My heart has always cried in indignation when I heard stories about old buildings being demolished and new buildings being built- especially when those buildings sit vacant for years. Excessive destruction is harmful to both our cultural heritage and to the environment and I hope in this brief article it will all make sense
People Love Old Buildings
Almost universally people's hearts are a kindled with delight and wonder when they explore old buildings and corridors
It connects us to the past and future
there is something to be appreciated about old buildings where you can imagine things people in the past done
"This used to be here"
how depressing is it to go to an area and hear about what used to be and what was destroyed? Lets have no more of that- restore do not demolish!
Renovate
it teaches the tradesworkers new arts when instead of tearing down we renovate and restore old materials
The enviroment
think of all the material we are throwing away and destroying- for what? for a new development that will probably be eventually demolished as well? even recycled materials are not always recycled and we are depleting more of the earth's resources.
Alas I can go on, but I am neither an environmental scientist nor a historical preservationist but think of all the jobs we can give to those people if we invested more in preservation. Lets build a future of history and education!