History / Preservation

The good news is that two of Washington's historical treasures are scheduled for renovation and re-use; columnist Steven Pearlstein delivers the bad news.

Robin Stummer reports on the fate of Britain's greatest surviving historic wooden building, a huge medieval barn that had suffered from years of neglect.

Chuck Wolfe uses the urban scale adaptive reuse of the Roman Emperor Diocletian's retirement palace in Split, Croatia to argue for blending the past and future on a broader scale.

Ben Adler writes about the growing contingent of policy wonks, architects, and architectural critics who believe that preservationists have acquired too much power.

In a cruel twist, a historic house associated with Chinese architects who championed the notion that 'a great nation should hold dear its historic patrimony', and deemed by authorities an 'immovable cultural relic,' was recently demolished.

Facadism is often criticized for its awkward juxtapositions, but here are eight of the nicest facadist renovations from around the world, according to Stephen Smith.

As urban parks across the country are being created and refurbished thanks in large part to private philanthropy (e.g. the High Line and Millennium Park), Charles Birnbaum asks who will come to the rescue of Boston's famed Emerald Necklace.

The Miami City Commission will give a nonprofit group the green light to rehabilitate Miami Marine Stadium, an abandoned Modernist landmark that was identified as one of the country's most endangered places in 2009, reports David Sokol.

Adrian Glick Kudler writes in Curbed LA about a feature in the February issue of Los Angeles magazine profiling 16 of the most classic types of L.A. houses.

Sarah Laskow reports on a new study from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that confirms and quantifies the adage that reuse of a historic building is more sustainable than LEED certified new construction.

The discovery of the harbor town of Bathonea in 2007, after a drought uncovered its water-logged remains, has yielded a treasure trove of relics illuminating Istanbul's rise as a world power.

A neighborhood in Tarzana, one of the few residential areas in Los Angeles County that allows raising livestock, battles developmental pressures. The latest proposal: razing five homes for an elderly care center.

A new documentary aims to challenge the existing narrative surrounding the birth, life, and death of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing development.

When a building in blighted Highland Park, Michigan was demolished, a painted advertisement on the adjacent building was revealed. Nearby, other ghost ads remain, "nearly as bright" as ever. Dan Berry reports on why we're so fascinated by them.

Eric Jaffe writes of an article appearing in the January issue of the Journal of Urban History in which the forgotten story of a time when Hollywood's jealous co-star tried to claim her throne is re-told.

St. Louis is moving towards protecting its mid-century architectural treasures. Some see the buildings as impediments to economic development.

Writing in Urban Land, Ron Nyren highlights his top ten historic preservation projects from the last half-decade.

An inspiration for Ebenezer Howard and the first urban planning conference in Britain or America, Amanda Kolson Hurley looks at how Bournville has evolved.

Urban Land explores examples of recent projects where historic assets serve as unlikely catalysts for master-planned community development and economic growth

Stunning archaeological discoveries made in Brazil in recent years have upended conventional wisdom about the forests of the western Amazon.