Vince’s comments regarding integrity and “period of significance” is something we constantly struggle with in the preservation community. The variables that that make a building, site or landscape worthy of preservation but do not easily fit into definitions of tangible heritage begs the question of a continuum. I love the concept of future fluidity regarding standards as the preservation community gets smarter and builds a stronger foundation of successes on which to base forward momentum.
I have been Vice Chair of the Diversity Task Force for the National Trust for Historic Preservation for several years and yesterday at the National Preservation Conference in Indianapolis we held a Conversation Starter that represented one of the results of our work.
Exactly 20 National Preservation Conferences ago I did my first national presentation and it was part of a session on Inner-City Preservation that sought to answer the question: how do we get more minorities and inner-city dwellers involved in preservation? My answer was: Wrong Question. They are involved. I chronicled a long list of Landmarks Illinois efforts in Chicago to that date, including my experience with the North Kenwood community, which I wrote about in the Future Anterior journal in 2005. The question was more appropriately, how do we integrate our efforts with theirs? This is the same question National Trust President Stephanie Meeks has been asking…
View original post 609 more words
I Speak Vintage 