A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from certain types of development. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Historic districts may or may not also be the center of the city. They may be coterminous with the commercial district, administrative district, or arts district, or separate from all of these. Historical districts are often parts of a larger urban setting, but they can also be parts or all of small towns, or a rural areas with historic agriculture-related properties, or even a physically disconnected series of related structures throughout the region. [6]
Much criticism [7] [8] [9] [10] has arisen of historic districts and the effect protective zoning and historic designation status laws have on the housing supply. [7] When an area of a city is designated as part of a 'historic district', new housing development is artificially restricted [8] and the supply of new housing permanently capped [7] in area so designated as 'historic'. Critics of historic districts argue that while these districts may offer an aesthetic or visually pleasing benefit, they increase inequality by restricting access to new and affordable housing for lower and middle class tenants and potential home owners. [11]
In Canada, such districts are called "heritage conservation districts" or "heritage conservation areas" (known as "arrondissements historiques", "secteurs de conservation du patrimoine" or "districts de conservation du patrimoine" in French) and are governed by provincial legislation. [12]
In Taiwan, the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act protects certain historic districts under the "groups of buildings" category. Districts are overseen by their respective municipality, city, or county governments, but can also be promoted to a "significant" status and overseen by the Ministry of Culture directly. [13] As of July 2021, there are twenty protected districts, one of which is deemed "significant". [14]
The term "old street" refers to a neighborhood with historic buildings. Many of these are tourist attractions and filled with hawkers catering to visitors.
Many jurisdictions within the United States have specific legislation identifying and giving protection to designated historic districts.
Criticism of historic districts in Chicago [10] and elsewhere in the United States is primarily based on arguments that such laws creating such districts restrict the supply of affordable housing, and thus the result of such districts is that of enforcing caste structures and class divisions by region and segments of urban areas. [9] [8] [7] Several historic districts have been proposed not for a true preservation purpose but to prevent development. [15]
The term "Historic District" is not used in the United Kingdom. The equivalent urban areas are known as Conservation Areas.
Iranian Heritage and Tourism organization has nominated and selected several cities for their valuable historical monuments and districts. Baft-e Tarikhi (In Persian: بافت تاریخی or historical texture) is the name such areas are labelled with. Naein, Isfahan and Yazd are examples of Iranian cities with historic districts.
In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a single use, they may combine several compatible activities by use, or in the case of form-based zoning, the differing regulations may govern the density, size and shape of allowed buildings whatever their use. The planning rules for each zone determine whether planning permission for a given development may be granted. Zoning may specify a variety of outright and conditional uses of land. It may indicate the size and dimensions of lots that land may be subdivided into, or the form and scale of buildings. These guidelines are set in order to guide urban growth and development.
Conservation in the Republic of Ireland is overseen by a number of statutory and non-governmental agencies, including those with responsibility for conservation of the built environment and conservation of the natural environment in Ireland. Conservation has sometimes been a contentious issue, with debates impacting its progress since the 1960s. Concrete initiatives are sometimes driven by European Union (EU) heritage protection and environmental policies, including EU environmental law, which – as a member – the Irish government is obliged to adopt and implement.
National Historic Sites of Canada are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks Canada, a federal agency, manages the National Historic Sites program. As of November 2023, there were 1,005 National Historic Sites, 171 of which are administered by Parks Canada; the remainder are administered or owned by other levels of government or private entities. The sites are located across all ten provinces and three territories, with two sites located in France.
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philosophical concept that became popular in the twentieth century, which maintains that cities as products of centuries' development should be obligated to protect their patrimonial legacy. The term refers specifically to the preservation of the built environment, and not to preservation of, for example, primeval forests or wilderness.
Protected areas of Canada consist of approximately 12.1 percent of the nation's landmass and freshwater are considered conservation areas, including 11.4 percent designated as protected areas. Approximately 13.8 percent of Canada's territorial waters are conserved, including 8.9 percent designated as protected areas. Terrestrial areas conserved have increased by 65 percent in the 21st century, while marine areas conserved have increased by more than 3,800 percent.
The Ontario Heritage Act, first enacted on March 5, 1975, allows municipalities and the provincial government to designate individual properties and districts in the Canadian Province of Ontario, as being of cultural heritage value or interest.
Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some degree physically and functionally integrated, and that provides pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development may be applied to a single building, a block or neighborhood, or in zoning policy across an entire city or other administrative unit. These projects may be completed by a private developer, (quasi-)governmental agency, or a combination thereof. A mixed-use development may be a new construction, reuse of an existing building or brownfield site, or a combination.
Historic districts in the United States are designated historic districts recognizing a group of buildings, archaeological resources, or other properties as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects, and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts vary greatly in size and composition: a historic district could comprise an entire neighborhood with hundreds of buildings, or a smaller area with just one or a few resources.
In urban planning, Brusselization or Brusselisation is "the indiscriminate and careless introduction of modern high-rise buildings into gentrified neighbourhoods" and has become a byword for "haphazard urban development and redevelopment."
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria.
Village Preservation is a nonprofit organization that advocates for the architectural preservation and cultural preservation in several neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Founded in 1980, it has advocated for New York City designated landmark status for a variety of sites like the Stonewall Inn and Webster Hall. The organization and its Executive Director, Andrew Berman, have been described as influential in New York real estate, while some of its activities to prevent development and to support restrictive zoning have attracted criticism.
Heritage Montreal is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the architectural, historic, natural, and cultural heritage of Greater Montreal. Architect Phyllis Lambert founded Heritage Montreal in 1975. It was preceded by Save Montreal, a volunteer group co-founded by Michael Fish after the controversial demolition of the Van Horne Mansion by developer David Azrieli in 1973. Heritage Montreal played a key role in efforts to halt demolition and redevelopment in the McGill Ghetto, also known as Milton Park.
A Cultural Property is administered by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs, and includes tangible properties ; intangible properties ; folk properties both tangible and intangible; monuments historic, scenic and natural; cultural landscapes; and groups of traditional buildings. Buried properties and conservation techniques are also protected. Together these cultural properties are to be preserved and utilized as the heritage of the Japanese people.
In Canada, heritage conservation deals with actions or processes that are aimed at safeguarding the character-defining elements of a cultural resource so as to retain its heritage value and extend its physical life. Historic objects in Canada may be granted special designation by any of the three levels of government: the federal government, the provincial governments, or a municipal government. The Heritage Canada Foundation acts as Canada's lead advocacy organization for heritage buildings and landscapes.
The Heritage Property Act is a provincial statute which allows for the identification, protection and rehabilitation of cultural heritage properties in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Heritage Conservation Act is a provincial statute which allows for the preservation of cultural heritage properties and areas in the province of New Brunswick, Canada.
The Sillery Heritage Site is an area containing historic residences and institutional properties located in the Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge borough of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It was the first of 13 declared heritage sites of the Province of Quebec, and is among the four of which are located in Quebec City. Having been called the "cradle of the French Canadian nation," the heritage site includes approximately 350 buildings along 3.5 kilometres of the Saint Lawrence River shoreline. The Sillery Heritage Site includes buildings constructed during every major period of Quebec's history, dating back to the time of New France.
Media related to Historic districts at Wikimedia Commons