Profiting from Preservation and Sustainability

Thursday, Oct. 26 at 7pm, The Classical Design Foundation will present the second of the four-part lecture series, Sandhills at a Crossroads.

Internationally recognized author and speaker Donovan Rypkema, of Place Economics, Washington, D.C., will speak on "Profiting from Preservation and Sustainable Development"

Sandhills Community College Owens Auditorium, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst.

Admission is free. For further information visit
www.mimsstudios.com/CDF/index.htm.

A SENSE OF PLACE

“We shape our buildings; thereafter, our buildings shape us.” – Winston Churchill

From the curve of Mona Lisa’s neckline to the profile of a city skyline, design determines how we see our world. Classical design has always been about organizing space into logical and beautiful solutions through proportion, scale and rhythms – and when done well it is an asset worth preserving.

Those of us who live here are fortunate to be in a place where whole communities have been laid out by master designers, like Embury and Olmsted, who practiced their craft in an age that placed great emphasis on quality of life, while still negotiating the realities of such an undertaking. Restrained as they are by today’s emphasis on deadline and profit, seldom do the efforts of modern planners approach anything like the enduring solutions that we live with here everyday.

In the balance between development and preservation, what works for one community will not necessarily be the right solution for another. Surrounded by the distinct landscape of longleaf pines that defines the very reputation of the Sandhills, we live in an extraordinarily rare set of circumstances. World class resort communities were established here as relative latecomers to North Carolina’s overall development, due to the limited resources of this region. And yet, despite these limitations - such as water – locations like Pinehurst and Southern Pines developed into legendary places with their own unmistakable character, and so created our most marketable resource.

In this setting, an emphasis on historic preservation should make obvious economic sense. We already are the sort of human scale, walkable communities that modern city planners are trying to recreate nationwide. Historic preservation is one of the most important tools that town officials and civic leaders have to protect this unique character – a character that was created with a carefully considered design of proportion, scale, and rhythm of life. The Sandhills is at a crossroads. Growth and development pressures of an unprecedented scale are already challenging our way of life. Becoming indistinguishable from anyplace else should be unthinkable here. There is still time to direct our energy toward recognizing and protecting the qualities that give us our identity and provide us with such a remarkable sense of place. - The Classical Design Foundation