Saving Our Future by Building on Our Past
Welcome to the “Preservation of Modern Buildings” edition of AIArchitect
As the 35-year-old AIA headquarters building—brilliantly designed by The Architects Collaborative as part of a campus that embraces the historic Octagon House—embarks on its own journey of restoration, the enormity has hit home for the Institute of society-wide issues that we now see are the constant companions to restoration. This edition reflects on many of these issues, as they in turn fittingly reflect the three strategic initiatives of the Institute today: sustainability, diversity, and integrated practice.

Preserving Modern Architecture in the Postmodern World
The Modern movement in architecture produced a body of work of a scale and impact unprecedented in the history of humankind. Modern architecture was the physical manifestation of a broad social and philosophical movement that forever changed the course of human history, writes David N. Fixler, AIA, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott. At its best, the Modern movement captured a spirit of progress, openness, and an uplifting of the human condition, offering to convert lofty civic ideals into physical reality. These ideas not only reflected the sweeping social and cultural aspirations of the day, but were also a manifestation of a response to the Enlightenment promise of progress that continues to resonate around the world. It is therefore imperative, Fixler says, that we continue to take into account the context and essence of this generative philosophy as we formulate preservation strategies, so that they may yield interventions that both reveal and clarify the meaning of the heritage of the Modern movement.

Preserving Modern Architecture: What, Why, Where, and How?
Excerpted from Preservation of Modern Architecture, a new book by Theodore H.M. Prudon, FAIA, to be released this Spring, this article tells us that the basic process for determining what Modern buildings to preserve is similar to the one used for more traditional buildings (although the pertinent criteria are more complex). One fundamental difference, however, Prudon says, is that selections for preservation can be made ahead of time: the most important and significant properties can be identified now. As best as possible, the Modern building stock can then be protected, rather than waiting until time and change diminish it so that choices about what to preserve must be made from what remains.

Modern Buildings: A More Nuanced Notion of Worth
Today, historic preservation in the U.S. is committed to representing the fullness of settled history and to presenting the many national narratives that make up the greater whole of American history. However, this has not always been the case, and the development of this wider appreciation of the diversity of narratives within American life has required the historic preservation movement to alter its definition of history and the ways in which built structures are seen to contain historical value. Ultimately, the movement has been able to redefine the types of structures it considers historic, growing from Mount Vernon to Modernism, writes Seth Tinkham, who just finished his Master's thesis at the University of Heidelberg on the preservation of Modernist, particularly Brutalist, structures. He uses Boston City Hall as a case study, arguing that Modern architecture is threatened with removal from the built landscape by a general public which has conflated beautiful objects with history.