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Wood is the primary structural building material of Chinese imperial architecture. This thesis argues that there are practical and symbolic reasons why wood was chosen instead of stone for politically and ritually important structures. Stone is connected to immortality and death so for buildings that must endure through time, masonry was the preferred building material for funerary contexts. Wood represents life and regrowth and was thus the preferred material for living structures. However, wood is vulnerable and such buildings degraded over time, so they had to be habitually rebuilt. This thesis then seeks to explore the ways in which this practice of rebuilding works within modern theories of architectural authenticity and modern conservation methods. It will argue that Imperial Chinese architecture does work within certain types of architectural authenticity and conservation methods.

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A number of books and articles have been written on the social movement to reimagine Southern California’s past in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While many of the pageants, parades, and public displays that defined this regional movement now reside in the pages of history, some architectural examples from this period are still visible today. In many cities, these examples are scattered throughout the community; while in others like Santa Barbara, they represent the centerpiece of the city’s architectural distinctiveness. Santa Barbara’s architecture challenges urban scholars to successfully garner an accurate sense of the past. More importantly, such historic spaces divert attention away from the social efforts that led to their inception. This thesis charts the history of Santa Barbara’s architectural reinvention and how the stylistic proliferation influenced the way various generations would think about the city’s past. The renaissance in a uniform Spanish style not only inspired local beautification efforts but also historic preservation, which ultimately resulted in the creation of the El Pueblo Viejo Landmark District in 1960. Additionally, this narrative critically examines the area’s history prior to the district’s establishment to show how economic profitability guided city planning, beautification, tourism, and preservation toward the ultimate solidification of the town’s Spanish image.

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The foundation of this research is the assembly and analysis of a corpus of over 500 images of Oxford produced between 1191 and 1759, affirming Joseph Skelton's claim that "Perhaps no place in England can boast such a succession of delineations of itself, from an early period, as Oxford". Structured analysis at an individual level permits outstanding questions on attribution and authorship to be addressed. At an aggregate level, several conclusions can be drawn. Oxford's persistent iconic self-image - its walls, spires and towers - was already established by 1191. The flood of images appearing from 1675 was not the result of the antiquarian or any other movement, but the serendipitous presence in Oxford of two men, John Fell and David Loggan. It is argued that Oxonia Illustrata was not simply a suite of images to accompany Anthony Wood's Historia et antiquitates, but conceived as an emulation of Dutch 'praise and description' books, with which Loggan would have been familiar. His successors as University Engravers - Michael Burghers, George Vertue and John Green - also made notable contributions. From the early 1700s, many prints were designed to seek funding or approval for building projects, or to celebrate completion. Rare early states of such prints can provide information on the development of designs supplementing better known original architectural drawings. Only after 1690, with Loggan's Cantabrigia Illustrata, and 1720, with Strype's edition of Stow's Survey of London, did any other British city begin to compete with Oxford as to the quality and quantity of prints produced. From the 1750s, the rather severe style of Loggan and his immediate successors began to be replaced by the more naturalistic style adopted by John Donowell, presaging the advent of the Picturesque. This corpus of images can supplement textual resources in supporting more general historical research.

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What does historic preservation mean in a historic downtown with a long-standing immigrant population? With 90% of the business owners in the historic downtown identifying as Latino, Woodburn, Oregon presents the convergence of historic preservation advocates and Latino business owners. Some stakeholders view historic preservation as maintenance to preserve what exists, while some view preservation as restoring a building to its build date aesthetics. This thesis addresses what the field of preservation and the stakeholders in Woodburn value and how that causes conflicts when dealing with preservation efforts. The main method employed for study in this thesis was collection of qualitative data through interviewing historic preservation advocates, city officials, and Latino business representatives. By understanding Woodburn as an example of a “new” vernacular form, the analysis explores how the community of Woodburn can negotiate its regional dynamics to create a local distinctiveness, which includes a many-layered historical narrative.

By the 1970s the international markets had begun to change and the region’s industries were becoming less competitive. Mines began to close. Factories that had operated night and day fell silent. Their gates closed and they became “brownfield” sites in need of restoration. For the over past 20 years, city planners regenerated these derelict industrial lands in different ways especially focus on renaturalizing them. Less attention is being paid to them as active and strategic roles in contemporary affairs. Today, people’s thinking about this issue demands more the character of sentimental stimulus- for either the re-creation or preservation of past industrial sites- than of visionary or ambitious reprogrammed landscape projects. A combination of nostalgia and consumerism drives this desire while suppressing ambitions to experience and invent.