Session Three:
Why Conserve the Built Environment?
Why Do We Conserve Older
Buildings and Sites?
“A country without a past has the
emptiness of a barren continent; and
a city without old buildings is like a
man without a memory”.
British architect, Graeme Shankland
Why conserve urban buildings?
• What values do these streetscapes from Venice,
New York, Calgary, Victoria + Vancouver reveal?
• The need for a common terminology
• Emerging trends in urban heritage conservation
and sustainability—environmental, social/cultural
and economic sustainability
• A brief overview of urban heritage conservation
over the past 30 years
• Roles of the private, public + not-for-profit sectors
What is Heritage Conservation?
“Heritage is an essentially collective and
public notion. Though heritage is certainly
valued by individuals, its raison d’etre, is
by definition, to sustain a sphere of public
interest and public good.”
Randall Mason, “Economics and Heritage Conservation: concepts,
Values, and Agendas for Research”, Economics and Heritage
Conservation, Getty Conservation Institute, 1999.
Values-based Heritage
Conservation
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Aesthetic
Cultural
Economic
Social
Historic
Environmental
Political
Spiritual
Commemorative
Heritage conservation in North America
1978-2008
• Moved from individual buildings to districts
• Focussed on “vernacular” architecture and the
wider urban fabric—good, bad, the ugly
• Creative solutions to finding new uses
• Public-private partnerships
• Cultural tourism as a global phenomenon
• Heritage conservation as influenced by the energy
crisis of the 1970’s and GHG’s today
Conservation
“all actions or processes that are aimed at
safeguarding the character-defining
elements of a cultural resource so as to
retain its heritage value and extend its
physical life. This may involve
“Preservation,” “Rehabilitation,”
“Restoration,” or a combination of these
actions or processes.”
Preservation
“the action or process of protecting,
maintaining, and/or stabilizing the existing
materials, form, and integrity of a historic
place or of an individual component, while
protecting its heritage value.”
Restoration
“the action or process of accurately
revealing, recovering or representing the
state of a historic place, or of an individual
component, as it appeared at a particular
period in its history, while protecting its
heritage value.”
Rehabilitation
“the action or process of making possible
a continuing or compatible contemporary
use of a historic place or an individual
component, through repair, alterations,
and/or additions, while protecting its
heritage value.”
The Environmental Lens: Heritage Conservation
Going Green—what does this mean?
• Reducing landfill sites
• What is the business case for green
heritage buildings?
• LEED—Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design for Existing
Buildings
• BOMA—Go Green Program
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The Cultural/Social Lens:
Building Coalitions
Questions to Consider:
• What are we preserving and for whom?
• Who decides? Owners, residents,
governments?
• Why protect buildings and sites? The
public and private interests
• What role does marketing play?
• What is the role of “heritage style” and
authenticity?
The Economic Lens: Building
the Business Case
• Demonstrate the costs and benefits of or
renovating buildings and neighbourhoods
• Consider the long and short term implications
of office space rental or condo sales
• Economic incentives—what role do they play?
• Employment in the heritage business—from
contractors to designers, building supplies
• Tax incentives, property taxes and revenues
And Where to From Here?
“Building conservation can also act as very
visual catalyst to changing the attitudes of
people to consumption and encouraging
recycling.....sustainability is more than just
about green technologies; it also
encompasses local community issues and
economic aspects.”
Mark Gorgolewski, Municipal World, 2006