A systems approach to historic preservation in an era of sustainability plannin

The public outcry over large scale urban renewal projects of the mid-20 th century served a catalytic role in the codification of the modern historic preservation movement in the United States. While theories of heritage and its protection underpinned policy development, the discourse surrounding the loss of historic fabric and the fracturing of communities within American cities played a critical role in the institutionalization of the field. It effectively pitted preservation as a counter movement against the public and private interests seeking social progress through rational planning paradigms. The modern preservation infrastructure -- including institutions, legislation, and policies -- is now half a century old, but the conceptual dynamics that isolated preservation from other land use decision-making at the juncture of its institutionalization persist.;The disjuncture between preservation and broader land use and building policies presents new challenges in light of contemporary sustainability concerns. Climate change -- and associated energy and resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, waste generation, and habitat and landscape destruction -- have made apparent, if not dire, the need to revolutionize the way we live in the industrialized world. Preservation, as an integral component of the larger system of the built environment, is under increasing pressure to align its own aims and functions with those of the larger system and to share common goals of environmental, economic, and social sustainability.;This research uses discourse analysis to deconstruct historical and existing relationships among the theories, policies, and practices of preservation, planning, and sustainability. Using the lens of systems thinking, a basic framework is constructed to model behavior and dynamic relationships, and to suggest changes for forging shared aims and common ground.;Sustainability provides an accessible framework through which to view the built environment as a socio-ecological system (with economic inherent in the "socio") and navigate the relationships and processes within it to which preservation contributes. Understanding those dynamics can help to better contextualize the enterprise of preservation and to elucidate how the policies and institutions of the field can be made more responsive to the needs of society.