Montgomery’s ‘Mad Men’ modern buildings — are they worth protecting?, Washington Post, Katherine Shaver, February 28, 2013

“The challenge is always preserving the recent past,” Kelly said. “It’s easy to look at things from 100 years ago and see them as historic. . . . If we don’t act now to assess resources from this time period, they’ll be gone, and then it’s too late to say, ‘That apartment complex was really special.’ ”

It’s true—what we think of as historic or antique is, to use a phrase, socially constructed. Something about the rarity and the sense of something vanishing or slipping away makes it feel more valuable. It’s hard to guess now what will be historic to people in another half a century.

Historic preservation can also be hijacked to simply stop new development. Sometimes it’s a gas station or even a parking lot! I’m not sure where I come down on this, especially for newer buildings whose ultimate value is hard to judge. It’s a very interesting read.

Said a historic preservation planner quoted in the piece:

It’s not about age or looks…It’s about preserving critical pieces of architectural history from the post-World War II population and building boom that transformed suburbs such as Montgomery from rural bedroom communities into dense subdivisions and commercial districts.

I guess the question is, is the actual lived-in urban space the right place to preserve these things? Or can the buildings go but also be remembered? At least for commercial buildings, here’s my answer.

Grapefruit Is One of the Weirdest Fruits on the Planet, Atlas Obscura, Dan Nosowitz, October 6, 2020

Sometimes I like to totally put down matters related to my work, and this was a fun, surprising read about the history, old and recent, of a common but mysterious fruit. E.g.: it took a lot of time to figure out what the grapefruit was a hybrid of, exactly, or where it came from.

It’s delightfully long and whimsical, so I won’t spoil any more. Read the whole thing.

“Urban Freeway” is an Oxymoron, What Are Streets For, December 8, 2020

“Freeways do not facilitate urbanism and urban areas do not facilitate freeways.”

Why?

“More so than any other road type, a freeway, in its purest form, limits access in order to maximize throughput and average speeds. On the other hand, urban places can be defined in terms of having high levels of access.”

Also, make sure you take a look at the two photos, one from Houston and one from Angers, France.

Seeing the Glass as Half Full: Exploring the Reuse Opportunity for Houses of Worship on Main Street, Strong Towns, Rick Reinhard, May 20, 2022

For a variety of reasons, from declining adherence to suburbanization, churches in older urban areas are closing. Some people find it distasteful or even offensive to repurpose these buildings for secular uses, especially for things like nightclubs (I guess I can see that.) But they’re also at the end of the line for actually being live churches.

It’s kind of like when people want to preserve a commercial building whose commercial purpose is over. You either need to find a new use, or let it go. They’re not museum pieces. They’re old structures that hold a lot of history, but also cost a lot of money to maintain. This article discusses in some depth what their futures can look like.

Related Reading:

New and Old #42

New and Old #43

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