Amy Hetletvedt
2024 Fitch Mid-Career Fellow
Between: Approaches to Historic Buildings in Disinvested Communities
While prominent buildings like Notre Dame in Paris rise from the ashes, historic buildings in disinvested communities are lost at an alarming rate. The resulting holes in the fabric of the community are not only a loss of structures, but of the stories and the embedded possibilities that the buildings represent.
Between unfolds a simple vision for re-thinking building conservation in disinvested communities that begins with a question: what can be done now—in circumstances or communities when restoration is not wholly fundable, not possible, or potentially not even desirable? Utilizing case studies, this project explores contextual approaches to existing buildings in disinvested communities as an alternative to demolition, explains why these buildings matter, and what communities and professionals can make of them together.
This Fitch award provides critical funding to support the pre-publication process with Island Press for the manuscript, titled “Preserving with Purpose: Reimagining Buildings for Community Benefit,” published in November 2025.