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| Aerial view of Tyson's Corner, Virginia blog.preservationleadershipforum.org |
Hello Everyone:
Today we are moving off the subject of income inequality and onto historic preservation and suburbia. These words, used in the same sentence, may sound incongruous but as Elaine Stiles reports in her post for the Preservation Leadership Forum, "Preservation and the New Suburban Reality," historic preservation may be the new reality of suburbia. The 2000 Census revealed that the United States was officially a suburban nation, with the majority of Americans living in suburban areas. This revelation has urbanists taking a fresh look at the urban edge and what they are finding contradicts many assumptions of what suburbs are, who lives, and why. Ms. Stiles writes, "The Brookings Institution has called the suburbs the locus of the new American reality, and as suburbs continue to age and remake themselves, they will become part of the growing new preservation reality." (Brookings Institution, 34, 2006) Thus, whether you are a preservationist or not, Ms. Stiles outlines the issues that we all need to know about understanding the past, the present, the future of suburbs, and how preservation can play within a diverse and changing landscape.
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| Fifties couple house hunting marketplace.org |
The suburbs, like urban areas, are organic entities. They are in a constant state of change as residents move in and out of houses. Ms. Stiles writes, "There are many reasons preservationists should pay more attention to the suburbs, not least of which is that all suburbs...are headed for what can only be termed as period of suburban renewal." Population growth and a shortage of developable land in denser locales will increasingly drive suburban development. Transformation will also occur as the suburbs approach the 70th and 100th milestone anniversaries, seeking infrastructural renewal. Suburban communities are aware of the environmental deficits that attend their land use and are pursing master plans that will centralize and even urbanize suburban developments. Most of the changes will occur in the older inner ring of suburbs, not in the exurban areas. The relative density of the inner core suburbs and their integration into existing infrastructure an transit lines will make them attractive to developers. According to Urban Land Institute CEO Patrick Phillips, "America's first-ring suburbs...could be the sweet spot for future growth." (Brookings Institution, ULI, 5-9, 2012)
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| Fifties backyard barbecue atacrossroads.com |
2. The suburbs are-and have always been-zones of diversity.
Historically, the suburbs have never be fonts of diversity. However, in the past fifteen years suburbia has become a more socioeconomically, racially, and ethnically diverse place, overriding the previous historic narrative. The suburbs have become opportunity zones for a broader swath of socioeconomic classes, creating: blue-collar suburbs, self-built suburbs, and ethnic-oriented suburbs along the traditional suburbs. Many suburbs were economic drivers in their own right. For example in Los Angeles and San Francisco, "suburban development followed industrial decentralization, office decentralization, and ultimately jobs." (Hise, 1997; Kruse and Sugrue, 2006; etc) Elaine Stiles uses the example of Levittown on Long Island, New York as a suburban development that was strategically placed near a major aircraft manufacturing plant. Perhaps the most startling research has been in racial diversity in suburbia. Racial covenants and segregation prevented many minorities from buying property in suburban areas. Eventually, political fragmentation and limited regulation on the urban fringes undermined the exclusive nature of suburbia and allowed for a more diverse demographic. In short, "North American suburbs were as socially and racially diverse as the cities they surrounded." (Wiese, 2004; Harris and Lewis, 262-92, 2001)
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| Suburban strip mall in Monterey Park, California Photography by Chris Cusson under Flickr-Creative Common blog.preservationleadershipfourm.org |
...the majority of population of all racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. now lives in the suburbs of major metropolitan regions. Major metropolitan suburban areas also house more than half of al foreign-born U.S, residents, many who maintain a transnational identity. Perhaps most striking, as of 2010, the majority of the nation's poor now live not in the urban centers, but in suburban districts. Other forms of diversity are also growing in the suburbs. Seventy percent of baby boomers live in suburbs and their status as the first suburban generation signals their likelihood to remain. (Brookings Institution, 33, 51,65, 77)
In short, the suburbs may seem superficially bland and boring but if one digs a little deeper, one finds that the suburbs are as much about "place" and "story" as the more bold faced places. Thus it is crucial to recognize their embedded diverse social and cultural values, often layered, within the contemporary context.
