good bones preservation

Perhaps this book is being held, and this page being read, by someone who’s not quite sure of themselves, but has an inkling that they’d like to design things or buildings or places. Have faith in your abilities; look, learn, draw and express yourself. Believe, and I am sure it can happen. We are living in unsettled times, when the problems of the world can seem insurmountable, but I am convinced that with the dedication and skill of new generations, life will continue to flourish, and our planet will become better, more resilient, and a more just and beautiful place, if we make it so.

-Ben Pentreath

Last year, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture from Ben Pentreath. His lecture touched me in ways I never expected, and I ended up purchasing his new book, An English Vision. With my previous job, I had been to an exorbitant amount of lectures, none of which led to me purchasing (in my head) an overpriced, underwhelming, & extremely heavy coffee-table book to collect dust wherever it lands. Before, I had always felt isolated from the architects, designers, & archivists that came to sell their books to the whimsical & audacious Palm Beach crowd. I don’t even know why it is that I felt that way–I have always been creative & artistic & had an eye for style. That night, I read Ben’s whole book from front to back. The quote above is on page 13, & I feel it reach out and wrap its fingers around my heart every time.

Growing up in Greenville, South Carolina, I would beg my parents to drive me around the historic district weekly. This was something I could do relentlessly. It was never boring to me; I needed to drink in the bay windows & old brick walls & Victorian balconies like some people need water. Still, when I was a Sophomore in college my (then) boyfriend asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated. Dismally, I said that the only thing I really want is to work with historic homes. I felt like the job I wanted was not a job that existed, & I did not feel adequate to create it.

Good Bones Preservation is my offering to me. It is my offering to every person in history who helped preserve a building or a home, it is my offering to the women & men who slept in trees so they would not be cut down, it is my offering to everyone who had to see a building that housed a lifetime of memories become a pile of rubble.

May we preserve great buildings & materials, and by proxy make the world “a more just and beautiful place.”

Amen.