DEFINING APPROPRIATENESS: An analysis of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards on Additions to Historic Structures and its Impact on the Practice of Architecture, Development and Preservation

The research begins with an examination of the history and development of the Historic Preservation Act. The motive for the investigation of this history is to contextualize the creation of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and its recommendations as they apply to additions to historic structures. This is to inform the question that the thesis seeks to pose, which is, whether the Standards’ position on appropriateness regarding historic building additions should be reconsidered. The issue is important to the preservation, architectural and development communities because of the outsized impact of the Standards on preservation policy throughout the United States.