Today architects are faced with the problem of determining the relationship of the past to present architecture. In this post-modern period, we recognize that although the spirit of modernity distanced contemporary from specific historical ties, we are now reevaluating our connection to the past. But does rediscovery of history lead to a recovery of tradition or is the modernists’ declared break with history irrevocable? The questions of whether and how traditions can be appropriated or referred to is the subject of this issue of Precis.