#DismantlePreservation was hosted July 26-30, 2021! The unconference worked to continue pushing cultural resource conversations in a range of directions and featured current students/recent graduates from around the world!
Click on the presentation title to view the recording or visit this link to check out the full recording playlist. Click here to learn about the other presentations and presenters.
Presentations hosted on July 28:
In the creation of large-scale infrastructure projects, state and federal governments decide who is allowed to keep their land, community, and way of life, and who will be stripped of these basic necessities — often dispossessing poor, rural, and/or non-white populations for the benefit of more affluent, urban, and/or white populations. Using the case of the 1939 Santee Cooper Hydroelectric Project in South Carolina, this presentation discusses the limits to “heritage” preservation and the social and ecological risks associated with “preserving” unnatural environments, such as reservoirs. The naturalization of revisionist histories and artificial environments, and the subsequent denaturalization of Black and Indigenous belonging are emblematic of racial, regional, and cultural biases embedded within historic and contemporary preservation practices.
Speaker: Morgan P. Vickers, Geography Ph.D. Student, UC Berkeley Department of Geography; Website, Instagram, LinkedIn
In 2019, a group of tenants and community organizers used historic preservation in an attempt to save Barry Farm Dwellings, a public housing complex in Southeast D.C., from the looming threat of demolition. Unfortunately, the case fell short due to a lack of “historic integrity,” or a physical embodiment of certain historic attributes within the remaining buildings. This undergraduate thesis argues that historic preservation functioned as a narrowly defined entity steeped in respectability politics, ultimately costing so many tenants their homes and tight-knit community. Furthermore, this thesis argues that preservation of the past neither encapsulates nor protects the identity of a current community.
Speaker: Meena Morar, Incoming Candidate for Juris Doctor at UC Davis School of Law and Georgetown alumnus; LinkedIn
Lightning Talk: Preservation in the Digital World: Cats of Brutalism
How, through social media, we can start to create and bring architectural preservation discussions into light, in a fun, humorous and enjoyable manner. Creating a page where not just architecture finatics can come too, but cat lovers and everyday people who are looking for a page they can smile about but also be educated on the variety of brutalist buildings, some very famous, some up in question of their futures and some that have also been demolished.
Speakers: Cats of Brutalism Team; Website, Instagram
Lightning Talk: Stop Skate Spot Demolition: The Push to Protect Public Spaces and Preserve the Grind
Skateboarding is defined by its creativity which often involves repurposing or using public spaces not as they were originally intended. How has the skateboarding community advocated for the preservation of skate spots and what can preservationists learn from these efforts?
Speaker: Maya Haptas, Writer; Website, Instagram, LinkedIn
Panel Discussion: Preserving Housing Autonomy
Preservation can be a liberatory tool when uplifting spaces built around affordability, sustainability and community-building. This panel looks to practitioners who integrate historic preservation into strategies for housing justice. These strategies, including housing cooperatives, community land trusts, and tenant organizing, employ preservation towards larger goals of resident empowerment and autonomy.
Panelists:
Lindsay Mulcahy, MHC and MUP Planning Candidate at USC; Linkedin
Sydney Andrea Landers, Affordable Housing Intern with NTHP and Incoming Associate with Chattel, Inc; Portfolio, Twitter, Linkedin
Caroline Calderon, Little Tokyo Services Center
Camille Ora-Nicole, Vernacular Project