A New Attitude on Old Approaches: Examining Facadi

Description

This broadcast of a lunch-time session on Facadism will occur at the AIA San Francisco offices. If you'd like to register for the live event (rather than the online broadcast), visit the AIA registration page here. California’s metropolitan areas are continuing to face increased development pressures that threaten smaller-scaled historic resources. As urban design and planning call for more density and infill, an old approach that has long been out of favor seems to be making a comeback. Has the approach to facadism changed? Can it be done well? Is it an acceptable compromise when other priorities—affordable or just more housing, improving urban designs, climate change and seismic resiliency, or simple economics—clash with by-the-books preservation? How can we support good projects while maintaining preservation standards (if not the Standards)? On the other hand, how do we prevent facadism from becoming the default option? This session will explore these questions with a discussion among preservation professionals, city planning staff, and others.