What are the moral limits to war? The destruction of heritage has, at least since the Enlightenment, been considered a threshold beyond which military action becomes unjust, even criminal. Centuries before modern preservation laws, it was military jurists like Emmerich de Vattel who helped establish the notion that governments at war had a legal duty to protect heritage—including that of their conquered enemies. The regulation of modern warfare in many ways preceded and shaped that of modern preservation.

Military codes of conduct, such as the pioneering 1863 US Lieber Code, became the basis and inspiration for national and international preservation laws. The experience of World War II, and the now famous work of the Monuments Men, was a powerful catalyst for the creation of preservation institutions during peacetime, from the National Trust of Historic Preservation to UNESCO. Their aim was not so much to abolish war, but rather to fight more just wars in the future, to correct the moral transgressions of the past.

Preservation, in other words, is not conceptually outside of war, but very much embedded in it, where it can more effectively monitor, report on, influence and limit bellicose action. Military thinking is second hand to preservation: we organize as one would an army, around notions of readiness for battle, defensibility of assets, planned campaigns, managing trauma, and reconstruction.

To what degree, we may ask, is preservation thinkable outside of militarization, and its prewar—war—postwar continuum? What is the range of acceptable preservation actions and non-actions in the face of today’s wars, when spectacles are made of the dynamiting of monuments, and the killing of preservationists?

The 2016 Fitch Colloquium brings together some of the world’s leading experts in the spirit of dialogue and common pursuit of answers to these urgent questions.

Speakers:

Panel 1: Pre War

• Tim Winter, Research Chair of Cultural Heritage, Deakin University
• Laurie Rush, Cultural Resources Manager and Archaeologist, US Department of Defense
• Leila A. Amineddoleh, Founding and Managing Partner at Amineddoleh & Associates
• Lucia Allais, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Princeton University
• David Gissen, Professor of Architecture, California College of the Arts
• Moderated by Erica Avrami, James Marston Fitch Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, Columbia GSAPP

Panel 2: At War

• Julián Esteban-Chapapría, Associate Professor, Universitat Politècnica de València
• Zaki Aslan, Director of ICCROM-ATHAR Regional Conservation Centre, UAE
• Laura Kurgan, Associate Professor of Architecture, Columbia GSAPP
• Zainab Bahrani, Edith Porada Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University
• Moderated by William Raynolds, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, Columbia GSAPP

Panel 3: Post War

• Nikolaus Hirsch, Städelschule, Frankfurt
• Mark Jarzombek, Professor of History and Theory of Architecture, MIT
• Rodney Harrison, Professor of Heritage Studies, University College London
• Azra Akšamija, Associate Professor, MIT
• Clive Van Den Berg, Artist and Managing Partner, Trace
• Moderated by Rosalind C. Morris, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University

As Columbia University’s contribution to the Landmarks 50 celebration—the recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission—this year’s Fitch Colloquium looks beyond the laws of New York City to preservation frameworks elsewhere in the world. With the understanding there much New Yorkers can learn from international practice and problems, we gather leading preservationists from London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Oslo, Puerto Rico, and Rio de Janeiro, to speak about their local perspectives. An introduction provided by Will Cook of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s legal staff will set up the discussion for comparative practices around the country and world.

10:00am Introduction

• Andrew Dolkart Director, Historic Preservation Program, Columbia University GSAPP

10:15am Creative Approaches to Using Law to Protect Historic Places

• Will Cook, Associate General Counsel, National Trust for Historic Preservation

10:45am Preserving Historic Los Angeles

• Ken Bernstein Manager, Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources

11:15am Remembering & Forgetting: Historic Preservation in Puerto Rico

• Nadya Nenadich Academic Coordinator, Adjunct Associate Professor Historic Preservation Program, Pratt Institute

11:45am Discussion Led by Anthony C. Wood Director, New York Archive Project

12:30pm Lunch

1:30pm London: Progress versus Preservation

• Doug Black Delivery Lead, Conservation & Urban Design London Borough of Lambeth

2:00pm Mumbai: Two Decades of Urban Conservation

• Abha Narain Lambah Principal Architect, Abha Narain Lambah Associates

2:30pm Break

2:45pm High Change – High Preservation

• Washington Fajardo, President, Institute Rio Heritage Special Advisor for Urban Affairs, Mayor’s Office City Hall of Rio de Janeiro

