Somethings that matter to me about historic preservation

Some of this may read a bit like my artists statement, but much of what I try to accomplish with my work has to do with the past and saving it for the future. I have meager credentials in the traditional sense for historic preservation. I covered historic preservation for a newspaper in a town that is listed in The National Registrar of Historic Places. I did not work for that paper long enough to have the expertise I wish I had but I have seen a lot, from fights over what constitutes an appropriate front door to the questionable destruction of an historic building.

Yes, I do think the Wing Tsu building was deliberately destroyed.

Anyway I want to question what is appropriate historic restoration and even honorable. Much of the town was saved from destruction with time and the efforts of a good many people. There are genuine heroes in that town. People who cared and did their best to create something good. The pursuit of money I think has undone a lot of that good work. New buildings have been constructed among the old. Those buildings have come to remind me of Main Street at Disney Land. To pretty.

Why does it seem it is always necessary to overdue a good thing? The more floor space allows more gaming. Heaven forbid you call it gambling in the town. The influx of new has overpowered the old. Preservation regulations state that new buildings must be different from the old so they will not be confused with them. Most people don't get the very subtle differences. Even the dates on the new buildings are misleading. built 1996 3 stories up at a quick glance may be misread as 1896.

Another area town tore down a building that to me represented the town. It just did not fit in anymore. How do you save what is important with the realization you can't save all? How do you continue to progress without disrespecting the past you are trying to save?

I don't have the answers I wish I did. But I do think for the rest of my life I will be trying to find those answers. I hope that everyone cares about the past. That past is what has made us the people we are today. Some good some ugly but without it as an anchor can we has a people move forward in a positive way?