Protect Providence Academy

Marathon Development and the Historic Trust have used the term “compatible juxtaposition” to describe one of the guiding principles for their proposed development.  It’s gotten a fair amount of ridicule from the public for its oxymoronic composition.  But it is unfortunate for another reason, because it reveals the Trust’s lack of understanding of historic preservation. You see, “juxtaposition” is a term of art in the preservation world.  The everyday usage of the word - to place two different things next to each other - doesn’t quite cover the meaning in preservation.  In historic preservation, Juxtaposition is a technique for approaching new construction on or near historic buildings that is meant to both differentiate the new work while also revealing/emphasizing what is significant about the historic building.  But it takes more than just making the new construction different.  It requires a firm understanding of what is significant about that historic building or site, and the