Architectural History & Conservation | Feb. 10, 2021 | Washington Univ. of St. Louis

DISCUSSION SERIES PANEL: ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY AND CONSERVATION

February 10, 2021 .11:30a Central.

The event will be held online via Zoom, and is free and open to the public. 

Register here>>

Sam Fox School announces guest speakers for spring. Join us for “Architectural History and Conservation”, a panel discussion presented as part of the tenth year of DISCUSSIONS in Architectural History and Theory.

The featured panelists will explore several questions: Whose memory is being preserved and why? What are the main forces of historic conservation today? What's the next big historic preservation battle?

Panelists:
Fallon Aidoo (University of New Orleans)

Daniel M. Abramson (Boston University)

Maristella Casciato (Getty Research Institute)

Michelangelo Sabatino (Illinois Institute of Technology)

Dr. Fallon Aidoo will discuss tools and techniques of architectural conservation—landmark designation to development regulation—that lie in the hands of local and state government, their consultants and the citizenry appointed to their commissions. Responsible for a small part of historic preservation projects relative to architects practicing restoration and adaptive reuse, historic district and landmark commissioners receive far too little attention from architectural theorists and historians. In this presentation, I discuss how, why, at whose behest, under what circumstances and to what end historic district commissioners produce, uphold or set aside architectural standards of historic preservation. Cases presented elucidate how architectural knowledge bearers regulate equity among and expertise of culture bearers—trained tradespeople, experienced caretakers and grassroots managers who steward the built environment. Ultimately, I share racial and economic justice in historic cities, towns and villages of the United States—New Orleans to Sag Harbor, NY—hinges on knowing how preservationists’ architectural reviews can harm and heal.

Re-Centering the Margins: Justice & Equity in Historic Preservation | Jan. 27-28, 2021 | Univ. of MD School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation

“Holding Ground” presentation starts at minute 28:14

This two-day virtual research symposium highlights historic preservation research and activism centered on advancing justice and equity. Invited speakers include scholars, practitioners, and activists whose work has addressed systemic disparities in practice and education that have long impacted the diversity and inclusiveness of our work while advancing the field to re-center issues of justice and equity.

Entitled “Holding Ground: Land Management Strategies to Restore Black Wall Street,” Dr. Fallon Aidoo presented in Session 6. Case Studies from the Field: The Intersection of Community Development and Preservation Planning. She presented some of her research of the Historic Greenwood Chamber of Commerce’s place in preservation history, as well as its contributions to the planning and public history of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Dumbarton Oaks Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies | Oct. 22, 2020 | DC

Essential Businesses of Oak Bluffs: Black Heritage in the Highlands

“For millennia, Black people have sought respite from systemic racism and found refuge from racial terror in Martha’s Vineyard, a New England island, and other coastal communities open to African American homeownership after the Depression (e.g., Sag Harbor). Films like The Wedding (1998) and The Inkwell (1994) and media coverage of Obama family vacations have shed light on the island’s Black cultural landscape, but have also obscured its commercial infrastructure. Aidoo proposes in this paper that boarding houses, rental homes, and inns owned and operated by Black families have defined the “Main Streets” of Oak Bluffs. Scattered across the island’s Highlands, residences rented seasonally to Black church congregations, fraternal organizations, alumni associations, and advocacy collectives sustain the island’s cultural economy despite decades of encroachment on this disaggregated Black Wall Street. Preservation practices of ‘The Cottagers,’ Aidoo argues, raise the stakes of “managed retreat”—from coastal storm surge to speculative economic development.”

