The Power of Place: Claiming Urban Landscapes as People's History

Place has become a powerful signifier within the academy as scholars attempt to reconstitute the plurality of voices evident within the built environment. Earlier attempts to rewrite traditional architectural histories, locating women and people of color within the "star" system of architectural practice, have failed on two accounts. Both the dearth of diverse practitioners and the elitist focus on objectified historical accounts effectively erased many from the constructed landscape. Thus redefining the historical focus as place rather than building or object attempts to bracket both the artifactual and lived histories of the built environment, thereby becoming more inclusive of power and agency on a multiplicity of levels. This sort of redefinition makes Dolores Hayden's new work an important theoretical and practical addition to the feminist and cultural studies of architecture. According to Hayden, "The politics of identity-however they may be defined around gender or race or neighborhood-are an inescapable and important aspect of dealing with the urban built environment, from the perspectives of urban history, urban preservation, and urban design. " Toward this more inclusive urban vision, the author uses innovative means to reclaim the complex and often eclipsed histories associated with urban spaces. Through her nonprofit organization, The Power ofPlace, she and her students form alliances with historians, artists, environmentalists, and community activists throughout Los Angeles in an attempt to recover memory and ultimately consensually reinscribe public landscapes with important and empowering histories so that their respective inhabitants can gain a present and future culturalpolitical voice. The book is divided into two parts. The first describes the theoretical framework of the urban history projects, and the second explains the three projects undertaken by her nonprofit organization. Hayden intended the book for both scholarly and general audiences, a strategy that has its advantages and disadvantages. Although consciously avoiding jargon, the author tends to oversimplify her discussion of current social theories as they relate to practice. Although the endnotes provide an informative view into the complexity of the theoretically dense interdisciplinary project, it is unfortunate that one has to search the small print at the back of the book for greater clarification. Hayden's grasp of the importance of theory to socially responsible urban projects goes a long way toward erasing the misguided notion that "social" in architecture means something less than rigorous. The projects that Hayden has undertaken, described in the second half of the book, are diverse and include a public artwork commemorating African-American homesteader and midwife, Biddy Mason; an installation remembering Latina labor organizers at the Embassy Auditorium; and a footpath through Little Tokyo, inlaid with memories of the Japanese immigrant experience in Los Angeles. Biddy Mason's homestead site, now a parking lot in Los Angeles, was one of the first projects completed by The Power ofPlace. Hayden, in collaboration with artists, historians, planners, and community members, was able to garner support for two permanent installations adjacent to the former homestead site: one an intimate window into Mason's life by assemblage artist Betye Saar, and the other the other a concrete wall inscribed with both the facts and artifacts of the midwife's life by artist Sheila Levrant de Bretteville.