ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the partisans from the historic preservation and sustainability camps to take tentative steps towards mutual understanding. The National Trust for Historic Preservation established the Preservation Green Lab, and then LEED develops rating systems for existing building operations and management. Historic Preservation and modern or contemporary design were seen to be at odds with each other, and environmentally responsible architecture was viewed as antithetical to both. As the industrial revolution completed Western man's taming of nature it both placed the natural landscape at risk and made nature's presence increasingly valuable. Preservationists are going to have to think about their own practices and deeply held beliefs about what constitutes authenticity as the resources that make up the bulk of their projects change from stylistically pre-modern to modern. Buildings constructed since World War II, "coming of age" for designation and protection, were generally not constructed using the passive and sustainable strategies of traditional architecture.
