Commercial strips are ubiquitous elements of the American landscape. They offer important opportunities for inquiry into the ways in which cities are adapted, preserved, and redeveloped over time. This research examines the dynamics of reinvestment along central city commercial strips in Austin, Texas. Research was aimed at understanding the relationship between reinvestment in existing commercial buildings and larger processes of redevelopment and change along commercial strips undergoing transition. Case study commercial strips were selected that had been established in the early to mid-twentieth century and that had experienced decline and subsequent reinvestment. Historic patterns of land use, transportation, and economic trends are described and related to the relatively recent growth of concentrations of local businesses and reinvestment activity along case study commercial strips. “Core samples” of preservation and adaptive reuse were examined using spatial data, building surveys, historical data, and interviews with associated actors. Additional interviews were conducted with actors who have initiated, influenced, and regulated reinvestment, including business and property owners, developers, neighborhood activists, a media correspondent, city officials, among others. This research details the private, public, and community-based actors who shape the character of reinvestment; the influx of new businesses and retention of iconic businesses; and conflicts and negotiations at the edges of commercial and residential districts and between public and private sectors. The dissertation relates observations along Austin’s commercial strips to four themes identified in the literature and their associated views of improvement: 1. commercial strips as “wicked problems” of land use and transportation; 2. commercial strips as cultural landscapes and roadside heritage; 3. commercial strips as concentrations of commercial properties with opportunities for sustainability and retrofitting of commercial properties; and 4. commercial strips as contested arenas of gentrification. This research highlights the importance of understanding the durability of existing land development patterns and of incorporating an understanding of the continued and adaptive use of buildings and urban fabric in land use planning. It presents emerging opportunities for preservation practice beyond standard practices of survey and landmarking. It illustrates the many ways in which actors have agency, or “choreograph” change individually and collectively, in responding to opportunities and challenges presented in the context of social and economic change. / text

The two fields of historic preservation and sustainable design include many similar values concerning conservation, yet produce buildings that ultimately look and perform differently. Historic preservation relies on the maintenance of traditional materials to ensure that historic buildings are preserved for future generations. Sustainable design typically works with new construction to create buildings that have little negative impact on the environment. The similarities yet separateness that exist between historic preservation and sustainable design provide a compelling platform to ask how we can combine the two fields within one building project. The combination of these two felds is currently being explored in post-Katrina New Orleans, and I am asking how we can combine historic preservation with aspects of sustainable design to create a sustainable preservation hybrid, or fusion between technological aspects of “green” design with traditional methods of preservation, that will allow historic buildings to maintain their integrity and achieve the values of sustainability. New Orleans provides a great opportunity to examine this question due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing efforts to rebuild the city. One specific area of New Orleans, the historic district of Holy Cross, plays home to two key organizations involved in the rebuilding: the Preservation Resource Center, which preserves the existing historic housing stock, and Global Green, which builds new, sustainable design projects. These two organizations work right down the street from one another, yet have yet to combine their building methods or work together on a shared project. This relationship between Global Green/sustainable design and the Preservation Resource Center/historic preservation provides a good opportunity to examine how elements of new sustainable design can be combined with the traditional methods of preservation in order to achieve a sustainable preservation hybrid. I examine the creation of a sustainable preservation hybrid by conducting a literature review, interviews and site visits, and energy modeling. The literature review reveals that preservationists and architects involved with sustainable design like the idea of creating a hybrid, but still lack a thorough understanding of each other’s tacit values. The interviews reveal how the organizations working in Holy Cross also embrace the idea of a sustainable preservation hybrid, yet remain somewhat lost as to how to actually create such a building. The energy modeling then demonstrates which combination of “green” materials from sustainable design and “traditional” materials from historic preservation combine to create a building that achieves both the values of sustainable design and historic preservation. Whether or not we can combine preservation and sustainable design to make a hybrid poses an original and relevant question in the context of post-Katrina New Orleans and elsewhere. Since we are currently facing an energy crisis, the conclusions as to how we can combine these two fields prove how a single, historic building can simultaneously conserve both environmental and historic resources. / text

This historic preservation report focuses on the Gaines-Oliphint house in Sabine County, Texas. The first part of the report establishes the geographic and historic context of the home. Next, the report concentrates on establishing significance of the Gaines- Oliphint house based on the National Register’s criteria through both an association with a significant person in history and architectural characteristics representative of a particular time and style. Finally, the report outlines a preliminary conditions assessment of the Gaines-Oliphint house followed by recommendations for stabilization, preservation and restoration of the home. / text

