Hosted by the Columbia University Historic Preservation program, the Fitch Forum 2011, 45 Years of Preservation Law: New York City and the Nation, the Past and the Future, will be a significant event at which the standing of historic preservation law in both New York City and across the country will be critically examined. Participants will evaluate the effectiveness of landmarks laws and identify challenges ahead. The 45th anniversary of the New York City landmarks ordinance provides the inspiration for practitioners in the fields of architecture, urban planning, preservation and the law to assess how far we have come and to discern what direction we need to take in the future.  In order to sustain successful stewardship of the preservation movement, we need to grapple with the powerful forces that continue to try to undermine the advances we have made in preservation law and policy.

Fitch Forum 2011 will engage participants in substantive discussions that are focused on challenges to preservation law and policy that exist today and that will grow more difficult to confront unless we tackle them now.  The goal is to lay the groundwork, defining current concerns and working with an array of experts.  The Forum will lead preservation, planning, architecture and law professionals who value landmarks laws into a very solid position going into the 50th anniversary of the New York City ordinance in 2015.

The event is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University, the Law Department of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, Preservation Alumni, and the Widener Law Review.