that preservation faces is that we cannot define it clearly. What gives a person the authority to decide? And how does he decide which site or building he should preserve?
An expert in preservation will have the knowledge on the history and facts about a particular site or building. However, he or she would not fully understand importance, memories, emotions, and significance because those have different meanings for everyone. Just like the saying beauty is in the eye of the beholder what I think significance does not mean you think the same. In his article Mason wrote âdecisions about significance are made by experts, whose mindsets are often quite unreflective and uncriticalâ which means the experts will not fully understand what it was like for the people who actually lived there. Just like the town that got its identity from the shoe factory; for us it is just a run-down factory that no longer operate but for the woman who grew up there it is part of her life. She will find it significance because maybe she had family members who used to work there or that is the place where she used to go to with her friends that bring back nostalgic memories.
The effort in trying to clearly define what is significance, the preservation movement created different professions such as study of materials. Mason explained that over the 20th century preservation field started to focus more on fabric side of âmemory/fabric connectionâ. It is because we can clearly explain why the material or fabric of certain site or building is important by using objective and scientific methods.
I do think and understand that preservation is very important. Without it we will lose a sense of who we are or where we once lived. I do not wish to get to a point when the only way of remembering something is by looking a picture of what it was once there. I think preservation has made a lot of progress over the years. Today we have different agencies such as LPC and HDC collaborating with the local community to advance and progress the preservation movement in the right direction.
Kenny Alvear
Prof. Inna Guzenfield
Arch 3640
Fall 2014
What is the criteria used to determine when a site or building is a candidate for preservation? Who makes these decisions and are they right and justified? There are many people who dedicate their lives in this field of historical preservation and although they all work with a common goal of preserving historical sites, monuments, and buildings, they each have their own perspective on what is to be preserved and that which does not meet the criteria.
Experts in the field of preservation acquire, research and obtain knowledge of aged structures with significant historical facts, but that is as far as they go in terms of determining whether a site or building is to be designated for preservation. Who takes into consideration the sites which hold profuse and treasured sentiment to the people who perhaps have worked in a certain building, or grew up with traditions on a site as a community? There are many cases in which buildings have been demolished because they were no longer of use but meant so much more to the people who had a deep connection to it. We saw a video in which a woman had witnessed a shoe factory in her town being demolished. The town was known, flourished and prospered because of this shoe factory. This woman’s grandfather had worked in there along with many other families in the town. The townspeople had emotional attachments, stories, memories, and personal connections which were priceless. Who takes these facts into consideration when when determining whether or not to preserve a building? Although experts fight to preserve historically significant buildings and sites, there should be a collaborative involvement with the communities surrounding the sites. The ideas, perspectives, and views of the public should be taken into account and consideration. Preservationists are admirable for they seek to save pieces of history and keep them in tact so that the generations to come may experience a taste of the roots of origin.
“We might even be endangering our own movement by failing to recognize when we need the physical space or structure to convey meaning to the present about the past, and when we don’t.”-Howard L. Green
In the ”Social construction of historical significance”, Howard Green refers to the site land marked with meaningless reason. In Haddonfield, New Jersey, the first reasonably complete dinosaur skeleton ever unearthed was discovered. Does this site truly hold historical significance? According to Green,”There is nothing meaningful about where these bones lay when they were discovered.”
I believe that decisions to be made in regards to a building or site should, not always, but often take the opinions and requests of the people who hold deep and meaningful values to such structures and sites for decisions have often been made to preserve sites with less intimate and/or emotional significance.