This thesis examines the past, present, and potential future of the practice of
Heritage Conservation. Beginning with ancient Roman Architect, Vitruvius, this study
establishes a vocabulary for the ideals of preservation practice. Utilitas and venustas, as
two of the defining features of good architecture, are also key features to consider in the
stewardship of a historic building in active use. The data set used in this evaluation
comes from a symposium given in November 2004 by the Association for Preservation
Technology International (APT), the United States General Services Administration
(GSA), and the United States National Park Service (NPS). Historical background is
presented to give a context for the symposium, which includes foundations, policy, and
practice in the United States. The Venice Charter, National Historic Preservation Act,
NPS, and GSA have been chosen for the Literature Review to provide this background.
With utilitas and venustas as additional criteria for evaluation, the symposium case
studies were mined for examples of practice that could be used to make suggestions for
the future. Based on these examples and the possibilities for improving practice, this
study concludes that the United States should draft a new document outlining an updated philosophy and policy for preservation. Future research would serve to develop
refinements of existing frameworks and to create a new standard for "best practice".
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4857 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Reich, Alene Wilmoth |
| Contributors | Woodcock, David |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 1352329 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
Page generated in 0.0026 seconds