Historic landscape preservation : what are the most innovative cities doing to protect their historic landscapes

Abstract

In 1976, the second annual national "Back to the City" conference was held in St. Paul, Minnesota. The conference offered a forum for the presentation of projects that demonstrated what people had done to revitalize their cities after the slow death brought on by the unrealized potentials for urban renewal in the sixties. While the audience included many government employees and private consultants, it was mostly comprised of those city residents. They had come to celebrate their successes and share information about how to do more. As one way of offering the conference attendees an opportunity to participate in some personal discussion on the topic, small dinner parties were held in restored homes in the historical neighborhoods. At the one I attended, conversation began with each person stating briefly why they were attending the conference. Discussions of each persons topic followed their introduction. Last to speak, I said that as a landscape architect, I was interested in finding ways to restore and protect the landscapes around those historic homes: "the spaces" that give the neighborhoods their distinctive character."