Challenging the assumption about a direct relationship between historic preservation and architecture in the United States

Abstract

A close relationship is assumed to exist between historic preservation and architectural practice. This study explores the nature of this relationship by using evidence from scholarly literature, the job market, and architectural education. The examined literature contains many examples showing that the architecture field views historic preservation as an external interest. Evidence from the job market indicates that architecture employers are uninterested in historic preservation skills, and historic preservation employers are not looking for architecture skills. Architecture schools and accrediting organizations either disregard historic preservation or minimize its importance. Moreover, historic preservation is more closely related to environmental and behavioral studies than it is to the architectural field. The relationship between architecture and historic preservation is tenuous, strained, and based more on stereotypes than on actual evidence. Keywords: Historic preservation, Architecture, Heritage conservation, Education, Job market, Employers