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| Mexico City historic district Mexico City, Mexico cuanhtemoc.tv |
About a few months ago, blogger came across an interesting interview with Pablo Lazo, the head of Latin American masterplanning and urban design practices for Arup in the Americas. Historic preservation and urban revitalization is something that does not get any attention in the media, which is all too focused on scandal and crime in the region. However, Latin America cities are rich with buildings, streets, and landmarks that span history from the pre-Columbian era and the present. Unfortunately, in the late twentieth century, urban centers fell out of fashion as cities began sprawl leading to a sad state of disinvestment and decay. Nevertheless, there is good news. Currently, many governments are reinvesting heavily in their urban cores.
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| Narrow colonial street in downtown Lima, Peru dwell.com |
Many cities in Latin America have a city center that has been in decay for years, for many different reasons. And often when there's a change in government there's suddenly the appetite to do something about it. In Barranquilla, Colombia, the city government, with the support of the federal government, has put a plan together. This follows the path of other cities in the region such as Mexico City and Lima, Peru.
Regarding the commonalities in preservation and urban revitalization efforts throughout the region, Mr. Lazo responded:
The first place of the where they typically focus is the historic core, which has great cultural value and existing infrastructure that the up-front investment can leverage. Governments also often see these areas as having a huge potential to bring external investment and new jobs.
Urban revitalization plans are becoming more and more economically driven...We need to be aware that there is always a tension between inserting a new economy into a particular piece of the city and preserving the activity-and residents-that are already there. Sometimes there is a perception that these areas have no economic structure...when in reality the existing system is working quite well, and only needs specific adjustments to make it better.
Another commonality is that the buildings' external appearance is usually what first captures the attention of policymakers...They typically say "We must do something about these beautiful buildings that have been abandoned and will be lost forever if we don't save them."
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| Barranquilla, Colombia south-america-travel.info |
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| Street scene in Buenos Aires, Argentina commons.wikimedia.org |
But more and more we're finding that because the public sector does not have the money to upgrade all these buildings, they need to accept that the area's appearance will change somewhat. There's often a tension between the need to adapt new uses, new companies, and the fear of compromising the historic value.
Blogger wonders if Latin American municipalities have any sort of historic preservation ordinances. Mr. Lazo comments, ...government planners have to decide what is the right level of heritage protection for the situation and what is just going to destroy your economic case for revitalization. Sounds a little too subjective but then again, historic preservation can be very subjective by nature. In Mr. Lazo's opinion, the above stated are the commonalities that he has observed throughout Latin America. However, he does acknowledge that cities differ on their understanding of what protecting cultural heritage means. He cites the broad range of understanding cultural protection as the main challenge.
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| Museum of Betrayal and Tiradentes Ouro Preto, Brazil en.wikipedia.org |
Mr. Lazo begins with an example of Paraty in the state of Rio and Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais, which are under the protection of the World Heritage Organization. He says,
The revitalization plans in these cities have a lot of similar concerns. But in Santo,where the historic center is not part of the UN program, the revitalization plan...had more freedom to debate things like economic benefits and incentives, changes in land uses, increases in building density...The other example I could give is in Barranquilla, in Colombia...The city isn't part of the UN program, but national standards are quite strict....The historic preservation plan for the center had to be in a very precise urban framework document in order to establish the definitions, the objectives, the outcomes...
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| Colonial building in Caracas, Venezuela traveltips.usatoday.com |
Pablo Lazo moves onto the example o Recife, in northwest Brazil noting, ...It's not part of the UN program but it has a lot of policies protect the building heritage, because it is a very important city in terms of Brazil's history. But when the government started drafting the revitalization program, it was very clear that in order to bring new economic benefits and new activities to the center...the only way to do it was was to completely ignore...these protection and building conservation rules....
Mr. Lazo also cites Panama City, also not part of the WHO cultural heritage protection program stating, ...the historic core transformation started with a joint venture with the private sector aiming to put new infrastructure in place before any project came up...So they invested in a lot first in the infrastructure, put all new lights in the underground, new telecommunications and fiber optics. This state-of-the-art urban infrastructure has now created a huge economic positive impact.
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| Panama City historic district Panama City, Panama 4gress.com |
Mr. Lazo responded by agreeing, to extent, ...that younger generations are interested in moving into city cores because they offer conditions that more attractive than those on the periphery. One is the close interaction with other people; all these historic areas are in the center of cities, and urban structures...You have, you know, the small streets, squares, that promote close interactions with people. These are places for people and not for cars...
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| Plaza de la Cultura San Jose, Costa Rica en.wikipedia.org |
Mr. Lazo acknowledged that socioeconomic factors are among the top three challenges in the design process. He also acknowledged that gentrification does rear its artisanal head when new infrastructure is introduced to parts of cities that have been abandoned and/or neglected. This results in the displacement of of long-term low- to moderate income residents, something Mr. Lazo seemed to note with in a matter-of-fact manner. Mr. Lazo said.
When developing a plan, you have to think hard about whether you need to displace people because of a particular reason. If you don't want to displace people, you need to develop a strategy for better integrating them into the new economy that is going to come to these areas because your are going to create employment opportunities, new jobs, for these communities.
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| The Paris-London neighborhood in Santiago de Chile digitaljournal.com |
As you said, the people that cities are trying to attract to historic centers, people of higher socioeconomic status, want to feel safe. But as part of the plan, you have to do a lot of stakeholder engagement to define the level of diversity you want...This eventually improves the security in those areas.
He continues with a brief discussion on why foreign companies and high-end retail and commercial businesses prefer the suburbs:
At the same time as cities regenerate historic cores, some also create clusters in other parts of the city for industries and companies that do prefer an isolated, closed community. Generally these are industries or companies that, apart from the need to have a secure environment, need large areas and buildings that urban historic cores cannot offer.
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| Morelia, Mexico City, Mexico mexicocolonialcities.com |
Mr. Lazo was quick to point out Mexico City, Mexico because ...they have managed to maintain a lot of the existing population that used to be living in very derelict situations and conditions. He cited the government's initiatives to integrate long-term residents into new employment structures which resulted in their long-term retention in the neighborhood. He sounded enthusiastic over the way the plan had the ability to change the way people moved about the historic core: ...Now there are more pedestrian-friendly areas and streets. This has recovered space for people-and that's what urban historic cores are for.
The interview with Pablo Lazo provided fascinating insight into the strategies used in Latin America to address historic preservation and urban revitalization. Blogger would love to read more about this subject and hopes that it will get more attention then all the negative stories about the region. Perhaps it is a good thing that all these initiatives are staying under the radar because it allows the diversity of approach to operate freely. This can result in historic preservation and urban revitalization programs that tailored to each country, at the macro- and micro-level. After all, historic preservation is all about your community.
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