World Monuments Fund, Time Honored, and John Stubbs

In 1965 a new historic preservation organization was founded - the World Monuments Fund. In the 40+ years since its founding, few organizations have had as large an impact internationally on our built cultural heritage as has the WMF.

While the WMF has numerous programs and projects, its largest and best known is the biennial World Monuments Watch. Every two years since 1996 WMF publishes and broadly publicizes its list calling "international attention to cultural heritage around the world that is threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict or disaster."

Since this program began, nearly 550 sites in 79 different countries, on every continent (yes, including Antarctica) have made an appearance on the list...a few more than once. While the primary purpose of the list is to bring to the fore imminent risks to the built heritage of our world, the WMF does more than point out the problems. Nearly half of the listed sites have received funding which over the years has totaled more than $50 million in WMF grants which have leveraged investment by others of over $150 million.

Reflecting the incredible diversity of the world's cultural heritage, listings have ranged from such international icons as the Taj Majal and Angkor Wat to far less known sites such as Levuka Township in Fiji and the Humberstone and Santa Laura Industrial Complex in Chile. To get a sense of the range of sites one only needs to look at the 2008 World Monuments Watch list of Most Endangered Sites.

Because of the magnitude of this effort, WMF begins soliciting nominations for the next listing nearly two years in advance. Already accessible are guidelines for nomination for sites for the 2010 list, which are available in English, Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese. Anyone - government, NGO, private person, local organization - can nominate a site, but now is the time to act. The deadline for submission of the nomination and related materials is March 15, 2009, so get moving!

Why has the World Monuments Fund become so successful? I think there are four reasons; 1) they have a fundamentally good idea; 2) they know how to partner; 3) they bring significant resources (both human and financial) to the table; and 4) they have a superb staff.

Although it is a non-profit organization (NGO) the World Monuments Fund operates like a great entrepreneurial private sector company. And they have identified this "niche" in the market that no one else is as comprehensively filling.

The partner list of the WMF is extensive and varied and ranges from American Express, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the World Bank, and the Getty Conservation Institute on the international level and hundreds of national, regional and local governments and organizations around the world.

I noted earlier the direct grants WMF has made and the additional dollars those grants have catalyzed. But on other projects they also bring expert technical skills to address the specific issues of a particular site.

But of the four reasons for success perhaps the most important is the people of the WMF. President Bonnie Burnham is the personification of the adjective indefatigable. Executive Vice President Lisa Ackerman came to the World Monuments Fund from the Kress Foundation, is well known in historic preservation circles and was the first recipient of the Ann Webster Smith Award for International Heritage Achievement given by US/ICOMOS. Recently joining WMF as Director of Research and Education is Erica Avrami about to finish her PhD at Rutgers University and with previous experience at the Getty Conservation Institute, as a preservation consultant, and as an adjunct faculty member at Pratt and the University of Pennsylvania.

But also at the WMF (and here's the disclaimer - he's a long time friend) is John Stubbs. I highly doubt that there is another person on the planet who has physically been to as many sites of international cultural importance as has John. I don't know if there are any of the sites that have been listed on the Monument Watch that John has not visited, but if there are any, damn few.

So John has put this incredible hands-on experience into a new book - Time Honored: A Global View of Architectural Conservation. If, anywhere in the world, you are teaching a course on international heritage conservation, this should be your core text. If you are a student in historic preservation and have an interest in international issues, buy this book. If you are a professional, a civil servant, an interested amateur, or an advocate for cultural heritage in your own country, but want to understand your efforts in an international context, this book should be your next read.

The book ranges from the academic (Nomenclature Used in International Conservation Practice) to the theoretical (Who Owns the Past?) to the history of conservation (The Forging of a Discipline: The Late Eighteenth to Early Twentieth Century) to the very practical (Options for Involvement).

There is one downside to reading the book, however. Looking at the photos of places John has visited and sites that have been assisted by the World Monuments Fund, you'll wish you had his job.