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| Cape Cod style house in Levittown, New York Photography by Sean_Marshall via Flickr under Creative Common blog.preservationleadershipfourm.org |
3. Like all older building, suburban building types and forms serve essential roles in social, cultural, and economic sustainability. (Yes, even strip malls.)
Some preservationists, building professionals, and urbanists dismiss the otherwise "banal, repetitive, and dysfunctional built environment" that has supported the assorted social and economic needs of generations of suburbanites. This attitude has often manifested itself through tried and true preservation practices of adaptive reuse. Ms. Stiles writes, "Suburban building types were designed to be flexible, working landscapes, adapting to the needs of shifting populations." No truer is this then in Levittown, Long Island, New York which retains only a handful of their original Cape Cod form. Succeeding generations of owners have remade their affordable, flexible small home in a myriad of way "to accommodate changing families and tastes." (Kelly, 1993) Conversely, "Bigger Boxes" are also part of the landscape, in particular the frequently derided strip mall, as centers for suburban entrepreneurship. The strip mall has historically been a magnet for new businesses and many minority-owned businesses thanks to low rents and flexible space. (Davis, 93-114, 1997; Benfield, 2010) Elaine Stiles cites the Silicon Valley "...where scholars have argued that the adaptability of its sea of inexpensive, common, and repetitive building types helped support exceptional innovation." (Crawford, Fall 2013) Ms. Stiles also reminds about what Jane Jacobs said about the usefulness old buildings.
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| Bernard Levey and family in front of Cape Cod original uic.edu |
Any discussions about the future of suburbia usually leads to a discourse on their biggest and most commonly acknowledged problem: environmental sustainability. Many a scholar are addressing the problem from a design point of view, "...pursuing increased residential densities, improved walkability and public transit access, and greater levels of land conservation." (Dunham-Jones and Williamson, 2009: Tachieva, 2010) While many preservationists, building professionals, and urbanists concur in principle with the goal of retrofit and repair strategics aimed at fixing suburbia, however, some of the proposal bear further examination from the preservation minded. For example, the current retrofit and repair strategies heavily emphasize the spatial and morphological over the social and cultural elements of a place. What is really needed in the analyses frequently draw from a specific set of professional values that present little connection with user values. Ms. Stiles writes, "Popular approached like the Sprawl Repair Manual are lacking the need analyses that might capture a broad demographic profile or preserve exist use patterns. More troubling, discussions of preservation in some key texts are either missing, or limited to natural resources." As preservationists acknowledge the "place-ness and social fabric of suburban districts, what will it mean to dramatically change or even erase them?" If we are to adequately deal with with the changes in the suburban landscape, we have devise a definition of sustainability that goes beyond environmental issues.
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| Children with their bicycles Suburb of Roseville, Minnesota pbs.org |
Too often, preservationists ignore the suburban landscape, dismissing it as not worth a second or third look. Yet, as the 2000 Census data indicates, suburbia is where half of America lives. The suburbs present a treasure trove of untapped opportunities to develop a set of more germane tools and standards for smart preservation in places that demonstrate diversity and constant change. The challenges of suburbia present preservationists with the fantastic prospect of more timely preservation policies and tools in order to worker with a broader range of people and places. How can existing policies and tools aid people preserve the layered suburban locales? Elaine Stiles writes, "We are also increasingly acknowledging that existing standards often fall short of embracing working, vernacular landscapes. Images of affluent, well-preserved suburbs aside, most suburbs were meant to be flexible, working landscapes, adapting to the needs of shifting populations." What can preservationists do? Ms. Stiles proposes reusing or preserving the layers but how do preservationists go about that? "What will it mean for historic areas when need to consider spatial uses values, and practices beyond those envisioned by a historic majority that no longer lives there?" (Lung-Amam, 220-241, 2014) Do established preservation practices subvert others's ability to shape or create meaning in their environment? Elaine Stiles asks some very important and open-ended questions that will no doubt shape the future of historic preservation, especially as the suburbs continue to age and come under consideration for landmark status.
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