The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

21.5 | Site plan, Embassy project, 1989–1991.
Claiming Women’s History in the Urban Landscape
urban history, and at the same time gave them the chance to work as interns
on local projects with diverse organizations as co-sponsors.
For the city itself there are also rewards. Putting working people’s
history into downtown expands the potential audience for all urban preservation
and public art. The recognition of important cultural heritage in
diverse working people’s neighborhoods can support other kinds of
community organizing—including neighborhood economic development
and planning for affordable housing. Teachers can bring classes to the sites
to launch educational projects on women’s history. Last, but not least, public
space dedicated to women’s history and ethnic history, especially to projects
focused on working women of color, claims political territory in
tangible ways. Women can meet in these historic places and work together
on new issues, supported by the collective knowledge of earlier struggles.
And this fosters a public realm where, at last, we as women are free to be
ourselves and to see ourselves as strong and wise people, because we have
represented ourselves that way.
Across the country today, I see many successful preservation projects
focusing on women’s history, such as the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights
National Historical Park. And at the same time, promoting ethnic diversity
in preservation has become a goal shared by many organizations, including
the National Trust for Historic Preservation; so projects involving African
American, Asian American, and Latina/Latino history are receiving higher