ABSTRACT
The preservation, conservation and protection of structures, landscapes or archaeological artifacts of historic and cultural significance are an inherent and important contributing factors to urban redevelopment. In the United States, the earliest historic preservation efforts started with local and state efforts to preserve George Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site in Newburgh, New York, and his residence in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Many communities, from New Orleans to San Francisco have adopted historic preservation ordinances, usually implemented by a historic preservation board of some sort, which often include architects, historians and others with specialized expertise. Historic preservation provides verisimilitude and authenticity to urban redevelopment. For an urban redeveloper, historic preservation requires special skills, architects and construction contractors who specialize in this highly technical area. One perspective is that urban redevelopment can preserve industrial and what is called mid-century (twentieth) modern structures, that are often not as interesting to historic preservation advocates as, say, Federalist or Queen Anne style houses.
