Take a typical "properly funded" preservation project - after the
conservators, the riggers, the technicians, the archaeologists, the funders,
the boomers, the architects are finished, it has an unmistakeable stamp,
redolent of its age - whether it's 1960's preservation, like the Jefferson
Market Courthouse (where the interiors were ripped out) or 1990's preservation
(like the US Custom House).

I can't finger it yet (big thoughts required here) but the impulse to
preserve, even by the most sincerely motivated, low budget homeowner, is very
frequently marked by the desire to leave a stamp on something - like adding
vinyl siding or, even, demolishing something.

Christopher Gray
Office for Metropolitan History