APTi (Assoc. for Preservation Technology Int'l) / National Trust of Canada Joint Plenary on Inclusion | Oct 5-6, 2020

PANELISTS, SPECIAL JOINT PLENARY:

TOWARDS INCLUSION IN CONSERVATION: RECONCILING ATTITUDES, POLICY & PRACTICE

Fallon Aidoo (University of New Orleans and StudioRxP)

Erica C Avrami (Columbia GSAPP)

Germaine Joseph (St. Lucia National Trust)

Lisa Prosper (Willowbank Centre for Cultural Landscapes)

Christophe Rivet (ICOMOS-Canada + Cultural Spaces Consulting)

Randall Mason (UPenn Center for Civil Rights Heritage)

Tiffani Simple (Simple Design Studio + Architects), moderator

Planning Revival: A Praxis of Public Engagement | Oct 31 - Nov2, 2019 | DC/Arlington

Society of American City and Regional Planning History 2019 Presidential Plenary.

Plenary participants:

• D. Bradford Hunt, SACRPH President,

• Andrea R. Roberts, Texas A&M University,

• Fallon Samuels Aidoo, University of New Orleans

• James Benderson, Town Planner, Eatonville, Florida

Preservation & Social Inclusion | Feb. 7-8, 2019 | WMF, New York, NY

A Symposium organized by Erica Avrami, co-sponsored by Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation and Earth Institute, and hosted by the World Monuments Fund

Preservation And Social Inclusion - Columbia GSAPP

Heritage at Risk: Climate Changes to Historic Preservation

This symposium gathers preservation planners, policymakers, architects and advocates who lead the rehabilitation of damaged historic resources and the retrofit of endangered cultural heritage. The conference not only serves as an occasion to reflect on the role of preservationists in hazards mitigation and disaster preparedness, but also an opportunity to reevaluate the methods of adaptation and metrics of resilience to which preservationists adhere. All are welcome to join this free, public forum on chronic and acute risks of climate change to historic places throughout the Gulf region and the nation at-large—from subsidence and devaluation to storm surges and demolition.

Panelists will discuss:

1) how techniques and principles of preservation are changing to meet the challenges that climate change poses to built environments;

2) how communities and cities have created, resisted, constrained and refined the application of these approaches;

3) who has fiscal agency (financial capital and human resources) to preserve communities at risk and to produce resilient heritage; and

4) how preservationists can better inform and transform recovery policy and mitigation planning at the local, regional and national level.

In other words, “Heritage at Risk” centers climate changes to historic places and preservation within debates over how to plan for a wetter, warming

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PROGRAM

6pm (Friday) | WELCOME RECEPTION (ByWater Institute, Tulane Coastal and River Center, New Orleans)

Organized in conjunction with: Democracy in Retreat? Master Planning in a Warming World | March 29th, 2019

(https://www.buell.gsapp.edu/democracyinretreat)

9:30am (Saturday) | OPENING REMARKS

Fallon Aidoo (UNO)

Shirley Laska (LURAC-Louisiana Universities' Resilient Architecture Collaborative)

10 am (Saturday) | CHANGING PRAXIS: Heritage Adaptation + Hazard Mitigation

Dominique Hawkins (Preservation Design Partnership)

Jeana Wiser (Greyspace Collective)

Discussant: Nathan Lott (Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans + Louisiana Landmarks Society)

11:30 pm (Saturday) | CHANGE CHALLENGES: Resilient Communities, Reticent Cities

Brian Davis (Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation)

Tiffany Tolbert (National Trust for Historic Preservation)

Discussant: Amanda Coleman (Tulane University)

1 pm (Saturday) | LUNCH & LEARN—CLIMATE CHANGES TO LOCAL & NATIONAL HISTORIC DISTRICTS

2:30 pm (Saturday) | FUNDING CHANGE: Fiscal Agency in Risk Assessment and Adaptation

Beth Jacob (MacRostie Historic Advisors)

Nicole Hobson-Morris (Louisiana SHPO/State Historic Preservation Office)

Discussant: Melissa Lee (Concordia)

4:00 pm (Saturday) | CHANGING METRICS & MINDS: The Place of Preservation in Mitigation Planning & Disaster Policy

Kyle Shelton (Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University)

Marccus Hendricks (University of Maryland—College Park)

Discussant: Fallon Aidoo (UNO)

5:30 pm – 7pm (Saturday) | CLOSING REMARKS & RECEPTION