The Why and How of Historic Preservation: Community and Economy

 Vince Michael has worked in historic preservation throughout the United States and internationally for more than three decades.  Michael will explain the reasons we want to save buildings, landscapes, sites and structures, and the mechanisms that have evolved at the local, national and international levels to facilitate that process.  Historic preservation is at heart not a set of rules or regulations but a process of planning whereby a community determines what elements of its past it wants to bring into its future.  It is also a proven community economic development strategy that has proven resilient and sustainable because it builds on the core identity and culture of place.

About Vince Michael

Vincent L. Michael, PhD is the Executive Director of the Global Heritage Fund in Palo Alto, California, which works to conserve heritage sites as economic assets for developing regions of the world. He is a Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where he is Vice Chair of the Preservation and Sites Committee and the Diversity Task Force.  He has chaired the National Council for Preservation Education, the Geographic Society of Chicago and served on the Executive Committee of Landmarks Illinois. 

Vince began his career in 1983 working toward the creation of the first heritage area in the United States.  From 1996 to 2010 Vince was Director of the Master of Science in Historic Preservation program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he held the John H Bryan Chair in Historic Preservation.  He has lectured and led tours throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.  He is the author of The Architecture of Barry Byrne: Taking the Prairie School to Europe and numerous journal articles, travel guides and over 440 blog posts since 2005.

 www.vincemichael.com

About Centro San Antonio

Centro San Antonio is a non-profit organization entrusted to envision and foster a vibrant and prosperous downtown that benefits the entire San Antonio community. The Centro family of organizations includes the Centro Alliance, a member-based organization dedicated to making downtown an exciting place to live, work, shop and play, and the Public Improvement District, which helps to accommodate downtown’s growing residential population, enhance its office and retail market, and position downtown as a premier convention and visitor destination. For more information, visit downtownsa.org.