Celebrating our Urban Heritage
September, 23 2008 Filed in: Heritage conservation
Seven years ago Marc Weiss, former college professor and official in the Clinton administration, founded Global Urban Development (GUD). The organization describes itself as a worldwide network of expert thinkers and practitioners. The accomplishments of GUD over this relatively short period are impressive.
GUD has a Board of Directors composed of men and women from 25 countries as well as a 200 member Advisory Board where no less than 50 countries are represented. Outside of the United Nations structure, there can't be many international NGOs with this broad a base geographically.
The GUD network is organized around seven major issue areas: Building Gender Equality in Urban Life, Treating People and Community as Assets, Facing the Environmental Challenge, Global Urban Development, Improving Public Health, Metropolitan Economic Strategy, and Celebrating Our Urban Heritage.
This last committee I am most pleased to co-chair with Luigi Fusco Girard of the University of Naples and Belinda Yuen of the National University of Singapore. Through these associations I have been fortunate to have participated in events at both of those institutions in the last few years.
One of the products of GUD is Global Urban Development Magazine, an online magazine that is published periodically. Just out is the most recent special issue which focuses on Urban Heritage. Included are articles on successful heritage strategies in Tunisia, Spain, Laos, the US, Russia, China, Lithuania, Morrocco and projects focused on the aboriginal peoples of Australia and New Zealand.
There are innovative programs taking place in heritage conservation around the world, and Global Urban Development has spotlighted several worthy of celebration.
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Heritage and Sustainable Development: the VMF Symposium
July, 02 2008
Recently I had the privilege of participating in an international symposium in Paris organized and hosted by VMF, Les Vieilles Maisons Francaises. VMF was celebrating its 50th anniversary as an organization committed to preserving France's incredible built heritage. The theme of the symposium was "Heritage and Sustainable Development: a Question of Education"."
As I have written before (30 May 08) the link between sustainable development and heritage conservation is not well understood in North America, but much more so in Europe (and much of the developing world). More education is an obvious part of the question in the US and Canada.
And no doubt that's true in Europe as well, but the quality and nuanced sophistication of this issue was clearly evident during this conference which was held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris and appropriately opened by Kiochiro Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO.
The officers and staff of VMF were wonderful hosts. Their delightful Secretaire Generale, Lilibeth Dewavrin is perhaps the most gracious and delightful hostess I've ever encountered. And the President, Philippe Toussaint, was generous with both his time and his hospitality at every event related to the symposium. Anne Ridard as the project manager did an excellent job of juggling the logistics for 20 or so speakers and a couple hundred participants.
The substance of the symposium was superb and, as usual, I learned far more than I imparted. I learned something from each presentation and it would be presumptuous to try to summarize them here. VMF has posted abstracts of each presentation which I highly recommend reading.
In my next blog I'll write about some of the people and their organizations that I was fortunate to meet at the symposium. But I want to mention one in this blog. Professor Xavier Greffe is an economics professor at the Sorbonne, and well known internationally in the world of cultural heritage economics. Professor Greffe made a two part presentation of an extensive survey he conducted earlier this year about French attitudes toward the protection of the built heritage. The results of the survey certainly demonstrated the commitment of the French people to heritage conservation and may well serve as a blueprint for action of the government and the private sector for the future. Other countries should undertake this kind of important original research. At least in the US there is often an impression that the support for historic preservation is rather limited. I doubt that is actually true, but we should be demonstrating that here as Professor Greffe and VMF have done in France.
Finally, the symposium concluded with a commitment of VMF to pursue 15 measurable and doable (even if difficult) specific actions to advance the further integration of heritage conservation into sustainable development. Every conference should do that - it gives direction, it sets priorities, it establishes the grounds for accountability.
Congratulations to VMF on their 50th Anniversary and on the superb symposium they hosted. Thank you for having included me.
Heritage and Economics
June, 02 2008 Filed in: Heritage conservation | Economics
Almost since the beginning of the heritage conservation movement, there has been a resistance by activists and scholars to discussing heritage in the context of economics. Somehow it was seen as diminishing the importance of cultural heritage to have it tainted with quantification as Euros, Dollars or Yen.
Fortunately, in my mind, that is changing. It isn't that the economic value of heritage resources is the only value, or even the most important one. But considering the economics should be a perspective that is welcomed rather than avoided by those committed to conserve the best of the built environment.