Celebrating our Urban Heritage

Seven years ago Marc Weiss, former college professor and official in the Clinton adminstration, founded Global Urban Development (GUD). The organization describes itself as a worldwide network of expert thinkers and practioners. 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, Morroco 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.

UN Habitat - Goals and Actions for Heritage Conservation

Below are the Goals and Actions established by UN Habitat as they relate to heritage conservation. It's a good check list for all of us to see if we are addressing the issues that need our attention. The section and paragraph numbers are the same as in the original Habitat document.

The Habitat Agenda Goals and Principles, Commitments and the Global Plan of Action

8. Conservation and rehabilitation of the historical and cultural heritage

152. Historical places, objects and manifestations of cultural, scientific, symbolic, spiritual and religious value are important expressions of the culture, identity and religious beliefs of societies. Their role and importance, particularly in the light of the need for cultural identity and continuity in a rapidly changing world, need to be promoted. Buildings, spaces, places and landscapes charged with spiritual and religious value represent an important element of stable and humane social life and community pride.

Conservation, rehabilitation and culturally sensitive adaptive reuse of urban, rural and architectural heritage are also in accordance with the sustainable use of natural and human made resources. Access to culture and the cultural dimension of development is of the utmost importance and all people should be able to benefit from such access.

Actions

153. To promote historical and cultural continuity and to encourage broad civic participation in all kinds of cultural activities, Governments at the appropriate levels, including local authorities, should:

(a) Identify and document, whenever possible, the historical and cultural significance of areas, sites, landscapes, ecosystems, buildings and other objects and manifestations and establish conservation goals relevant to the cultural and spiritual development of society;

(b) Promote the awareness of such heritage in order to highlight its value and the need for its conservation and the financial viability of rehabilitation;

(c) Encourage and support local heritage and cultural institutions, associations and communities in their conservation and rehabilitation efforts and inculcate in children and youth an adequate sense of their heritage;

(d) Promote adequate financial and legal support for the effective protection of the cultural heritage;

(e) Promote education and training in traditional skills in all disciplines appropriate to the conservation and promotion of heritage;

(f) Promote the active role of older persons as custodians of cultural heritage, knowledge, trades and skills.

154. To integrate development with conservation and rehabilitation goals, Governments at the appropriate levels, including local authorities, should:

(a) Recognize that the historical and cultural heritage is an important asset, and strive to maintain the social, cultural and economic viability of historically and culturally important sites and communities;

(b) Preserve the inherited historical settlement and landscape forms, while protecting the integrity of the historical urban fabric and guiding new construction in historical areas;

(c) Provide adequate legal and financial support for the implementation of conservation and rehabilitation activities, in particular through adequate training of specialized human resources;

(d) Promote incentives for such conservation and rehabilitation to public, private and nonprofit developers;

(e) Promote community based action for the conservation, rehabilitation, regeneration and maintenance of neighbourhoods;

(f) Support public and private sector and community partnerships for the rehabilitation of inner cities and neighbourhoods;

(g) Ensure the incorporation of environmental concerns in conservation and rehabilitation projects;

(h) Take measures to reduce acid rain and other types of environmental pollution that damage buildings and other items of cultural and historical value;

(i) Adopt human settlements planning policies, including transport and other infrastructure policies, that avoid environmental degradation of historical and cultural areas;

(j) Ensure that the accessibility concerns of people with disabilities are incorporated in conservation and rehabilitation projects.

Historic Preservation and America in The World - Part 1

This is an election year in the United States. Most of the readers of this blog are neither American nor, I suspect, much interested in American politics. I wrote this blog primarily for an American audience on the website of my domestic company PlaceEconomics. But it occurred to me that at least some of my international readers would be interested in attempts to get a larger role for heritage conservation in American foreign policy.

Increasingly in the US the multiple roles of historic preservation are becoming better known - downtown revitalization, neighborhood stabilization, job creation, heritage tourism, affordable housing, local economic development, sustainable development and others.

But less understood is the potential role that historic preservation could play as a central part of the international policy of the United States. So maybe 10 weeks before the general election is a good time to write about those roles.

