Fig 1: Pike Place Market Historic District (H. Tieben 2011) Heritage Preservation as a Process: Pike Place Market and America’s first Preservation & Development Authority Hendrik Tieben School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong In 2006, Hong Kong experienced a heated heritage debate related to the demolition of Lee Tung Street, Star Ferry and Queens Pier. Two years later, with the Urban Renewal Strategy Review and the initiative ―Conserving Central‖ HKSAR Government made important steps to respond to the growing community concerns. Since then the focus of the debate shifted to the questions: how to balance preservation and development; and how to conserve buildings not just as physical shells but in connection with the surrounding community life. The following paper presents the case of the Seattle‘s Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA) which, although dating back to the 1960-70s, provides an example that might inspire the current debate in Hong Kong. Created in 1973, the Pike Place Market PDA was the first such authority in the USA. Since then, it was able to keep the market district as a vibrant centre of Seattle‘s Downtown and make it one of the most important tourist destinations in the Washington State. The PDA was created as a result of a citizen protest against an urban renewal project which had been proposed by members of the downtown business community and backed by the City Government and would have destroyed the entire market area. As it even extends its influence to the more renowned examples of the preservation movement in New York, the case has been regarded as the precursor of new environmental politics (Sanders, 2010). The link of heritage preservation with an ecological food movement could make it an interesting model for Hong Kong where the debate of heritage preservation could easily be linked with a much broader social and ecological agenda. It is also an example of how in an important historical phase a crucial decision was made between two competing visions. Instead of following the earlier plans to develop further traffic infrastructures and shopping malls, the city moved to the investment in social justice and ecological food provision. Moreover the case shows how heritage preservation is a long enduring but rewarding process if it is approached with a genuine commitment. A short history of Pike Place Market The entire area of Pike Place Market Historic District covers nine acres of land in Seattle‘s Downtown. On its website it is introduced: ―[…] more than a century of operation encompass thousands of fascinating stories — tales of immigration, internment, renovation and urban renewal — all that help explain why Pike Place Market is called ‗The Soul of Seattle.‘‖ Today, it is recognized as America's premier farmers' market, with more than 200 year-round commercial businesses, and 190 craftspeople and 100 farmers renting tables on daily basis; in addition there are 240 street performers, and more than 300 apartment units, most of which for low-income elderly people (www.pikeplacemarket.org). Although most people might associate Pike Place Market with the preservation movement of the 1960s, it was connected to citizen activism since its beginning. It was founded between 1907 and 1908, when in the city the price of onions increased ten-fold and consumers and farmers were equally upset by the wholesalers who gained high profits at their costs. In response to the public anger, Seattle City Councilman Thomas Revelle proposed a public street market connecting farmers directly to the consumers. The street market was an immediate success and by the end of 1907, the first permanent market building opened. Since the 1940s, however, problems accumulated and led to its dilapidated state in the early 1960s. The first challenge came 1942 with the decision to intern all Japanese-Americans during World War II, as most of Seattle‘s farmers belonged to the large local Japanese community. The next challenge was the fast expansion of Seattle‘s industrial sector (in particular Boeing) which transformed large areas of farmland into factories, and was followed by residential suburbanization. At the same time, the growing use of refrigerators allowed food to be stored for much longer and led to the proliferation of supermarkets. Thus, increasingly the market lost its central role as the food supplier of the urban population. Furthermore, the social geography in the city changed with high and middle income groups moving to the suburbs, which even more reduced the business of the market. Similar changes occurred in many western cities and also partly in Hong Kong which has several impressive market buildings from the first part of the 20th century. After losing parts of their business and with ever-increasing land prices, they became - like in Seattle – potential sites for urban renewal projects. In 1963, inspired by the progressive atmosphere of the 1962 World Fair (which brought Seattle its famous Space Needle and Monorail), and encouraged by the availability of federal funds for urban renewal, members of Seattle‘s downtown business community proposed to replace the market and its surrounding with the ―Pike Place Redevelopment Scheme‖. The scheme included a shopping mall, a hotel, an apartment building, four office buildings, a hockey arena, and a parking garage. It was intended to breathe new life into the Downtown by bringing back high and middle income shoppers, and to offer them a similar convenience to the suburban malls. However, the plans faced immediate opposition. The protesters were inspired by the paintings of Mark Tobey, who just had shown in a Seattle museum his works which presented the bustling grass roots life in the market. Another influential activist was architect and University of Washington professor Victor Steinbrueck. In his sketchbooks Seattle Cityscape 1&2 he presented the city‘s spaces with their human activities. In his Market Sketchbook he gave in addition short snapshots about the fascinating life stories of the people selling in the market (Steinbrueck, 1996). They revealed their impressive language skills, which were related to their migration background and made them perfect communicators with all kinds of customers. Similar sketches of street scenes in Hong Kong were drawn and published by urban designer Peter Cookson Smith in 2006 as a critique of the local urban renewal practice (Smith, 2006). Although Victor Steinbrueck admitted the market district was in a dilapidated condition, he and the activist group ―Friends of the Market‖ underlined its importance as a place where different social groups could mingle. In addition, the heritage and social debate expanded now to the issue of ecological food production, which was related to a newly formed ―anti-supermarket‖ movement (Sanders, 2010). Pike Place Market was the perfect counter example as it provided daily fresh food directly from the producer. This was facilitated by its location near the harbor front allowing the easy transport from Seattle‘s surrounding islands. This initial quality of the market now gained new currency, once prepackaged food had became the daily experience. The ecological argument received more support, due to the growing criticism of the scale in which valuable farmland was scarified for the expansion of generic suburbs. In 1969, the city started to respond to the protests in a climate of the nationwide civil rights protests and a growing domestic crisis in the manufacturing industry. In a moment of social tension and a shrinking public budget it seemed even more questionable to use public funds to bulldoze the highly popular market. The size of the area was eventually defined when the market district became officially a historic preservation zone. This happened by initiative measure at the municipal general election in November 1971 when the citizens of Seattle voted to preserve the character of the Market for all time. But this decision was only the start of the work. The now pressing questions were how the dilapidated structures and the declined business should be improved. This was a particular challenge as the main aim was to keep intact the low income social fabric which had been the most important motivation behind the protest for the protection of the market. The Establishment of the Pike Place Market PDA The Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority (PDA) was then created in 1973 as a not-for-profit public corporation chartered by the City of Seattle with the aim to manage the properties in the Historic District. Its Council has 12 voluntary members, four appointed by the Mayor, four elected by the Constituency, and four appointed by the PDA Council. The PDA‘s public purpose is expressed in its Charter. The Pike Place Market Constituency exercises the public's oversight of Pike Place Market under 1973 charter provisions which created the Pike Place Market Historic District and Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority (PDA). ―Pike Place Public Market Historic District‖ is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The PDA has since the central role to make the market vibrant and financially viable without compromising its social and heritage value. To insure this, it has to act in accordance to the detailed Guidelines of the Pike Place Market Historic Commission. Both have to find ways how to balance preservation and development. Fig 2: Different Programmatic Zones of the Market (From: Pike Place Market Historical Commission Revised Guidelines, Sept. 22, 2010) Objectives defining to whom the PDA should benefit What make the Pike Place Market PDA special are its range of objectives: ―It is required to preserve, rehabilitate and protect the Market's buildings; increase opportunities for farm and food retailing in the Market; incubate and support small and marginal businesses; and provide services for low-income people.‖ Right from the beginning, these objectives gave a key importance to negotiation between the different goals, as the economic viability had to be constantly balanced with the overall social mission.