Liu 1 Yuyao Liu Kristen Foster CO150, 400 October 20th, 2013 Should the City Demolish Old,

Historic Buildings? An Annotated Bibliography With the fast development of the modern city, the controversy of whether to demolish old, historic buildings or not in the city has become a hot topic. I have been interested in this topic since a year ago when I was preparing for the TOEFL Test and I found a similar topic in the writing section. Obviously, this topic is really controversial and exigent in todays society. Although historic buildings can be unsafe, and demolishing them will provide more space for new buildings and improve the image of cities, they can record great historical events, bring business benefits to the society and be used as good examples to teach future generations. As a resident in a city, like all the stakeholders, including citizens, government and estate developers, I pay attention to this discussion because it is closely related to my benefits. The research question which guided my research is: Should the city demolish old, historic buildings? I conducted my research between October 3rd and October 20th, 2013. I use four sources in this annotated bibliography, and there are three academic articles, two of which come from famous magazines, another one is published in a peer-reviewed journal. The one remaining source is a blog which contains many advantages of protecting old buildings.

Liu 2 Dreazen, Yochi. "The Brazen Bibliophiles of Timbuktu" The New Republic 244.6 (2013): 32-37. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. This scholarly article talks about some important factors to protect historic sites in the city. The heritage conservators and other people who are interested in this topic are the intended audience. The author attempts to give us some reasons about protecting the old buildings. He claims that those historic heritages can reflect the specific culture and economic development of the city. According to the author s primary research and statistics, we can also save construction costs by making use of structures that are already there. So the author claims that cities should focus on using the existing old buildings instead of demolishing them.

This source is credible because it was published in April of 2013, which makes it quite recent. Also, the publication is The New Public, a famous American magazine published continuously since 1914. However, there is a limitation that this article ignores many other important reasons of protecting old buildings, it focuses too much on some related aspects because of the specific situation it analyzes.

This source helps me research the necessities and advantages of heritage conservation by analyzing the reasons in detail which can convince audience to support his point of view. For example, he focuses on the cultural values and researches old buildings irreplaceable culture, which are also cared by other scholars, government and tourists.

Liu 3 Hammer, Joshua. "Wrecking History." Smithsonian 40.12 (2010): 24-33. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. This academic article from magazine Smithsonian was written for scholars and researchers who are interested in the demolishing history of old towns, including historic conservators, developers and policy planers. The author tries to investigate the reasons about government destroying the historic buildings in Kashgar, a Chinese old town, by doing primary research there and using his own personal experience about discussing the related events with locals. According to the author, the government announces the historic buildings in Kashgar are unsafe because of long history and earthquakes. When conducting further research, he found the more significant reason was that Chinese government wanted to encourage internal migration and improve the economic development at this place.

This source is credible for the reason that the author has a high reputation about journalist, and he has taken up many important positions in press circles(Wikipedia). In addition, this article published in Smithsonian. One limitation of this article is that the background is an old town in China, which is not very representative.

This source is really helpful to my research by giving some reasons why Chinese government demolished historic buildings in the city, such as the security and the requirement of economic development. It also provides different perspectives about this issue between two stakeholder groups, government and residents.

Liu 4 Neely, Jack. Whats historic?--And Who Says? Nine Practical Reasons to Save Old Buildings. Metro PULSE. Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group, 16 Jan. 2013 Web. 20 Oct 2013. Neelys blog was written for old buildings protectors who try to call on the world to protect historic architecture. The author attempts to research as many as reasons about historic conservation. Based on some primary research and the authors personal experience, he claims that old buildings always have more intrinsic values, they are attractive to tourists. If we demolish the historic buildings, individuals cannot know the functions of them, and it may also lead to a large cultural and economic loss in the future.

This blog is credible because the publication date is Jan, 16, 2013, which is really recent. Furthermore, the author conducts some research and uses many great examples to analyze the importance of protecting old buildings. However, the article is informal because it is just published in a blog website.

This source is relevant to my research. It provides me various reasons about protecting historic sites, and the information is really rich. Some of opinions are very advanced and broaden my horizons. For example, the author considers future generations, untrusted developers and even anybody as stakeholders, so the reasons the author gives us are extensive and reasonable, which is helpful to my research.

Liu 5 Zhu, L., and R. Goethert. "Different Approaches in Conservation of Historic Cities in China." Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Municipal Engineer 163.3 (2010): 189-196. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. This scholarly article written for other researchers who are trying their best to change and improve historic buildings instead of demolishing them. The authors hope to protect old buildings by repairing them. According to their primary research, the authors claim this plan is great, not only the historic buildings in the city can avoid being demolished, but we will save more money because we dont have to establish a lot of new buildings. The authors use Beijing, the Chinese capital, as an example. Now Beijing are trying their best to repair and protect historic sites, and there are some rational reasons and many methods which are really useful for all of cities.

Several factors contribute to the credibility of this source. First of all, it is published in a peer-reviewed journal, which has high credibility, additional, the authors use some great real examples to analyze the topic, which makes this article become more reliable. The shortage is that it focuses on the programs of reconstructing historic buildings, I cannot find many reasons about repairing old buildings.

The source is helpful to my research, it represents a new perspective and this opinion is more useful in the development of cities. Beijing is a good example, there are many historic heritages in the downtown, and all the stockholders, including residents, estate developers and government, are trying their best to repair old buildings.

Liu 6 Work Cited Dreazen, Yochi. "The Brazen Bibliophiles of Timbuktu." New Republic 244.6 (2013): 32-37. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. Hammer, Joshua. "Wrecking History." Smithsonian 40.12 (2010): 24-33. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. Neely, Jack. Whats historic?--And Who Says? Nine Practical Reasons to Save Old Buildings. Metro PULSE. Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group, 16 Jan. 2013 Web. 20 Oct 2013. Zhu, L., and R. Goethert. "Different Approaches in Conservation of Historic Cities in China." Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Municipal Engineer 163.3 (2010): 189-196. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.