In April, we hosted a virtual Roundtable to discuss Leslie Kern’s book Gentrification is Inevitable and Other Lies. For anyone who missed the conversation, we wanted to share a few key resources mentioned during the Zoom.

This panel used the iconic Erie Canal as a starting point for a conversation about how organizations can be better about sharing complicated histories, touching on issues related to environmental justice, urban renewal, disinvestment, segregation, and displacement. There is no single narrative about any history or historic place — the realities are often complicated, messy, and worth spending time thinking critically about. History is constantly being written and rewritten and we are all active participants in that process. The panelists also talked about implementation, how we take steps to truly tell a more complete story through our preservation work.

In thinking about how to build a more sustainable future, the preservation of our historic buildings needs to be prioritized. But when buildings can't be saved, there is still room for preservation to play a role. Deconstruction and architectural salvage allows heritage building materials to be saved and repurposed, diverting material from the landfill and creating a circular economy in the process. As much as we might want to save all the old buildings, it is inevitable that we will lost some. The question is how those buildings will come down.

Bringing contemporary artists into historic spaces drives dialogue and helps bring the past into the present. In this webinar, our panelists highlight how public art and preservation can work together, from public monuments to historic house museums.

Presented in partnership with the Tenement Museum, this webinar explored the intersection of social justice and preservation. How can the act of preserving and stewarding a building tie directly into a broader social justice mission? We wanted to explore the idea that preserving, restoring, rehabilitating, and stewarding a physical place can be integral to social justice work. In this conversation, we dig into how different kinds of organizations can incorporate preservation practices, without necessarily being a “preservation” organization.

The effort to save the Pyrrhus Concer Homestead demonstrates how interdisciplinary coalition-building can support historic preservation efforts, centered around issues of equity and social justice.

In this webinar, panelists representing successful preservation trades training programs share their best practices, program specifics, and talk about the perennial need for these kinds of opportunities.