 With the increasing recognition of the importance of heritage conservation, it would not be adequate merely to control archaeological discoveries or to preserve items of historical interest. In this society where resources are scarce, rules have to be made for enabling the selection of what to keep and what not to, and if to be kept, how the heritage resources could be sufficiently protected. Under the present system, for instance, graded buildings afforded no legal protection save for Grade 1 buildings which may be qualified and ready to be declared as “monuments”. Also, there is no system for appeal if the building is graded against the owner’s will. Through the years, the Ordinance had not been reviewed to meet with the social development and has become obsolete and out-of-date. It is no longer able to give sufficient legal protection to the heritage conservation in Hong Kong. Following the Queen’s Pier incident and the Court of First Instance decision which will be discussed in details, the need for a more proper and comprehensive heritage protection legislation becomes more intense and imminent. One may recall that the Chief Executive had announced a range of initiatives on heritage conservation in the 2007-2008 Policy Address which was delivered on 10th October 2007. Yet, it is submitted that a policy initiative no matter how ambitious cannot be achieved without the foundation of a concrete legal framework. Objective standard and guidelines have to be established for future precedent. It is only by then certainty and sustainability on conservation can be achieved. The issues that we are going to discuss in this article is, by examining the development of heritage protection law of Hong Kong, whether Hong Kong, being part of China and a State Parties which have adhered to the World Heritage Convention, has afforded and taken sufficient legal measures in securing our cultural heritage. The recent judgment of the Court of First Instance has thrown light to the fact that our heritage legislation, namely the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance is inadequate to safeguard some of the historically significant heritage in Hong Kong. There are of course counter-argument that conservation is a hindrance to urban development and possible impingement of private property right. In this dissertation, we will examine, from a legal point of view, how the legal framework of our system, insofar as heritage conservation is concerned, can be improved and/or modified or even advanced. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

A street sign is a kind of traffic sign displayed along the street to show the street name so that both pedestrians and drivers can know where they are. It is believed to be originated from the massive pillar or milestone built by the Romans in the ancient time. In ancient China, sometimes at the entrance of the main path in a village or town would have a small gateway showing the path name, bearing the function of the street sign. Nowadays, street signs with different designs and materials can be seen everywhere. Hong Kong was originally a small fishing village in South China for many years with paths connecting different areas. Since 1842, Hong Kong was officially become a British colony. The first formal street built on the colonial land was Hollywood Road and street signs of modern meaning appeared since the mid 19th century. Street signs of different designs for a long time are functioning as a mark of a place, but they are also the living witnesses of history. However, when we review the present heritage conservation policies and works done by the government, the focus of conservation falls mainly on large-scale artefacts and small relics have always been neglected. Street signs, although small in size and changing from time to time, can definitely be regarded as the important heritage of the past and present Hong Kong. The key issue addressed by this dissertation is that street signs are not only a mark of a place, but also have significant heritage value which can be regarded as one of the important urban heritage in Hong Kong’s streetscape as different street signs can reflect the historical development and social-political transformation of Hong Kong in the past years in terms of designs, materials, locations, mounting methods and naming system. This dissertation will focus on the street signs at Pei Ho Street in Sham Shui Po as a case study. There is a great variety of different kinds of street signs in the street which are worth for further research and analysis in both tangible and intangible manners. The purpose is to reveal the significance of my street sign study in the area of heritage conservation, and to show the distribution of different street signs in Pei Ho Street and their characteristics, so as to set up a template for analysing other street signs in Hong Kong and establish their significance in the local history for future study. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

At a time when the world is becoming more monotonous under the effect of globalization, diversity has become precious. To retain the different colours of culture, cultural heritage conservation has been widely practiced in many countries. Starting from the 1970s, international conservation organizations have been advocating for area-based conservation. They believe that the goal of heritage conservation, which includes the conservation of both tangible and intangible assets, can be better achieved by conserving areas at an urban scale. In order to facilitate area-based conservation, many countries have integrated conservation with town planning. In Hong Kong, heritage conservation does not protect areas at an urban scale. It only serves an advisory function to town planning and fails to protect the landscape around historic buildings/sites. Under the fast pace of development, this building-based conservation approach has created a fragmented cityscape of Hong Kong as bits and bobs of historic structures are surrounded by incompatible features such as parking garage, flyovers, highways and skyscrapers. This ruins the spirit of the place, decreases the heritage value of the site and consequently diminishes the character of the city. This study attempts to improve heritage conservation in Hong Kong by finding out the feasibility of setting up conservation areas in the city. It explores the importance of heritage conservation, the significance of area-based conservation, and the success factors for setting conservation areas in Singapore, which has shown successful in preserving historic districts and areas of special character by area-based conservation. By reviewing Hong Kong‟s current practice in heritage conservation and town planning against these success factors, several recommendations are conducted at the end. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