3:15pm Oslo by Nature

• Erik Fenstad Langdalen, Professor and Head of the Institute of Form, Theory and History at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design Principal Architect, Erik Langdalen Architect

3:45pm Discussion Led by Lisa Ackerman Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, World Monuments Fund

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, GSAPP’s Historic Preservation program is convening extraordinary figures to re-imagine the future of preservation. The works of Michèle Pierre Louis, Tim McClimon, Adam Lowe, John Ochsendorf, Ilaria Cavaggioni, Gunny Harboe, and Peter Mullan challenge us to rethink our assumptions about what preservation is and can do. Their unique perspectives on preservation are informed by their deep knowledge and engagement with fields as diverse as politics, finance, art, engineering, design, planning and information technology.

Each speaker will explore one idea, a new and unexpected way in which preservation may engage with the urgent challenges of our time, from social inequity to climate change, from the digital revolution to the limits of government. Collectively, they will offer a view of preservation’s emerging potential.

Speakers:

• Ilaria Cavaggioni, Architect Director and Coordinator, Architectural and Landscape Heritage of Venice and Lagoon
• Gunny Harboe, Principal, Harboe Architects
• Adam Lowe, Founder, Factum Arte
• Tim McClimon, President, American Express Foundation
• Peter Mullan, Executive Vice President, Friends of the High Line
• John Ochsendorf, Professor of Engineering and Architecture, MIT
• Michèle Pierre-Louis, Founder and President of the Knowledge and Freedom Foundation, Former Prime Minister of Haiti

Organized by Jorge Otero-Pailos and introduced by Andrew Dolkart, Columbia GSAPP, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Historic Preservation Program.

The annual James Marston Fitch Symposium hosted by the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning, and Preservation explores the question: Is there an East and West in Preservation? An examination of preservation practice in contexts of engagement between East and West seems to suggest there is dissonance between projected rhetorical positions and what occurs “on the ground.” In these engagements is preservation largely enacted on a set of consensus and globally forged principles tempered by national or regional customs or primarily on indigenous principles? Or, is the spectrum of practice even broader and more deeply colored by local contexts?

Presentations

10:00 am

Anton Schweizer: How to deal with short-lived splendor? The concept of originality in Japanese lacquered architecture

10:30 am

Theodore Prudon: Preserving Modern Architecture in the East: Old Concepts, New Challenges

11:00 am

Vincent Michael: Conserving Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century: East Meets West

11:30 am

Lee Ambrozy: At the Midpoint: Negotiating Sustainability in the Old Town of Shaxi – Yunnan Province, China

2:00 pm

Lisa Ackerman: More than Mortar Analysis and Measurement: the Art of Conservation Across the Globe

2:30 pm

Grace Jan: Traditions and Cultures Matter: Reflections of a Conservator Training in Chinese Painting Conservation

3:00 pm

Simon Warrack: Conserving what? Western conservation approaches and their impact on heritage in Asia

3:30 pm

John G. Waite: Yin Yu Tang: an 18th Century Chinese House Meets American Preservation Technology

Themes will revolve around “The Architecture of Public Housing: Preserving a Post-War Legacy.”

9:00-9:30 | Welcome and Opening Remarks | Andrew Dolkart
9:30-10:00 | Preserving Public Housing: Dilemma or Opportunity? | Theodore Prudon
10:00-10:30 | What do we preserve? Lessons from 75 years of public housing in America? | Joseph Heathcott
10:30-11:00 | Mid-morning break
11:00-11:30 | The Preservation of Form and Function in American Public Housing | Elizabeth Milnarik
11:30-12:00 | Recording our Recent Past: Scotland’s survey and preservation initiatives of Post-War Sites and Monuments, 1985-2012 | Diane Watters
12:00-12:30 | Panel discussion and summary
12:30-1:30 | Lunch
1:30-2:00 | Public Housing in France | Jean-François Briand
2:00-2:30 | The Netherlands: Housing before and after WWII and their appreciation
2:30-3:00 | Mid-afternoon break
3:00-3:30 | Modern Housing in Rio de Janeiro: the Pedregulho Residential Estate | Flavia Brito
3:30-4:00 | Soviet era Housing in Georgia | Levan Asabashvili
4:00-4:30 | Preserving the social housing experiences in Casablanca | Abderrahim Kassou
5:00-5:15 | Sunny Fischer
5:15-5:30 | Summary and Closing | Joseph Heathcott