Most folks assume I'm a historian.  What little history I know I absorb by osmosis.  I do what I do from the motivation of urban design...I'm a designer by background and preference.  I do preservation as a growth strategy.  To me it is all about the future.  I just believe that these places we work to preserve, these places of human scale and detail that have meaning and association, to keep them in our environment creates more humane and habitable places.  To me, it's a lifestyle.

Here's an excerpt from our preservation plan's introduction:

"Historic preservation is a growth strategy.  Modern day preservation recognizes the need for new development in a growing city, and does not view preservation and new development as an either/or proposition.  In fact, preservation and development are close kin; preservation preserves the history of our development.  Modern day preservation looks toward developing a growth strategy that creates opportunities for growth in ways that complement and enhance our historic cultural resources, one that will foster stewardship of cultural and historic landscapes to include places, spaces, and neighborhoods.  It looks toward opportunities that weave new threads into the existing city fabric, pulling it together, rather than sewing a patch to the edges of a hole left in the city fabric by demolishing historic resources.  Preservation means working with the development community in promoting rehabilitation and adaptive use of existing structures and in the careful planning of new development that will enhance the city's neighborhoods and landscapes."

You go, Mark!
____________________________________

Dan Becker, Exec. Dir., RHDC
Raleigh Historic Districts Commission
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-----Original Message-----
From:   Met History [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   May 8, 1999 11:26 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Wow, ]{en I double-dare you to post this on P-L!

Mark Rabinowitz, on "preservation" opposition to the Walentas project:

"It seems to me that nostalgia is more of an enemy to preservation than a
friend."