University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Theses (Historic Preservation) Graduate Program in Historic Preservation 2011 Toward a New Approach to Evaluating Significance in Recent-Past Preservation Planning with a Case Study of 1960s Properties in Philadelphia County Kristin M. Hagar University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses Part of the Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons Hagar, Kristin M., "Toward a New Approach to Evaluating Significance in Recent-Past Preservation Planning with a Case Study of 1960s Properties in Philadelphia County" (2011). Theses (Historic Preservation). 171. http://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/171 Suggested Citation: Hagar, Kristin M. (2011). Toward a New Approach to Evaluating Significance in Recent-Past Preservation Planning with a Case Study of 1960s Properties in Philadelphia County. (Masters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/171 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Toward a New Approach to Evaluating Significance in Recent-Past Preservation Planning with a Case Study of 1960s Properties in Philadelphia County Abstract In evaluating a stock of recent-past buildings, it is important to stay alert to the ways in which recent-past heritage is more difficult to assess, and what we might be prone to do to make it easier to assess. It is not enough to involve numerous people in the process and to articulate our method of analysis. We as preservation professionals must also consciously strive to avoid cognitive shortcuts. We must set evaluative standards and choose priorities, without simply dismissing a great portion of the built environment as “crap” or accepting self-evidence as a measure of significance.