PLACES IN PERIL
A Legacy Endangered.
We believe without people, the buildings and spaces and places we work in and around are essentially irrelevant. With people however, buildings have a voice: The history they embody, the culture they carry forward. Every building has a story to share. Stories connect us to people, to places, and sometimes to the hopeful promise of a bright future. The deeper these connections, the greater the value – civic, social, cultural, emotional, spiritual, financial, ancestral – and value is a great motivator. When we’re motivated, we take action, and action is a necessary ingredient for change.
Change is needed in Sweet Auburn. Not in interpreting its rich history, but in navigating its questionable future. Twice named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Endangered List” (1992, 2012), and twice listed on The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Places in Peril” (2006, 2013), we find ourselves in a continuing state of jeopardy, a national treasure targeted in the crosshairs, an international legacy hanging in the balance.
These stories — and places — in peril represent history and culture and community and business and love and war and song and dance and art and favorite foods and politics and peace and civil rights and the struggle of a people and the movement Dr. King dreamed would lead to the realization of the beloved community. But what if the remaining buildings, and the history and culture surrounding them, were to crumble, burn, or be bulldozed to the ground like so many before them? With that, we would lose our way, our identity, and cumulatively our path forward.
It is for these reasons that we so deeply believe in the work we do at Gene Kansas. Our effort on cultural development, in historic preservation, through community building keeps us motivated and fulfilled. If you’d like to join the effort, please reach out and let us know. We’d love to talk.
