While the movement to preserve historic buildings has widespread support, it also has some sharp critics with well-funded opposition groups springing up in recent years.
Some opponents are linked to the Stand Together Foundation, founded and bankrolled by the Koch family’s conservative philanthropic organization, according to a column in Governing magazine. Many critics see historic preservation as a threat to “precious individual freedoms.”
A Stand Together senior fellow cited some preservation actions to bolster his case: An effort in San Francisco to convert a laundromat into an eight-story apartment building was stalled for eight years while city officials try to determine if the laundromat should be protected. In Denver, preservationists delayed the conversion of a 1960s diner into a new mixed-use retail/residential development.
Other critics, including some academicians, have criticized historic neighborhood preservation as “a stalking horse for gentrification and displacement of impoverished residents,” the column reads. Despite these critiques, the columnist makes a compelling case for preservation.
“Preservation serves the vital purpose of helping people to understand, appreciate and connect with their local history at a time when historical awareness is a missing element in much of America. If preservation has gone too far, it has gone too far in the right direction. We ought to be able to manage it without denigrating the things it has achieved.”
Related Stories
Multifamily Housing | Aug 24, 2020
Texaco’s century-old headquarters is now a luxury apartment community
After sitting vacant for nearly three decades, the former home of Texaco, Inc. has been converted into a 17-story, 286-unit apartment building in the heart of downtown Houston.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Aug 21, 2020
Reconstruction could be COVID-19’s silver lining
Existing buildings are being adapted to the ‘new normal’ for health and wellness.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Aug 20, 2020
Former jail to be reimagined and integrated into Dallas’s Harold Simmons Park
Weiss/Manfredi was selected as the design architect for the project.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Jun 8, 2020
Spacesmith will design sustainable production facilities for Upriver Studios in New York
The project will be located in Saugerties in upstate New York.
Coronavirus | Apr 9, 2020
COVID-19 alert: Robins & Morton to convert Miami Beach Convention Center into a 450-bed field hospital
COVID-19 alert: Robins & Morton to convert Miami Beach Convention Center into a 450-bed field hospital
Reconstruction & Renovation | Mar 3, 2020
Not so strange bedfellows: hybrid buildings in New York combine unlikely tenants
“Found money” for owners looking to monetize their air spaces, says FXCollaborative, which has designed several of these buildings.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Jan 16, 2020
Snøhetta’s 550 Madison Garden gains approval from NYC Planning Commission
The project previously gained approval from Manhattan Community Board 5 in December.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Nov 6, 2019
The silent giant: Reconstruction sector makes big impact on firms
More than a quarter of AEC firms that participated in the 2019 Giants 300 survey earned at least half of their total 2018 revenue from the reconstruction sector.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Oct 7, 2019
Central Park’s Lasker Rink and Pool to undergo $150 million restoration project
The project will be the largest the Central Park Conservancy has ever undertaken.
Libraries | Sep 18, 2019
The $115 million renovation of Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library completes
Beyer Blinder Belle led the project.