On the European front, leading the way in this regard is the Nordic Network on the Economics of the Built Heritage. The Network is coordinated by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the Technical University of Helsinki.
Over the last few years they have held symposia, established a website with links to heritage economics studies and papers, and have released at least one scholarly publication.
Last week they issued their latest work, Economics and Built Heritage - Toward New European Initiatives.. This is a collection of papers ably edited by Mikko Malkki, Raine Mantysalo and my friend Kaisa Schmidt-Thome.
While the book was released in hard copy at a meeting of European Culture Ministers, it is also available in pdf form on line.
The range of subjects is wide so anyone with the least interest in the built heritage/economics connection should find both intellectual stimulation and perhaps methodological tools.
Much of what has been available, frankly, has been of such an esoteric nature that it's utility was limited. This is not the case with the papers presented here. They do lay the foundations for new European initiatives.
Fortunately, in my mind, that is changing. It isn't that the economic value of heritage resources is the only value, or even the most important one. But considering the economics should be a perspective that is welcomed rather than avoided by those committed to conserve the best of the built environment.
On the European front, leading the way in this regard is the Nordic Network on the Economics of the Built Heritage. The Network is coordinated by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the Technical University of Helsinki.
Over the last few years they have held symposia, established a website with links to heritage economics studies and papers, and have released at least one scholarly publication.
Last week they issued their latest work, Economics and Built Heritage - Toward New European Initiatives.. This is a collection of papers ably edited by Mikko Malkki, Raine Mantysalo and my friend Kaisa Schmidt-Thome.
While the book was released in hard copy at a meeting of European Culture Ministers, it is also available in pdf form on line.
The range of subjects is wide so anyone with the least interest in the built heritage/economics connection should find both intellectual stimulation and perhaps methodological tools.
Much of what has been available, frankly, has been of such an esoteric nature that it's utility was limited. This is not the case with the papers presented here. They do lay the foundations for new European initiatives.
Heritage and Sustainable Development
June, 01 2008 Filed in: Built Heritage | Sustainable Development
As I've written before (May 31, 2008) much of the world has a better understanding of what Sustainable Development means than we do in North America. Graphically Sustainable Development looks like this:
Sustainable Development requires environmental responsibility, economic responsibility, and social/cultural responsibility. Further for a community to be viable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and economic responsibility. For a community to be livable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and social/cultural responsibility. And for a community to be equitable there needs to be a link between economic responsibility and social/cultural responsibility.
But in North America many of the proponents of sustainable development ignore both the economic and social/cultural components, and even have a myopic view of what constitutes environmental responsibility.
This is most apparent in a "checklist" approach to "green building" called LEED. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a product of the U.S. Green Building Council.
I’m happy that LEED exists. It is an excellent first shot at trying to make buildings and neighborhoods more environmentally responsible. But to say that LEED is necessary but not sufficient for sustainable development is no different than saying dentistry is necessary but not sufficient for health care. But my other two dissents from LEED-mania are: 1) LEED only deals with the environmental component of sustainable development, not at all with the other two components -- economic responsibility and social/cultural responsibility; and 2) even within the environmental responsibility component of sustainable development the contributions of existing buildings is irresponsibly inadequate on multiple levels.
In the US currently there are dozens of examples - some by environmental groups themselves - in which historic buildings are being razed with the excuse being given, "But we are going to be LEED certified."
The US and Canada have much to learn from the rest of the world about the practice of sustainable development. But until we get over the absurdity that simply scoring enough points to rate a LEED gold star is the same as sustainable development, we won't be making much progress.
This issue was the subject of a brief interview with architect and journalist Lloyd Alter of the website Treehugger.com that you might wish to look at.
Sustainable Development requires environmental responsibility, economic responsibility, and social/cultural responsibility. Further for a community to be viable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and economic responsibility. For a community to be livable there needs to be a link between environmental responsibility and social/cultural responsibility. And for a community to be equitable there needs to be a link between economic responsibility and social/cultural responsibility.
But in North America many of the proponents of sustainable development ignore both the economic and social/cultural components, and even have a myopic view of what constitutes environmental responsibility.
This is most apparent in a "checklist" approach to "green building" called LEED. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a product of the U.S. Green Building Council.
I’m happy that LEED exists. It is an excellent first shot at trying to make buildings and neighborhoods more environmentally responsible. But to say that LEED is necessary but not sufficient for sustainable development is no different than saying dentistry is necessary but not sufficient for health care. But my other two dissents from LEED-mania are: 1) LEED only deals with the environmental component of sustainable development, not at all with the other two components -- economic responsibility and social/cultural responsibility; and 2) even within the environmental responsibility component of sustainable development the contributions of existing buildings is irresponsibly inadequate on multiple levels.
