Historic Preservation in the West Term Paper

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More bad luck happened when there was an earthquake in 1948 that caused a lot of structural damage to buildings in Pioneer Square. Then in the late 1950s the Central Association of Seattle was created to upgrade the city's image and infrastructure, and the Seattle Center was built in 1962 for the World's Fair. In the late 1960s, the clean-up of Pioneer Square began, as buildings were renovated and artists, architects, interior designers who "liked the aesthetics of the old buildings" (Morley, 75) - along with young professionals who prized the proximity to downtown - began moving in.

By 1975, about $10 million ($8 million from private investors) had gone into Pioneer Square's redevelopment, but prior to that, there had been a political battle overcome before Pioneer Square could become the wonderful venue it is now; urban sprawl and shopping centers had taken precedence over historic preservation and the King Dome sports facility had sucked a lot of money and energy away from historic consciousness. Indeed, there was a battle over whether or not to preserve the venerable and unique "Pike Place Market," where tourists love to watch fish being offloaded from fishing boats and fresh produce being displayed in abundance. But on Nov. 2, 1971, voters passed Initiative 1, and the market was preserved. The market "succeeded in providing Seattle with a civic identity," Morley summarized on page 126. Along with the Space Needle and Mount Rainier, "images of the Pike Place Market have become synonymous with Seattle," Morley asserted (Morley, 126).

The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico was originally a Spanish settlement, and the original part of town ("Old Town") fell into disrepair when "New Town" became the place to be from the turn of the century until World War II (Morley, 24). Even up until 1945, as the newer areas of Albuquerque grew and prospered, Old Town had dirt streets and lots of poverty and blight.

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Many of the residents of Old Town were of Latino heritage, and when the city fathers wanted to place new "Anglo" architectural restrictions on Old Town, feathers flew and anger was the theme of the day. Eventually, city planners and politicians realized that "Heritage tourism was an important way for Albuquerque to solidify the Spanish heritage portrayed in Old Town" (Morley, 39). And when local merchants in Old Town joined up with the tourism bureau, and everyone began to realize it was a "win-win" situation for Latino interests, city interests, tourism and historic preservation, it became workable.

Conclusion: The book by Judy Mattivi Morley should be a "must read" in every city in America where there is a clash between preserving historic districts and bulldozing them down for "urban renewal," especially in the western states, where sprawl and ugliness too often rears its ugly head in Southern California, Phoenix, and other places. Many Midwestern and East Coast Americans visit the west looking for something "distinctively western" (Morley, 10). And if all they see is freeways, strip malls, and homogenized cities with no distinctive flavor, why would they return? Meanwhile, this is a very good….....

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