| OUR PAST IS PART OF OUR FUTURE Nothing is more meaningful or fulfilling then to have saved something: the habitat, the alley, the junction, the place, the building. Our cultural experiences are embodied in such things, and this is why losing something is really an unrecoverable end. Yours, mine, and our lives and history are embodied in the tangible aspects of our natural and built environments. This is why preservation and conservation are so important and pursued by so many. Giving new life to an old building is first a process of historic rediscovery, appreciation, and understanding. From this, the retention of the culturally significant situations, conditions and features of the building can be mixed with the new or altered use of the building, accomplishing purpose and place for the past in the present. We all become richer through these efforts. |