There are deep divisions within the United States regarding America's actions in the world in the past few years. And there are strong arguments on every side about the rightness or wrongness of our current policies.

But no objective observer and no one who has traveled to foreign countries in recent years can escape three realities: 1) among both America's friends and America's opponents regard for the United States has fallen dramatically in recent years; 2) the regaining of the respect and the reestablishment of the leadership of the United States will take concentrated effort over a long period of time - perhaps a generation or more; and 3) essential to that effort will be the reengagement of the American government with international institutions, most of which were created through the leadership of the United States.

I firmly believe that incorporating historic preservation as a key component of the international policy of the United States can play a central role in our efforts to restore America's place of leadership in the world.

I know that sounds overreaching ... that compared with military bases, massive foreign aid programs to build roads, dams, and hospitals, the CIA, and big embassies, historic preservation cannot possibly play that important role.

I would suggest there are at least twenty reasons why historic preservation not only can play such a role, but needs to:

1. Of the five or six times President Bush has spoken to the General Assembly of the United Nations, and the dozens of initiatives he has announced there, his warmest reception came when he declared that the United States would rejoin UNESCO after an 18-year absence.


Banksa Staivnica, Slovakia

2. There is certainly great expertise in some aspects of historic preservation in other parts of the world, especially in Europe, that surpasses ours here in the United States. What we have exceeded in, however, is the market-based strategies for the adaptive reuse of historic buildings. That could constitute a meaningful contribution to countries around the globe.

3. America is the only military superpower left on earth and there are good reasons that it should remain so. However, if there is one vital lesson from September 11th and from Iraq it is this: having far and away the strongest military is not enough to protect the United States. Historic preservation could serve as a non-military component of a comprehensive strategy that recognizes military strength is necessary but not sufficient for sustained and credible world leadership or for world peace.

4. One of the great economic arguments for historic preservation in the United States is the positive local impact on jobs and household incomes that rehabilitation makes relative both to new construction and to most other economic activities. This aspect is demonstrably true in the rest of the world as well. There are few countries in the world where creating local jobs isn't a high priority, particularly in the developing world.

5. While both the private and public sectors play an important role in historic preservation in the US, it has always been the non-profit sector that has been the strongest advocate, the best educator, and the most innovative problem solver in preservation in America. Change in the developing world will be led by the NGO sector as well. Using historic preservation as a strategy abroad helps us assist in the establishment and effectiveness of NGOs elsewhere.

Singapore

6. A legitimate concern, particularly in World Heritage Cities, is that a heritage tourism strategy can often overwhelm the fragile historic resources. While heritage tourism will still be important, we have been developing the knowledge here as to how to protect those resources from overuse. More importantly, however, more than anywhere else on the globe, we have found economic uses for historic buildings far beyond heritage tourism. My best guess is that 95% of all the historic buildings in economically productive use in the United States have nothing to do with tourism.

Cuenca, Spain

7. A historic preservation based international relations component of American policy would be vastly less expensive for taxpayers than buying missiles for foreign armies or building dams of questionable economic utility and negative environmental impact.

8. We have seen in the US some of the downsides of economic growth and prosperity - suburban sprawl, declining city centers, loss of agricultural lands, environmental degradation, loss of affordable housing and others. Encouraging and assisting developing countries to adopt preservation-based strategies could be central in their preempting those problems before they occur.

9. Economic development is never a quick fix; it is always an incremental process. The demonstrable success of Main Street - economic development in the context of historic preservation - has reinforced the understanding and effectiveness of incrementalism. A historic preservation based component of international policy would inherently be an incremental one, thus both providing the time to regain our rightful position in world leadership and to dissuade the idea that there in an instant answer to difficult economic, political, and social problems.

Hanoi, Vietnam

10. As a parallel to incrementalism, a historic preservation based strategy is inherently long-term. Internationally among the strongest criticisms of American policy is that it seems to be exclusively short term. We certainly need to demonstrate more long-term thinking.


Tomorrow - 10 more reasons for historic preservation to be part of US foreign policy