As a contribution to econometric research on the role of architectural heritage, this dissertation evaluates non-aggregate data for a total of 2142 designated National Priority Protected Sites (NPPS) in China using hedonic model and ordered probit model. Attempting to verify economic costs of conserving architectural heritage sites in China, the objectives of the dissertation are to find out the grading system of NPPS; to compare the monetary value and non-monetary value methods on architectural heritage conservation; to identify the current criteria of national heritage conservation maintenance funding (NHCMF) allocation for the NPPS; and to select and evaluate the key factors of NHCMF allocation for the NPPS. The research question of this dissertation is: “what are the decision criteria of NHCMF allocation in China?”. The dissertation conceives of one general hypothesis and 17 empirical hypotheses. The general hypothesis is based on the maintenance funding and grading system of each conservation project. The empirical hypotheses are generated from possible determined factors of NHCMF allocation, theories of sustainable development, economic value and heritage value. Based on the real market information, 7 factors have been identified as the determined factors of NHCMF allocation of NPPS. They are “average household income”, “annual economic benefit”, “average personal salary”, “population”, “ticket”, “types modern building” and “types revolutionary sites”. Of these 7 factors, on the one hand, “average household income”, “annual economic benefit”, “population”, “entry ticket fee” and “types (revolutionary sites)” have positive relationship with the maintenance cost. The positive relationship result implies that the revolutionary sites locate in economic developed area with more population and higher entry ticket fee are more likely to get more maintenance funding. On the other hand, “average personal salary” and “types (modern buildings)” have negative relationship with maintenance funding. The negative relationship result reflects that modern buildings of NPPS with higher average personal salary are less likely getting more maintenance funding. Based on the hypothetical market data, 4 factors have been identified as the determined factors of NHCMF allocation of NPPS. The factors of “population and “annual economic benefit” have the same relationship with monetary market data. The “maintenance funding” and “original usage” have negative relationship with grading system. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

There are numerous ways in which cultural heritage can be preserved, such as: physical museums, virtual museums, tours of historic homes, and community meetings. For this project, I participated in and observed heritage preservation activities in two very different communities--- Sulphur Springs and Seminole Heights in Tampa, Florida. My internship appointment was with OSHNA (Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association) under the direction of Dr. Steve Gluckman. My primary focus was assisting heritage preservation committee members in each of the two communities with heritage preservation projects specific to their community needs and interests. One project is the development of a heritage center (physical and/or virtual) that will be used to exhibit the community's cultural and material artifacts. The goal of the heritage center is to educate residents (especially the younger generation and newcomers) about current cultural traditions, achievements, and struggles of residents over time while instilling a sense of identity and belonging in residents by incorporating a diversity of perspectives in the preservation and presentation of the community's history. I was specifically involved in oral history collection; archival data collection and analysis (such as census data and city directory data); and National historic landmark designation analysis and preparation. The internship began in May 2007 and ended in August 2007.

The growing sustainable design movement in the United States focuses almost exclusively on the construction of new buildings, largely ignoring the existing and historic building stock that constitutes the majority of our built environment. Historic preservation, a discipline that deals exclusively with the existing building stock and puts an emphasis on long-term management of the built environment, would seem to be an ideal partner for the sustainable design movement as it begins to address existing buildings. The practice and goals of the two fields, however, are currently perceived to be in opposition to one another by the building community and the general public. This thesis argues that sustainable design and historic preservation represent two unique and distinctive building subcultures – distinct subsets of the larger building culture of which they are a part, and that the opposition between the two disciplines stems from not only their historically distinct discourses, but also from cultural and ideological conflicts between the two fields. Different languages, code typologies, cultural identities, and conflicting attitudes toward the use of technology in contemporary building practice all stand as barriers to a significant partnership between the two disciplines. This thesis explores the cultures of sustainable design and of historic preservation in order to provide a view for practitioners in both fields into the culture of the other, and ultimately proposes a path towards developing shared cultural understandings by placing a new emphasis in both fields on social sustainability. / text

This dissertation recovers the political histories of New England's historic graveyards. From their early rejection of English burial practices to their modern incarnation as tourist attractions, New England's historic graveyards have been public forums for political posturing and debate. Far from the tranquil sanctuaries of later imagination, burying grounds of the colonial era were places where both the powerful and the relatively powerless could make shows of their strengths and air their grievances.