A Good Read for Planners and Peers: Why Old Places Matter

The role of historic preservation — or “heritage” as it’s often termed overseas — is a conundrum faced regularly in the planning and development world.

In rapidly changing cities with redevelopment incentives, “what to save” is front-page news, and the loss of special places is forever memorialized. I’ve often advocated getting down to the basics of why, in the digital age, lost or threatened buildings have moved from coffee table books to Instagram, amid nostalgia, gentrification challenges, and debates about the “authenticity” of façade-based urban cores.

In Why Old Places Matter (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), Tom Mayes has gone even further, and summarized his years of work — and six months in Rome — devoted to answering that most basic question about the importance of places commonly perceived as “old.” The book is a great read for built environment professionals, elected officials and others who work with urban issues. Mayes also provides a solid summary in many talks accessible online, including a recent talk in Providence, here.

In the book, Mayes has compiled and modified his previous essays of the same name, and he provides a range of thoughtful responses and research. Mixing personal…