cities -- urbanity -- design
Preservation, Heritage, and Memory
How do we choose what to save and what to throw away? What do we choose to remember, and how do we choose to forget? Preservation, Conservation, Heritage, and other aspects of memory-making constitute a powerful arena of conflict for citizens, planners, architects, designers, and policy makers. Debates over what to save, how to save it, and how to interpret what we save involve fundamental questions of culture, memory, and the public good. Why do we preserve buildings and things? How do we determine what elements are significant? Who should sit at the table where such decisions are made? How do our idiosyncratic personal memories connect to broader collective memory? These questions drive a lot of my interest in urban policy, planning, and built environments, informing projects that are not always about preservation as an instrumental practice, but rather about cities, places, and artifacts as sites for the construction of collective memory.
Related teaching
"Abandoned Buildings and Vacant Lots as a Heritage of Racial Capitalism in Post-Industrial Cities." Lecture for the Cities Programme, London School of Economics., Sept 2021.
"Geometries of Corn and Blood." In Dominic Pettman, ed. Dispatches from the Institute of Incoherent Geography. (Pittsburgh and New York: Flugschriften, 2019).
"Colonial Archetypes and Heritage Conservation in East Africa." Paper presented at the World History Association Conference, San Juan, Jul 2019.
"The World in a Cup: Coffee, from Kitchen Table to World Stage." The Montreal Review. January 2015.
Building Typology Performance Study. New York site supervisor for national study undertaken by the Preservation Green Lab and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, September 2011 - May 2012.
"Infill Housing: A Proposal for Soulard." Report produced for the Landmarks Association, Youth Education and Health, Inc., and the City of St. Louis Urban Design Agency. August 2006. Author.
"Pasts into Futures: Historic Preservation and Modern City Design." Lecture delivered at the College of Architecture, University of Texas-Austin, Feb 2006.
"Historic Preservation, Urban Design, and the City of St. Louis Land Use Plan." Evaluation and report on the plan undertaken for the Landmarks Association. December 2004. Author.
"Brick by Brick." An exhibit on the history of the St. Louis brick industry, drawn from the Giles collection. Cupples House Museum and Institute , April 2004 - September 2004. Guest curator.