Collaboration in Historic Preservation

     Throughout this section of the lecture series, "Architecture for Whom?", I've been contemplating how these principals about ordinary space and the input of the user could be applied to the architecture and realm of historic preservation. From my exposure to the field, especially in Charleston, historic preservation has become very political. Innovation is governed by who you know on the BAR board as well as one's political reputation, design is imposed on the historic structure by the one who "knows best"- the historical societies of the city. Despite this, there has been a recent transformation of the field towards the input of the user and more specifically the community of users. If a historic place has been in the same community for long enough that it has become an integral part of that community, then community leaders have begun to claim a right, for their community, to have input on the future of the building. This is where it again becomes political. Not everyone can be pleased in this process of accommodating ideas and wants. Thus, some groups come out of the design input process with qualms and attack the identity of those they have issue with. I believe that this step towards accommodating the community is a positive one but it has not been executed correctly to attain the positive result for neither the built environment nor for the sake of collaboration.

Beaufort County Jail to be converted into townhomes...