Last month, Grant Rocco and I attended Preserving the Recent Past 4, a conference co-hosted by the Historic Preservation Education Foundation and the Boston Architectural College. The conference offered a curation of lectures, seminars, and tours dealing with issues on how to preserve, renew, or adapt modernist and post-modernist pieces of our built environment. The lectures covered topics such as: “Brown Buildings Are Definitely a Thing”, a design narrative focused presentation on the often-overlooked typology of proto-post-modernist “brown” buildings that proliferated across the continental U.S. during the 70s and 80s, to “Renewing the Avant-Garde”, a lessons-learned discussion on revitalizing Eero Saarinen’s Kresge Auditorium at MIT. Despite the diverse programming, several threads revealed themselves:

Preservation as Advocacy

Possibly the most notable theme touched on by many of the panelists, is preservation’s underlying capacity to advocate for sustaining our communities’ histories. Often illustrated, this goes beyond a building’s footprint, to include the intangible memories, and stories of its inhabitants. In the case of “Better than 3% - the Los Angeles Women's Landmark Project”—an undertaking by the Los Angeles Conservancy—exemplified how conventional preservation efforts may miss entire demographics. In Los Angeles, only 3% of buildings designated as “historically significant” represented contributions made by women. A wholly “significant misrepresentation”. It raises the question: to what extent is this the case in Boston? What communities and neighborhoods have we missed in our efforts to preserve Boston’s heritage? Evidenced by the Women’s Landmark Project, preservation may be used as a catalyst for positive change.    

The Challenges of Modernist & Post-Modernist Construction

Every historical period has its own specific parameters in preservation. This is no less the case for buildings of the modern and post-modern eras. Throughout the conference several case studies were presented that highlighted some of these issues. Most discussed, however, is how challenging post-modern structures are to preserve. From poor construction detailing to shoddy materials, post-modern buildings are prone to faster deterioration. The situation is exacerbated by the widespread neglect to preserve post-modern buildings at all. Deemed either “too recent” or “not significant enough,” landmark buildings are often left to deteriorate before it is too late. Architects and preservationists are left with a conundrum: to preserve means to repair, and to what extent does that entail veering away from the original intent of the architect? Similarly, modernist buildings, although of better stock, frequently have unique materials or workmanship that no longer exist. As such, compromises often must be made in balancing the aesthetics and performance of these buildings. This, however, can lead to innovation. As was the case for Kresge Auditorium’s renewal at MIT by SGH; project-specific curtain wall mullion profiles were developed to retain the original’s thin profile while allowing the assembly to meet updated structural loads and code requirements. A challenge turned into a design opportunity.

Preservation is a Spectrum

From the strictest definition of preservation to the most lenient, the conference showcased a wide array of what preservation may look like. Truly a catch-all, “preservation” may then best be understood as an umbrella term. Likewise, the stakeholders were similarly varied: community-led grassroots endeavors, developer-backed adaptive re-use projects, and institutionally funded renewals. These examples only begin to scratch the surface. It has made me acutely aware of the seemingly limitless possibilities that a designer or architect may engage in. This was underscored by Albert Chao’s presentation of the Coles House Project. A multi-disciplinary and collaborative effort to preserve the Coles House and Studio designed and inhabited by Robert Traynham Coles. Preservation in this case, encapsulates not only preserving the original structure but reimagining its life in our contemporary milieu as “[…] a place to engage, study, vision, and disseminate ideas for an environmentally healthy community”.

Learn more about Finegold Alexander’s preservation work.