Which 20th-century sites should we protect by adding them to our official registers? A new tool urges heritage experts to consider an unusual array of contenders
Photo: KatRob, Courtesy Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Built to accommodate motorists in a popular town on historic Route 66, this 12-unit motel retains many elements that evoke a time, from approximately 1940 to 1965, before interstate highways began crossing the landscape. Motel owners used distinctive signage and neon lighting to tout such modern amenities as “100 percent refrigerated air” to passing drivers. Patrons could park their cars right outside their rooms, eat in the nearby restaurant, and rest before continuing on their journeys.
It wasn’t all that long ago that historic sites on local or national registers were nearly always monuments or great works of architecture.
The UNESCO World Heritage List, broader in its scope, includes sites attesting to the awe-inspiring civilizations of the past—Bagan, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Egyptian pyramids, and many others. Being placed on a historic inventory list is sometimes, but not always, a way of protecting a significant site, either through legislative means or economic incentives. And many sites became important tourist destinations and sources of revenue after being listed.
In the 21st century, though—perhaps because our global built environment changed so dramatically between 1900 and 2000—heritage professionals and scholars have broadened their thinking about just what constitutes cultural heritage. Today they look for places that accurately represent the 20th-century’s history and events, or have deep cultural meaning—especially places that speak to the history of people of color and women, and that remain unrecognized and undervalued. They also look at many types of buildings or structures, including modest vernacular architecture or historic infrastructure such as roads and ports.
While heritage experts have expanded their understanding of what constitutes “heritage,” there haven’t been many tools to help identify and place into context the heritage places of the 20th century. Responding to this need, the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), in collaboration with the ICOMOS Twentieth-Century Heritage International Scientific Committee, developed and published The Twentieth-Century Historic Thematic Framework: A Tool for Assessing Heritage Places.
This free downloadable tool can be used by anyone involved in heritage conservation on a professional or community level, as well as by those wanting to expand their idea of what constitutes built heritage of the 20th century. The Thematic Framework uses 10 inter-connected themes—Rapid Urbanization and the Growth of Large Cities, Mechanized and Industrialized Agriculture, and so on (see diagram)—to help identify the places, people, and events that represent the full range of historical experiences of the 20th century. This thematic approach contrasts with more traditional methodologies that looked at either chronology or the history of architecture.
The historic thematic framework is organized into 10 interconnected themes that shaped the built environment and heritage places of the 20th century.
The Stories Behind the Structures
Don’t let the title scare you away—the Thematic Framework tells a multitude of 20th-century stories while exploring the social, technological, political, and economic drivers that shaped our buildings, cities, industries, and landscapes. Since it’s easier to tell or understand a story through pictures, the Thematic Framework includes a gallery of images for each of the 10 themes, offering a diversity of build-ings, sites, structures, and landscapes.
Some images show well-known places that already have historic designation, while others show undesignated sites that make you stop and think—why should that building be considered heritage? Under the theme Mechanized and Industrialized Agriculture, for instance, you’ll see an image of a milking parlor, where large numbers of cows could be milked successively and automatically, meaning faster milking times, higher yields, and less human labor. Mundane, perhaps, but truly representative of commercial development in agriculture during the 20th century.
Milking parlor, ca. 1986, Grosserkmannsdorf, Germany
Photo: 2008, Gunnar Richter, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA-3.0
Such rotary milking parlors represented a more hygienic form of dairy production, as neither human hands nor air came into contact with the milk. In the East German Republic of the mid-1980s, farming collectives that could afford the investment began testing automated systems like the one pictured here. Rural electrification and refrigeration were key aspects of the success of such means of production.
Note that the Framework makes no recommendations and offers no arguments for or against deeming such sites heritage; the idea is to provide examples of less-than-conventional types of heritage that depending on different national or regional decisionmakers, might be deemed worthy of heritage designation or protection.
Another example, this time falling under the theme of World Trade and Global Corporations, is the abandoned Montedison chemical plant. This now-toxic site is close to the port in Calibria, south-ern Italy. In the mid-20th century, that port was one of the busiest in the Mediterranean, but by century’s end both the plant and the port faltered due to the latter’s inability to adapt to containerization and the changing international market for chemicals.
“The port is now a carcass of industrial activity but one with enormous potential for use in a way that people haven’t yet imagined,” says Jeff Cody, a senior project specialist at the GCI and a contributor to the Framework. “This use could pay homage to the remains of a remarkable example of industrial architecture and its place in the growth of global industrialization and trade in the 20th century, while looking towards the future in a yet-to-be determined fashion.”
