Historic Preservation & Heritage Protection
Can and should we protect world heritage? at what cost?
Focus
We investigate historic preservation and the policies and practices that support it. Heritage preservation statutes have grown highly contentious in recent decades, with conflicting data regarding their potential to enable broad-scale sustainable development. Thus, research on heritage regulations is a study of key processes and phenomena that have substantial repercussions for cities, both positive (e.g., urban renewal) and negative (e.g., severe conflicts among many stakeholders).
Lab members on Heritage Protection
The restrictions and requirements imposed by historic preservation regulations might impose additional costs, most notably by prohibiting the demolition of designated buildings and thus decreasing property-development opportunities
A critical (regressive) view contends that preservation is likely to entail many socially regressive outcomes
Although urban form and design issues are quite dominant, other non-physical considerations shape the dynamics of conflicts, practices, and policies surrounding heritage protection