The past and future city: how historic preservation is reviving America's communities

摘要

There are many reasons for preserving the buildings, neighborhoods, and sites that we have inherited from the past, and there are also multiple criteria for deciding which environments should be preserved and how. Expanding our awareness of these reasons and criteria is a healthy alternative to a preservation field which has, in some quarters, become fixated on heritage places as historical documents rather than living resources. Stephanie Meeks, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, understands that the preservation movement will only regain the momentum and leadership role it showed a half-century ago in the heroic days of Jane Jacobs if it re-captures the vision that inspired Jacobs in her battles, and that is an urbanistic vision. This means preservation must not be just reactive and defensive, it must be for something, and that might be to promote cities that all classes and communities want to live in. Meeks's achievement in her ground-breaking book The Pasf and Future City: How Historic Preservation is Reviving America's Communities (Island Press, 2016, written with Kevin C. Murphy) lies in sketching a picture of that future city and building an alliance with design professionals, community activists, political leaders, and housing advocates to advance its realization. The picture she presents is not complete but the outlines are sketched out enough that we can begin to fill in the blanks.