NO current discussion of cities can avoid addressing the issue of historic preservation. Twenty-five years ago, the solution to the “urban crisis” was said to be the demolition of cramped obsolete structures and their replacement with ordered modern towers in a pristine environment free from clutter; today, urban planners want to save older buildings as a means “to justify an increasingly dismal existence in a rapidly deteriorating urban environment.” 1 What 50 years ago was the sole province of wealthy dowagers has become the latest weapon of urban reformers, who argue that: