Preservation of Modern Buildings in Cincinnati: An overview of the challenges, history and arguments to preserve modern buildings.

Although preservation is not a new concept and been practiced for centuries, designating historic landmarks, structures and buildings as historically significant and preserving them is a new phenomena, which brings us to a fairly straight forward question of what to preserve and what not to. The advent of new materials and advancement of construction technologies changed the style of building significantly from time to time, especially over the course of last two centuries. Although the basic construction materials like brick, wood, lime and stone are in use for centuries, the recent addition of concrete, steel and glass to that list completely overhauled the mode in which the buildings are being built. Taking into account the need, the scale and the pace of construction posed by rapid industrialization, the style of building took an unprecedented form of architecture starting in early twentieth century.

History of Preserving Modern Architecture

Preservation of modern architecture is unique in its own way and adds a whole different dimension of preserving old buildings. The vast difference in the materials of construction from the traditional ones, the complexity involving preservation and renovation adds to the diversification of preservation. It is not just the difficulties in preserving but the indifference towards the modernist buildings which is the major factor for the neglect. “For all the talk of technical difficulties, in reality it is the unpopularity of modernism that is often the greatest challenge for advocates of postwar architectural preservation” (While 2007, 649)

Unlike the previous movements for preservation, restoration and conservation of historically significant buildings, the movement of preserving the m...

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...he buildings, that are focus of current preservation efforts, are all equally pertinent.” (Prudon 2008, 21).

The preservation of modern architecture itself challenges some of the fundamental concepts of preservation of historic buildings. As the time scale of buildings shrink, these challenges need to be addressed taking into consideration the burgeoning new modes and materials of construction.

Works Cited

Prudon, Theodore H.M. Preservation of Modern Architecture. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008.

While, Aidan. "Modernism vs Urban Renaissance: Negotiating Post-war Heritage in English City Centres." Urban Studies, Vol. 43, No. 13, 2006: 2399–2419.

While, Aidan. "The state and the controversial demands of cultural built heritage: modernism, dirty concrete, and postwar listing in England." Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, Volume 34, 2007: 645-663.