ABOUT THIS BOOK

The year 2016 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, the cornerstone of historic preservation policy and practice in the United States. The act established the National Register of Historic Places, a national system of state preservation offices and local commissions, set up federal partnerships between states and tribes, and led to the formation of the standards for preservation and rehabilitation of historic structures. This book marks its fiftieth anniversary by collecting fifty new and provocative essays that chart the future of preservation.

The commentators include leading preservation professionals, historians, writers, activists, journalists, architects, and urbanists. The essays offer a distinct vision for the future and address related questions, including, Who is a preservationist? What should be preserved? Why? How? What stories do we tell in preservation? How does preservation contribute to the financial, environmental, social, and cultural well-being of communities? And if the “arc of the moral universe . . . bends towards justice,” how can preservation be a tool for achieving a more just society and world?

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

MAX PAGE is professor of architecture and history and director of the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. MARLA R. MILLER is professor of history and director of the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is editor of the series Public History in Historical Perspective.

REVIEWS

“The editors were not seeking a manifesto, but instead were challenging all of us to dig deep and challenge our assumptions as we look to the future. . . . There is a wideness and optimism to the thought in Bending the Future that bodes well for the next 50 years.”—Saving Places Blog

“The most compelling essays were those that are the most specific; you can almost feel the effort it took for each author to stay away from glittering generalities and instead put forth concrete suggestions for change. Some of the most interesting ideas came from essays like 'Historic Preservation: Diversity in Practice and Stewardship' by Everett Fly, who offered specific ideas about new ways to educate and train preservation professionals. . . . Other compelling ideas ranged from illustrating innovative techniques for how to use digital technology to layer information, to suggesting new ways to structure property ownership in order to facilitate stewardship and future preservation. . . . I was inspired by the creativity and forward-thinking ideas expressed across the collection of essays.”—OffCite

“I see this book as being a requirement in the library of any preservation professional. It certainly will become an instant textbook for the many preservation programs across the country—at both the undergraduate and the graduate level.”—Anthony C. Wood, author of Preserving New York: Winning the Right to Protect a City's Landmarks

“Anyone who has ever admired an old building or wandered through an older neighborhood with pleasure will enjoy Bending the Future, a stellar collection of fifty short essays on the future of historic preservation in the United States. Editors Max Page and Marla R. Miller have invited historians, activists, preservationists, and designers to argue about American landscapes and buildings: What must we save? What can be demolished? Who cares? The authors address aesthetics along with social justice, economic inequality, and sustainability in a volume that will appeal to community organizers and local officials as well as university students in diverse fields.”—Dolores Hayden, author of The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Taking stock

Who is a preservationist?

What should be preserved, and why?

What stories should we be telling?

How do we, and should we, tell the histories of significant places?

Can preservation help create more economically vibrant and just communities?

Can preservation help save the planet?

The future beyond the bend: Toward 2066

What Historic Preservation Can Learn from Ferguson

Michael R. Allen

From Passion to Public Policy: Making Preservation More Sustainable

Erica Avrami

Dislogding the Curatorial

Daniel Bluestone

A Preservation Movement for All Americans

David J. Brown

Preserving Social Character and Navigating Preservation Divides

Japonica Brown-Saracino

Steps toward Decolonizing the National Historic Preservation Act

Kurt E. Dongoske and Theresa Pasqual

From Minority to Majority: Building On and Moving Beyond the Politics of Identity in Historic Preservation

Gail Dubrow

Shockoe Bottom: Changing the Landscape of Public History in Richmond, Virginia

Ana Edwards

Historic Preservation: Diversity in Practice and Stewardship

Everett L. Fly

Latinos in Heritage Conservation: Establishing a National Vision for American Latinos and Historic Preservation

Sarah Zenaida Gould

The Necessity of Interpretation

Donna Graves

Keeping Us Honest: What Our Buildings Tell Us about the Health of Our Communities

Rosanne Haggerty

Lessons from the High Line: Don't Preserve. Repurpose

Robert Hammond

Historic Preservation and the Life Cycle

Neil Harris

A Grand Coalition

Tony Hiss

Making Preservation Work for Struggling Communities: A Plea to Loosen National Historic District Guidelines

Andrew Hurley

Should the NHPA Have a Greater Sense of Urgency?

Brian Joyner

Preservation and Invisibility

Jamie Kalven

Repeal the National Historic Preservation Act

Thomas F. King

Cronocaos

Rem Koolhaas

Whose History, Whose Memory? A Culturally Sensitive Narrative Approach

Na Li

“They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships”: Putting Life into Maritime Preservation

James M. Lindgren

Preservation toward Conservation

Richard Longstreth

Historic America—and the Unremarked Rest

David Lowenthal

Preservation Demands Interpretation

Steven Lubar

A New Ownership Culture: Concepts, Policies, and Institutions for the Future of Preservation

Randall Mason

Changing the Paradigm from Demolition to Reuse—Building Reuse Ordinances

Tom Mayes

Did Martha Washington Sleep Here?: Feminism, Power, and Preservation

Michelle L. McClellan

Become a “Movement of Yes"

Stephanie K. Meeks

Critical Place-Based Storytelling: A Mode of Creative Interaction at Historic Sites

Tiya Miles and Rachel Miller

Digital Reconstruction as Preservation: Alternative Methods of Practice for Difficult and Lost Histories of the African American Past

Angel David Nieves

Race and Historic Preservation: The Case for Mainstreaming Asian American and Pacific Islander American Historic Sites

Franklin Odo

Preserving the History of Gentrification

Suleiman Osman

Pollution

Jorge Otero-Pailos

Culture as the Catalyst: Broadening Our History, Intangible Heritage, and Enlivening Historic Places

Julianne Polanco

A City Visible to Itself

Richard Rabinowitz

I Want You to Run for Office

Bernice Radle

Preservationists Must Be Anti-Gentrification Activists

Graciela Isabel Sánchez

Riding Preservation's New Wave: How to Build on Movements for Memoria

Liz Ševčenko

Preserving People

Michael Sorkin

Teaching Landscape Literacy: Historic Preservation and Community Knowledge

Anne Whiston Spirn

To Expand and Maintain a National Register of Historic Places

John H. Sprinkle, Jr.

Historic Un-Preservation

John Kuo Wei Tchen

Can Preservation Destigmatize Public Housing?

Lawrence J. Vale

We Need to Move the Goal Posts

Max A. Van Balgooy

Contesting Neoliberalism: The Value of Preservation in a Globalizing Age

Daniel Vivian

Human Environment Conservation in 2066: An Interview

Jeremy C. Wells

Reigniting Stewardship as a Preservation Practice

Susan West Montgomery

A Modern-Day WPA

Amber Wiley

Put on Your Hipster Hat

Chris Wilson

Index