Historic Preservation and Shrinking Cities: Neighborhood Strategies for Buffalo and Cleveland
Dual Degree Master’s Thesis (2010-2011)

Legacy Cities (formerly referred to as Shrinking Cities), located primarily along the Rust Belt, have suffered significant population losses and economic disinvestment over the last few decades.  As a result, they face an abundance of vacant and abandoned buildings, many of which are considered historic.  These cities have been responding to this surplus with aggressive ad hoc demolition campaigns that are eroding the historic context of neighborhoods.

Legacy cities have been the center of an emerging discussion among urban planning practitioners and scholars who are creatively addressing ways these cities can “rightsize” to become smaller, healthier places.  However, the historic preservation perspective is largely absent from this conversation, though the preservation field should be most concerned with ongoing losses of historic buildings and the effect on neighborhoods.

Using Cleveland and Buffalo as case studies, this thesis examines how historic preservation can contribute to the “rightsizing” of shrinking neighborhoods in shrinking cities.  Further, it analyzes what the preservation community is currently doing to address rightsizing and possible roles historic preservation can play in shaping the future of shrinking cities, and offers recommendations to inform preservation efforts moving forward.