Protecting Suburban America: Gentrification, Advocacy, and the Historic Imaginary

Protecting Suburban America explores the dynamics and conflicts inherent in preserving historic twentieth-century suburban landscapes in America. Bridging architecture, anthropology, planning, and urban studies, its unique approach combines a study of historic preservation with multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, to shed fascinating light on issues of heritage, preservation, gentrification, class, ethnicity, and contested values in suburbia. These are subjects which reach far beyond the setting of the book's focus in California to touch on topical debates in cities, suburbia, and gentrifying neighborhoods worldwide. At the heart of the book is a detailed comparative ethnography of preservation practices and the changing landscapes of five suburban cities, where affluent homeowners have begun to restore their early twentieth-century houses in neighborhoods once suffering from decline. Not every neighbor, however, shares the same aesthetic values, and complex dynamics can arise. The study compares experiences in five different cities, and in different long-term, immigrant, and gentrifying populations. Themes revealed include homeowner restoration practices, aesthetic contestations, local advocacy, and public policy, alongside an exploration of the social construction of the historic restoration process, and how homeowners construct 'historical' meaning in their homes and neighbourhoods. These are themes with consequences for national and global settings – of interest wherever contested preservation aesthetics and regulations are reshaping older residential neighbourhoods and their social dynamics. Protecting Suburban America explores the dynamics and conflicts inherent in preserving historic twentieth-century suburban landscapes in America. Bridging architecture, anthropology, planning, and urban studies, its unique approach combines a study of historic preservation with multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, to shed fascinating light on issues of heritage, preservation, gentrification, class, ethnicity, and contested values in suburbia. These are subjects which reach far beyond the setting of the book's focus in California to touch on topical debates in cities, suburbia, and gentrifying neighborhoods worldwide. At the heart of the book is a detailed comparative ethnography of preservation practices and the changing landscapes of five suburban cities, where affluent homeowners have begun to restore their early twentieth-century houses in neighborhoods once suffering from decline. Not every neighbor, however, shares the same aesthetic values, and complex dynamics can arise. The study compares experiences in five different cities, and in different long-term, immigrant, and gentrifying populations. Themes revealed include homeowner restoration practices, aesthetic contestations, local advocacy, and public policy, alongside an exploration of the social construction of the historic restoration process, and how homeowners construct 'historical' meaning in their homes and neighborhoods. These are themes with consequences for national and global settings of interest wherever contested preservation aesthetics and regulations are reshaping older residential neighbourhoods and their social dynamics. -- Amazon.com __Protecting Suburban America__ explores the dynamics and conflicts inherent in preserving historic twentieth-century suburban landscapes in America. Bridging architecture, anthropology, planning, and urban studies, its unique approach combines a study of historic preservation with multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, to shed fascinating light on issues of heritage, preservation, gentrification, class, ethnicity, and contested values in suburbia. These are subjects which reach far beyond the setting of the book's focus in California to touch on topical debates in cities, suburbia, and gentrifying neighborhoods worldwide. At the heart of the book is a detailed comparative ethnography of preservation practices and the changing landscapes of five suburban cities, where affluent homeowners have begun to restore their early twentieth-century houses in neighborhoods once suffering from decline. Not every neighbor, however, shares the same aesthetic values, and complex dynamics can arise. The study compares experiences in five different cities, and in different long-term, immigrant, and gentrifying populations. Themes revealed include homeowner restoration practices, aesthetic contestations, local advocacy, and public policy, alongside an exploration of the social construction of the historic restoration process, and how homeowners construct 'historical' meaning in their homes and neighbourhoods. These are themes with consequences for national and global settings – of interest wherever contested preservation aesthetics and regulations are reshaping older residential neighbourhoods and their social dynamics. 1. Framing Preservation -- 2. Discovering Material Agency: Making The Preservation Homeowner -- 3. Restoration Strategies: Imagining The Past, And Reconstructing Historic Meaning -- 4. Historic Preservation As Cosmology: Municipal Regulations And City Dynamics -- 5. Local Level Preservation And Exclusion: Traditional Elites -- 6. The Gentry Move In: Education, Reform, And Advocacy -- 7. Immigrant Challenges: Communicating Preservation Values Across The Cultural Divide In Alhambra -- 8. Toward An Anthropology Of The Protected Suburb. Denise Lawrence-zuniga. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 181-187) And Index. 'Protecting Suburban America' explores the dynamics and conflicts inherent in preserving historic 20th-century suburban landscapes in America. Bridging architecture, anthropology, planning, and urban studies, its unique approach combines a study of historic preservation with multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, to shed fascinating light on issues of heritage, preservation, gentrification, class, ethnicity, and contested values in suburbia. These are subjects which reach far beyond the setting of the text's focus in California to touch on topical debates in cities, suburbia, and gentrifying neighbourhoods worldwide FC -- Half title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Framing Preservation -- 2 Discovering Material Agency: Making the Preservation Homeowner -- 3 Restoration Strategies, Imagining the Past, and Reconstructing Historic Meaning -- 4 Historic Preservation as Cosmology: Municipal Regulations and City Dynamics -- 5 Local Level Preservation and Exclusion: Traditional Elites -- 6 The Gentry Move In: Education, Reform, and Advocacy -- 7 Immigrant Challenges: Communicating Preservation Values across the Cultural Divide in Alhambra Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction: Framing Preservation 2. Discovering Material Agency: Making of the Preservation Homeowner 3. Restoration Strategies: Imagining the Past and Reconstructing Historic Meaning 4. History Preservation Cosmology: Municipal Regulations and City Dynamics 5. Local Level Preservation and Exclusion: Traditional Elites 6. Gentrification: Education, Reform and Advocacy 7. Immigrant Challenges: Communicating Preservation Values Across the Cultural Divide in Alhamra 8. Conclusion: Toward an Anthropology of Suburbia Bibliography Index. 8 Toward an Anthropology of the Protected Suburb -- Appendix A: Historic Preservation Interview Questions -- Appendix B: Historic Preservation Questions for City Officials -- Notes -- References -- Index