Wow, it’s been a while since we delivered a News Roundup! Here’s the first of 2022 and what we’ve been reading while we were on winter break: 

Katherine Malone-France looks at how we’re redefining preservation for 2022, as a “dynamic effort that is messy, humbling, inspiring, and surprising” in the Preservation Leadership Forum.

A look at L.A.’s Japanese and Japanese American communities pre-Pearl Harbor through historic photographs.

Bloomberg City Lab covers the “hot” and complicated market for removed and toppled Jim Crow-era monuments. 

The New York Times looks at how some creative developers are re-envisioning how historic buildings in historically Black neighborhoods can serve communities and jumpstart reinvestment.

The 1899 Smith Playhouse in Philadelphia–a visionary play space that has “always been free and open to people of all races” and “quickly became a leader in a national movement that championed unstructured play as an essential part of every child’s education”–has undergone a major restoration, offering kids an updated space for analog play. The organization also aims to start a nature-focused preschool, specifically aimed at children from low-income families in the area.

A report from the Chicago Equity Series, “Why am I Always Being Researched,” looks at how the power dynamic between community organizations, researchers, and funders “creates an uneven field on which research is designed and allows unintended bias to seep into how knowledge is generated.”

The National Trust officially changed the name of the Farnsworth House to the Edith Farnsworth House. In light of the change, we revisited this old Chicago Tribune article from last year that sheds more light on the woman herself and an exhibition that brought her back into the home. 

Academic citations are evolving to recognize oral histories thanks to the efforts of a librarian who has developed citation templates for oral teachings shared by members of Indigenous communities.

This op-ed makes the case that any renovation is an opportunity to improve sustainability and address climate change.

Our very own Katlyn Cotton weighs in on sustainability and deconstruction and PlaceEconomics’ recent work in San Antonio in Bisnow.

PlaceEconomics Content Writer Starr Herr-Cardillo talks rowhouses and resilience in Hidden City Philadelphia. 

Adaptive reuse through the eyes of a 19th century factory worker? McSweeny’s gets the laugh this month.