Corporate Responsibility and the Preservation of Post-Industrial Landscapes

Graving Dock No. 1

Graving Dock No. 1, demolished 2007

Industrial relics such as the former graving dock and Revere Sugar Factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn dot the seaboard of America's urban areas. Vestiges of past industry, these physical remains have come to symbolize the demise of American primacy in industry and the growing hegemony of the globalized economy. For preservationists, these remains indicate a far deeper challenge, in that the physical landscapes left behind demand a fundamental reevaluation of historic and contemporary methods of preservation. Our Studio has sought to identify what forces have shaped and are shaping the evolving shoreline of Red Hook, and in turn, other post-industrial landscapes. Further, our journey has raised important questions about the meaning of preservation and avenues by which it must evolve. As preservationists, how can we most effectively communicate the value and importance of the post-industrial landscape, much of which has been deemed "undervalued" by political and economic forces? What methods should we employ to address industrial resources in a creative and dynamic way?

Revere Sugar Factory

Revere Sugar Factory, demolished 2007

As the debate over the now destroyed graving dock in Red Hook indicates, new forces are at work in the Brooklyn waterfront, and these forces pose a significant challenge to preservation. How might areas like Red Hook be preserved, when much of their built environment has become obsolete in an evolving urban economy? Equally important, what does preservation in such areas mean and what do the results look like? The industrial waterfront comprises an intricate landscape, rather than a discrete building or district, and much of this landscape has been dismantled throughout the past decades of continuous economic restructuring. In an era when industry and shipping are retreating from the urban shore, and commercial and residential development beckon, what role does historical authenticity play? Similarly, many of the forces that are altering post-industrial areas like Red Hook, such as Ikea, are components of a newly evolving economic landscape that preservationists have yet to adequately address. How might multinational corporations, with established methods and bottomless budgets, be induced to care about the historic landscapes in which they locate?

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