PPS fights to save best of past<br> as the city moves forward

George W. Born took over as the newest executive director at the Providence Preservation Society (PPS) on June 1. He spoke recently with Providence Business News about his time at Brown University, about the city’s new Capital Center and his thoughts on preservation.

PBN: Tell me a little bit about what your role was at the Historic Florida Keys Foundation.
BORN: At the time, in 1996, we were a branch of state government. What was then called the Historic Florida Keys Preservation Board was charged with essentially acquiring and restoring historic properties and publishing books and other information about historic preservation in the Florida Keys.

PBN: Why come back to Rhode Island?
BORN: I have a professional background in historic preservation. I’m a native New Englander and I’m delighted to be back.

PBN: Are you planning to make sweeping changes at PPS?
BORN: When I was interviewing, I asked the search committee, “Are you looking for somebody to clean house, or is it pretty much a well-oiled machine that just needs someone with an oil can to run around and keep it going?” And they said it’s more the latter.
So far, now that I’m here, I would concur with that. It’s a great organization with a great reputation. It has a very hard-working staff with a great board, [whose members] are very generous with their time and money.
Within the preservation world, this organization is respected across the country. It goes way back in the history of the preservation movement – back in the 1950s – this organization was started in 1956 – when Antoinette Downing and others were heavily involved. By the 1970s, the organization spearheaded the preservation effort for College Hill, using historic preservation as a centerpiece for the city.

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PBN: That was an effort to save many of the historic houses, right?
BORN: Right, there were some very regrettably typical-of-the-era plans to redevelop Benefit Street.
So PPS has had a long history of being very engaged in the civic life in this city and, in this case, created a preservation project that people know about all over the country. It’s an example for many cities. There are a lot of cities that have a similar history to Providence, in the sense that they have an industrial past and, because of a change in economic times, they had to reinvent themselves.

PBN: Tell me about the preservation aspects of that reinvention.
BORN: How many lives has the city of Providence had? We were founded by Roger Williams, grew as a mercantile center and then the industrial revolution really had its launch on the continent in Rhode Island. Then, as industrial uses started to move south, Providence had to think about how to reinvent the city.
I think that is one of the most fascinating things about historic preservation: we’re looking at our history, but we’re also trying to figure out where we’re going and how to keep the continuity. Keeping the best of the past, but also keeping a city moving forward.

PBN: Aesthetically, do you like the GTECH Corp. building and the Waterplace Towers?
BORN: A lot of people have been asking me that. … I think the conversation needs to be less about whether this is a “good” building or a “bad” building. … I think we need to talk about what qualities we like in buildings.
One of the things that have happened in Providence since I was here 21 years ago is that the train tracks are now underground near the Statehouse – which is a huge change. One of the nice things about that is that the new construction is concentrated in a zone by itself.

PBN: How does that relate to other cities?
BORN: Last year, I read this book “Preserving the World’s Great Cities.” The author [Anthony Max Tung] went to world capitals. … He observed London and Paris. Because of the way London developed, there are various well-preserved little enclaves in the city, but there are also areas with large, way-out-of-scale bits of new development scattered all over. Whereas in Paris, the historic core of the city has been pretty much left alone since the 19th century and new areas of the city – around … in the eastern part of the city – is where the development is. That means that the skyline of historic Paris isn’t intruded upon by the skyline of modern Paris.
I think that what’s happening in Providence is the same sort of model. It’s not trying to force-feed downtown with a lot of new construction that would not be appropriate. … The question becomes, “How do you talk about whether new construction is appropriate in an historic city?”

PBN: What about other areas in Providence?
BORN: There’s a big vacant lot next to the Arcade right now. Whatever goes in there, that’s going to be a very important site. The Arcade is a national historic landmark and it occupies a very prominent spot downtown. [A new building] is going to have to be very well done and it’s going to have to fit in its context. •
INTERVIEW
George W. Born
Position: Executive director of the Providence Preservation Society.
Background: He was born in New Hampshire and raised in Maine. After serving as a summer intern at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, he held positions at the Smithsonian Institution, the schooner Harvey Gamage, Greater Portland Landmarks and the Historic Florida Keys Foundation Inc., where he served as executive director from 2005 to early 2008.
Education: A.B. in History of Art and Architecture and Comparative Literature, 1987, Brown University; M.S. in Historic Preservation, 1996, University of Vermont.
First Job: When he was 14 years old, Born worked cutting grass at the Sayward-Wheeler House in York Harbor, Maine.
Residence: Providence
Age: 43

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