This enormous former industrial site was once operated by Montedison, Italy’s biggest industrial chemical corporation.
Is this site worth saving? Time will tell. But at least we now have another tool that can help experts survey and assess this site within the context of the 20th century, and conduct a comparative analysis of similar sites.
Another contributor to the Framework, architect Chandler McCoy, a senior project specialist at the GCI, finds Theme 6—Internationalization, New Nation-States, and Human Rights—especially interesting. “At the end of the Second World War or soon thereafter, most of the colonial empires had collapsed, and this decolonialization resulted in the emergence of many new nation-states,” McCoy explains. “It was essentially the end of European dominance in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, and the subsequent construction of buildings and cities in these regions can be viewed as an amazing expression of independence and self-determination.”
Exemplifying Theme 6 is Robben Island, off the Coast of Cape Town and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The buildings, in particular those of the late-20th-century maximum security prison, are neither beautiful nor works of great architecture, but because Robert Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela, and other anti-apartheid activists were imprisoned there, they represent the “triumph of democracy and freedom over oppression and racism.”
Robert Sobukwe House, 1963–69, Robben Island, Cape Town, South Africa
Photo: 2018, Daniel Case, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
In 1959, educator Robert Sobukwe founded the Pan Africanist Congress, which sought to establish African majority rule in South Africa. After being detained for inciting Blacks to disobey discriminatory pass laws, Sobukwe was held in isolation in the maximum security prison on Robben Island from 1963 to 1969. Prohibited from contact, he was housed in Building T159 (shown at far left in photo), from where he could see but not communicate with other prisoners. He eventually developed a system of hand signals. The rows of dog kennels next to the house were built in 1976 for the guard dogs used in surveillance patrols. Robben Island is significant for its association with Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela, and other anti-apartheid activists who were imprisoned there.
Moving to Theme 1, Rapid Urbanization and the Growth of Large Cities, you wouldn’t think that Southern California’s vast freeway network merits a spot on a national register. But consider the extent to which the freeway system reflects the dominant role the automobile played in many cities after WWII—especially in Los Angeles, with its booming, car-dependent population. Freeways also led not only to the demolition of many neighborhoods where poorer people of color often lived, but also promoted further urban sprawl by enabling the development of new retail nodes and residential subdivisions.
While it seems ludicrous to consider listing an entire freeway network on a national register, there might be certain aspects worthy of protecting, such as an interchange that facilitates transitions between two freeways, like the one between the 110 and the 91 freeways. It wouldn’t be the first time a road received recognition. Consider US Route 66, which runs from Chicago to Los Angeles. People come from around the world to drive this historic route, immortalized in the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946 and later by many others, including Chuck Berry, Bing Crosby, and the Rolling Stones. To date, more than 250 Route 66 buildings, districts, and road segments are listed on the National Register. This includes the Arroyo Seco Parkway, which connects Los Angeles and Pasadena and is considered the first freeway in the west. It has been designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and a National Scenic Byway, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. Those designations led to plans to revitalize its scenic value and improve its safety.
Photo: trekkerimages/Alamy Stock Photo
L.A.'s famous four level interchange between the 101 and the 110. Opened in 1953, the site is also known as the "Stack."
The Arroyo Seco story is a great example of how listing a site on a historic register gives it more than honorific status. The listing also becomes a catalyst for other possible actions that would not only protect the site, but also make its presence a means for society to more fully understand historical events and trends, whether now or in the future.
Another contender under Theme 1: Strip malls. Sure, they’re everywhere, and certainly not works of great architecture. But historian Gail Ostergren, a research specialist at the GCI and a third contributor to the Framework, says she has no doubt that a strip mall will someday be listed as a Los Angeles historic cultural monument, or maybe even at a higher level.
We live in a land of strip malls,” says Ostergren. “They were an entirely new way for people to shop. In the classic strip mall, you pull in off the street, you have parking in the front, you jump out of your car, you run into the dry cleaners or 7-Eleven, get back in your car, and you leave. This was a wholly different kind of shopping.”
Strip malls are also where many immigrants established their first small business, and where small congregations set up storefront churches. These are important stories to tell and histories to remember. Yet many strip malls have already met the wrecking ball.
It is helpful to remember that we sometimes need distance before we can make sense of history. Indeed, now that we are two decades into the 21st century, we are looking back with a new perspective. Twentieth-century heritage might not always be beautiful. It might even look like a wasteland, or trigger painful memories. But if it has significance for a community or speaks to our collective history, then it merits our taking a closer look.
