Can Preservation and Development Go Together?
Preservation is under attack in an era when old cities aren't building enough housing
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I was recently asked by Architectural Record to write a case for preserving the Roundhouse in Philadelphia. When I said I couldn’t actually write that case, they allowed me to give a more complicated argument instead. (NB: I did not write the headline.)
For readers outside of Philadelphia, the Roundhouse was the site of the former Philadelphia police headquarters, officially vacated in 2022.
As I write in the Record piece, the building has a good deal of historic value:
Its design, which resembles binoculars—or, perhaps, handcuffs—when viewed from above, won GBQC the AIA’s Gold Medal Award for Best Philadelphia Architecture in 1963. The structure pioneered the use of architecturally expressive precast concrete in the United States, incorporating roughly 1,000 precast units in its facade. It stands as a prime example of the midcentury Philadelphia school, which included works by Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and notable architect, educator, and GBQC cofounder Robert Geddes.
The building’s legacy is decidedly mixed — built with great intentions for reform, it came to be synonymous with racist and violent police tactics. While structurally sound and carrying architectural bona fides, the city recently denied it a place on Philadelphia’s Register of Historic Places. Its future is therefore uncertain:
While this move does not guarantee demolition of the 125,000-square-foot structure, it opens the door to it. The building sits adjacent to a 50,000-square-foot parking lot on a city-owned 2.7 acre lot site ripe for redevelopment.
I agree that preservation is an important tool. As I’ve walked around San Francisco the past 24 hours, the historic architecture is really astounding and so essential to the city’s story and meaning.
And yet, preservation often complicates an already slow and difficult development process. As cities feel increasing urgency to build new housing and amenities, they have to figure out how and when to incorporate preservation into a growing city.