The Past and Future City: How Historic Preservation is Reviving America's Communities

Historic preservation holds the seeds of renewal. By rehabilitating and restoring buildings that are already imbued with history, character, and a deep sense of place, a community can reinvigorate a flagging economy, create a hub of pedestrian activity, reduce overall energy expenditures, and retain local dollars which in turn creates more jobs, more activity, and more of a sense of ownership throughout the community. Stephanie Meeks drills down into the overwhelmingly positive economic impacts that historic preservation and building reuse can have in American cities. She explains the energy savings that come from reusing an older building rather than scraping it and rebuilding with newly harvested materials. She also cautions preservationists to guard against ignoring cultural sites of value that lie outside the usual focus of rich, powerful, white guys. She encourages communities to involve neighborhoods and property owners at the grassroots level. And she wades headlong into the debate about whether historic preservation leads to gentrification and a loss of affordable housing.This is a very well rounded book that looks at historic preservation from multiple angles. It's rich with data points, real-world examples from across the United States, and encouragements for how preservationists should move forward. I highly recommend it.

Stephanie Meeks does a good job articulating the arguments for preserving historic buildings within our urban cores. Historic preservation is a critical component to growth within our cities and adaptive reuse of existing real estate is one of the most environmentally friendly endeavors to expand our housing stock. I applaud her book, though wish it focused more on the good economics related to the Historic Tax Credit.

This book belongs in every Historic Preservation Commissioner's library. It is a contemporary reference for viable urban living today and tomorrow.

This book has helped me look at my community differently. My first goal; walk every street in my neighborhood.

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Limited insight...

The Past and Future City is a book that describes what historic preservation is rather than what others perceive the field to be. It looks behind the protection of buildings based on architectural beauty and focuses instead on communities. Meeks and Murphy both look to provide context for some of preservation's successes and struggles and they convincingly emphasize the importance of the movement to telling a broader narrative of history, while also going beyond the anecdotal to using data to show how a combination of older and smaller buildings are critical for keeping communities vibrant and strong.Perhaps one of the most important elements of the book are the chapters on displacement and affordability – where Meeks and Murphy discuss the methods in which historic preservation can and should mitigate shifts in demographics in cities over time.A book worth reading for those within and outside the preservation movement.

The Past and Future City not only offers a timely account of a path forward for the historic preservation movement as it celebrates the past 50 years of the National Historic Preservation Act, but also looks forward to new challenges and opportunities for preservationists to consider as the movement enters the next 50 years. The Past and Future City rebuts the perceived reputation as a "movement of no" by offering ways to encourage voluntary preservation of the the built environment and cultural heritage, too, including the use of best traditional legal tools and new creative incentives. It's exciting, at this pivotal juncture, to read this as a "call to arms" for a preservation movement that not only preserves nationally significant architecture, places, and landscapes, but also answers head-on the challenges preservation faces--real or perceived--including those related to social equity, sustainability, elitism, and inflexible nostalgia. Preservation leaders, academics, and students should consider it a "must read" for preservation and cultural heritage preservation in the 21st century.