Beyond Architectural Style: What Should Preservation Preserve?

More and more, local public discourse reminds us that Santa Fe’s appearance tells only part of its story. Behind architectural identity are overlapping histories of Indigenous settlement, Spanish colonization, cultural adaptation, and a never-ending relationship between people and landscape. Drawing on purposeful observation through photography, recent writing, and observations of Santa Fe and the nearby Salinas Pueblo Missions, Chuck Wolfe will look beyond familiar forms to the human experiences, traditions, and historical consequences that give places their holistic identities. Wolfe challenges the familiar opposition between protecting historic character and accommodating change, suggesting that neither preservation nor abundance, considered alone, offers a complete civic vision. Central to his presentation is what he calls the “replacement question”: If Santa Fe’s signature visual vocabulary suddenly disappeared, how would the city sustain its collective memory, adapt, and endure? REGISTER