In the US currently there are dozens of examples - some by environmental groups themselves - in which historic buildings are being razed with the excuse being given, "But we are going to be LEED certified."
The US and Canada have much to learn from the rest of the world about the practice of sustainable development. But until we get over the absurdity that simply scoring enough points to rate a LEED gold star is the same as sustainable development, we won't be making much progress.
This issue was the subject of a brief interview with architect and journalist Lloyd Alter of the website Treehugger.com that you might wish to look at.
Ontario, Canada Heritage Conference
May, 30 2008 Filed in: Built Heritage | Sustainable Development
The link between heritage conservation and sustainable development is well understood in many parts of the world. The United Kingdom in particular is at the cutting edge in making the link, but so are many countries in the developing world.
However, this is an area where for the most part North Americans are far behind other countries. In both the US and Canada the so called "green architects" have convinced themselves, politicians, policy makers and much of the media that sustainable development and "green buildings" are one in the same. They are not! While environmental responsibility is an important component of comprehensive sustainable development it is far from the whole story.
But in both countries heritage conservation professionals are beginning to educate themselves so that they can educate others in the important role that historic preservation plays in sustainable development. That was the effort taking place as the annual heritage conservation conference in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Held in the delightful small town of Collingwood (population 17,000) the theme of the conference was Landmarks not Landfill. In the past this conference has published some of their proceedings in a newsletter and on a web site. Hopefully they will do so this year as well.
But the good news is that there were a number of excellent presentations by representatives from the public, private, and non-profit sectors that evidenced a growing understanding of this important link.
This recognition that heritage conservation is a central element of sustainable development may be the most important thing happening in historic preservation in the world today. Heritage professionals and advocates in Ontario are making the most important first step -- learning the connection. Maybe one of these days the US and Canada will catch up to the rest of the world where that connection is obvious.
However, this is an area where for the most part North Americans are far behind other countries. In both the US and Canada the so called "green architects" have convinced themselves, politicians, policy makers and much of the media that sustainable development and "green buildings" are one in the same. They are not! While environmental responsibility is an important component of comprehensive sustainable development it is far from the whole story.
But in both countries heritage conservation professionals are beginning to educate themselves so that they can educate others in the important role that historic preservation plays in sustainable development. That was the effort taking place as the annual heritage conservation conference in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Held in the delightful small town of Collingwood (population 17,000) the theme of the conference was Landmarks not Landfill. In the past this conference has published some of their proceedings in a newsletter and on a web site. Hopefully they will do so this year as well.
But the good news is that there were a number of excellent presentations by representatives from the public, private, and non-profit sectors that evidenced a growing understanding of this important link.
This recognition that heritage conservation is a central element of sustainable development may be the most important thing happening in historic preservation in the world today. Heritage professionals and advocates in Ontario are making the most important first step -- learning the connection. Maybe one of these days the US and Canada will catch up to the rest of the world where that connection is obvious.
Heritage Strategies International
May, 29 2008
For twenty- five years I've had a consulting practice which is now known as PlaceEconomics. The firm provides consulting services to public and non-profit clients dealing with issues of downtown and neighborhood business district revitalization, and the reuse of historic buildings. But with only a few exception, the vast majority of the work was in the United States.
In 2004 I made a commitment to myself to undertake a three year experiment to see if an essentially one-person operation could grow to have an international rather then a domestic client base. That's when Heritage Strategies International (HSI) was formed.
Maidens' Tower, Baku, Azerbaijan
And what did I learn in that three year experiment? Lots! But even more importantly I've had the opportunity to visit incredibly interesting places, work with brilliant and committed people, and learn. Learn! What a wonderful opportunity I'm having to be paid to visit some interesting part of the world and get to learn from my clients and my co-workers.
So what I envision for the HSI blog is threefold: 1) to act a sort of a journal of lessons I'm learning while on some international assignment; 2) to provide a link for readers to people and places you might want to encounter; and 3) to broaden the connections among individuals and institutions who are committed to saving and using the world's built heritage.
So thanks for reading and please don't hesitate to let me know what's useful, what's not, when I've gotten something wrong, or a lead to a person or place that I ought to know about.
Thanks.
d rypkema