Preserving The Recent Past As Landscape And Place: The Key to Our Cultural Heritage

The recent past holds a treasure trove of memories and stories that shape our society and culture. From post-war modernism to suburban landscapes, preserving these places is crucial to understanding our history and preserving our cultural heritage for future generations. This article dives deep into why preserving the recent past as landscape and place is so important and how it can be achieved.

Understanding the Recent Past

The recent past refers to architectural and cultural sites that hold significant value from the mid-20th century onwards. These sites showcase important developments in architecture, urban planning, and society that have shaped our present-day world. The architectural styles and design elements of this era are distinctive and reflect the ethos of the time.

Preserving the recent past is crucial because it allows us to reflect on our cultural and architectural history. It helps us understand the challenges and triumphs of earlier generations, and how their contributions have shaped our world today.

Remembering Roadside America: Preserving the Recent Past as Landscape and Place

by John A. Jakle(Kindle Edition)

5 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	7009 KB
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Print length	:	312 pages

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The Significance of Landscape and Place

Preservation of the recent past goes beyond preserving buildings alone. Landscape and place play a significant role in capturing the essence of the era. Whether it's a mid-century modern home nestled in a lush garden or a unique suburban streetscape, the surroundings contribute to the historical context and experience.

These landscapes and places are not just physical structures; they encapsulate the memories, culture, and values of a particular time. Preserving them ensures that future generations can appreciate and learn about the past in a holistic manner.

Challenges in Preserving the Recent Past

Preserving the recent past poses its own unique sets of challenges. Unlike older buildings, many recent past sites do not have formal preservation protections. Moreover, public perception of the recent past can often be negative due to the unfamiliarity with the architectural styles and the relatively recent time period.

Financial challenges can also hinder preservation efforts. The recent past sites may not qualify for traditional restoration grants or funding, which means innovative approaches are required to secure resources effectively.

Strategies for Successful Preservation

Preservation of the recent past requires a multi-faceted approach that involves collaboration between multiple stakeholders. Here are a few strategies that can contribute to successful preservation:

1. Raise Awareness and Foster Appreciation

Increasing public awareness and appreciation for the recent past is crucial for its preservation. Educating the public about the historical significance and architectural styles of the era can help generate support and interest in preserving these sites.

2. Form Preservation Advocacy Groups

Creating advocacy groups focused on preserving the recent past can amplify voices and create a unified front. By bringing together experts, enthusiasts, and community members, these groups can work towards providing a collective voice for preservation efforts.

3. Develop Innovative Funding Models

As traditional funding sources may not be readily available for preserving the recent past, exploring innovative funding models such as public-private partnerships, crowdfunded campaigns, and grants specifically targeted for modernist preservation can help finance preservation projects.

4. Engage with Local Governments

Collaborating with local governments to secure official recognition and protection for significant recent past sites can be a game-changer. This recognition can open doors for potential funding sources and legal protections that encourage preservation efforts.

5. Document and Share Stories

Preservation efforts should go beyond physical restoration. Documenting the stories associated with the recent past sites and sharing them with the public through various mediums like oral histories, exhibitions, and online platforms can help create a deeper understanding and appreciation for these places.

The Benefits of Preserving the Recent Past

Preserving the recent past has numerous benefits for our society and future generations:

1. Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Preserving the recent past as landscape and place allows us to hold onto our cultural heritage. It ensures that the stories and values embedded within these sites are not lost, and future generations have the opportunity to learn and be inspired.

2. Architectural Appreciation

By preserving the recent past, we can foster a greater appreciation for the architectural styles and trends that emerged during that time. This can inspire new architects and designers to draw from the past and create innovative future designs.

3. Sustainable Development

Adapting and reusing recent past sites can contribute to sustainable development. Instead of demolishing and constructing anew, preservation allows for the revitalization of existing structures, reducing waste, and environmental impact.

4. Economic and Tourism Opportunities

Preserved recent past sites can serve as unique tourist destinations. They attract heritage tourism, contributing to local economies and creating job opportunities in the hospitality and tourism sectors.

Preserving the recent past as landscape and place is crucial for understanding our cultural heritage and shaping our future. It requires collaborative efforts, innovative funding models, and raising awareness about the significance of these sites. By preserving the recent past, we embrace our history and ensure a rich legacy for future generations.

Remembering Roadside America: Preserving the Recent Past as Landscape and Place

by John A. Jakle(Kindle Edition)

5 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	7009 KB
Text-to-Speech	:	Enabled
Screen Reader	:	Supported
Enhanced typesetting	:	Enabled
Print length	:	312 pages

FREE

The use of cars and trucks over the past century has remade American geography—pushing big cities ever outward toward suburbanization, spurring the growth of some small towns while hastening the decline of others, and spawning a new kind of commercial landscape marked by gas stations, drive-in restaurants, motels, tourist attractions, and countless other retail entities that express our national love affair with the open road. By its very nature, this landscape is ever changing, indeed ephemeral. What is new quickly becomes old and is soon forgotten.

            In this absorbing book, John Jakle and Keith Sculle ponder how “Roadside America” might be remembered, especially since so little physical evidence of its earliest years survives. In straightforward and lively prose, supplemented by copious illustrations—historic and modern photographs, advertising postcards, cartoons, roadmaps—they survey the ways in which automobility has transformed life in the United States. Asking how we might best commemorate and preserve this part of our past—which has been so vital economically and politically, so significant to the cultural aspirations of ordinary Americans, yet so often ignored by scholars who dismiss it as kitsch—they propose the development of an actual outdoor museum that would treat seriously the themes of our roadside history.

            Certainly, museums have been created for frontier pioneering, the rise of commercial agriculture, and the coming of water- and steam-powered industrialization and transportation, especially the railroad. Is now not the time, the authors ask, for a museum forcefully exploring the automobile’s emergence and the changes it has brought to place and landscape? Such a museum need not deny the nostalgic appeal of roadsides past, but if done properly, it could also tell us much about what the authors describe as “the most important kind of place yet devised in the American experience.”

John A. Jakle is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Keith A. Sculle is the former head of research and education at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. They have coauthored such books as America’s Main Street Hotels: Transiency and Community in the Early Automobile Age; Motoring: The Highway Experience in America; Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age; and The Gas Station in America.