The
Whole Built World at Risk
by James
Marston Fitch
"In the
century and a quarter since Ann Pamela Cunningham first marshalled her
ladies to save George Washington's mansion at Mt. Vernon, Historic
Preservation has steadily expanded. It has grown from the activity of a
few upper class antiquarians - organized to save monumental works of
architecture - to a broad mass movement engaged in battles to preserve
'Main Street,' urban districts, and indeed whole towns. As the scope of
the preservationists' work has expanded, so too has their understanding
of the built world which they have been struggling to save. From
concentrating on high-style structures, they have come to understand
their interconnectedness with the vernacular and folkloristic fabric
around them. From exclusive attention on urban buildings, they have
come to appreciate the importance of rural architecture and the
countryside. And from concentration on single isolated buildings, they
have come to understand the equal importance of the gardens, open
spaces, and streets which surround them - that is, of the connective
tissue which binds them into an organic, life sustaining whole."
James Marston Fitch presents the 1996 award
to Natalie Shivers
"Historic
preservation has gone through a sea change in its conceptual role in
urban development. From being considered an 'obstacle to progress,'
preservation is now seen as being in the forefront of urban
regeneration, often accomplishing what the urban renewal programs of
twenty and thirty years ago so dismally failed to do. The regenerative
impact of preservation on surrounding urban tissue has been spectacular
in many towns and cities where slum clearance and urban renewal had
proved counter productive, Thus, what began in Seattle or Boston as
fairly modest efforts to save and rehabilitate two old market buildings
became a movement which led to the regeneration of whole sections of
both cities, stimulating not only additional historic preservation, but
also new construction in the neighborhood. In other cities, like
Savannah and Charleston, with large historic cores (happily left intact
though an accident of history), preservation efforts which were
initially denounced as 'blocking progress' actually ended up by giving
these cities a new future in their biggest new industry - tourism."
"Because
of this vastly increased sense of responsibility for the future of the
built world, preservationists are conscious of the need to establish
closer relations with other specialists in allied fields - architects
and planners, environmentalists, energy conservationists, naturalists,
wildlife protectionists and the like. More and more, they are coming to
realize that the built world is actually one seamless fabric and that
the new and higher levels of collaboration in its behalf are required.
It is to this field of interdisciplinary collaboration that the new
trust will devote its energies and funds."
James
Marston Fitch
