Arnold R. Alanen – författare

Historic preservation efforts began with an emphasis on buildings, especially those associated with significant individuals, places, or events. Subsequent efforts were expanded to include vernacular architecture, but only in recent decades have preservationists begun shifting focus to the land itself. Cultural landscapes-such as farms, gardens, and urban parks-are now seen as projects worthy of the preservationist's attention. To date, however, no book has addressed the critical issues involved in cultural landscape preservation. In Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America, Arnold R. Alanen and Robert Z. Melnick bring together a distinguished group of contributors to address the complex academic and practical questions that arise when people set out to designate and preserve a cultural landscape.Beginning with a discussion of why cultural landscape preservation is important, the authors explore such topics as the role of nature and culture, the selling of heritage landscapes, urban parks and cemeteries, Puerto Rican neighborhoods in New York City, vernacular landscapes in small towns and rural areas, ethnographic landscapes, Asian American imprints on the western landscape, and integrity as a value in cultural landscape preservation. Contributors: Arnold R. Alanen, University of Wisconsin-Madison * Luis Aponte-Peres, University of Massachusetts-Boston * Gail Lee Dubrow, University of Washington, Seattle * Richard Francaviglia, University of Texas, Arlington * Donald L. Hardesty, University of Nevada, Reno * Catherine Howett, University of Georgia, Athens * Robert Z. Melnick, University of Oregon * Patricia M. O'Donnell, Historic Preservation Consultant, Charlotte, Vermont * David Schuyler, Franklin & Marshall College

From 1915 to 1971 the large U.S. Steel plant was a major part of Duluth’s landscape and life. Just as important was Morgan Park-an innovatively planned and close-knit community constructed for the plant’s employees and their families. In this new book Arnold R. Alanen brings to life Morgan Park, the formerly company-controlled town that now stands as a city neighborhood, and the U.S. Steel plant for which it was built.  Planned by renowned landscape architects, architects, and engineers, and provided with schools, churches, and recreational and medical services by U.S. Steel, Morgan Park is an iconic example-like Lowell, Massachusetts, and Pullman, Illinois-of a twentieth-century company town, as well as a window into northeastern Minnesota’s industrial roots.  Starting with the intense political debates that preceded U.S. Steel’s decision to build a plant in Duluth, Morgan Park follows the town and its residents through the boom years to the closing of the outmoded facility-an event that foreshadowed industrial shutdowns elsewhere in the United States-and up to today, as current residents work to preserve the community’s historic character.  Through compelling archival and contemporary photographs and vibrant stories of a community built of concrete and strong as steel, Alanen shows the impact both the plant and Morgan Park have had on life in Duluth.  Arnold R. Alanen is professor of landscape architecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His previous books include Main Street Ready-Made: The New Deal Community of Greendale, Wisconsin and Preserving Cultural Landscapes in America.

A guide to the built environment and history of one of the Midwest’s most popular roadsJourney along Minnesota’s North Shore, the spectacular Lake Superior coastline between Duluth and the Canadian border, and travel through natural and cultural splendor. The North Shore Scenic Drive, the stretch of Minnesota Highway 61 that leads through tunnels and remarkable vistas, crosses rivers and streams and rocky divides as it makes its way through fishing villages, logging sites, tourist enclaves, Grand Portage National Monument, Superior National Forest, and numerous state parks that have made the North Shore a beloved destination for generations. This is the North Shore explored in The Scenic Route, a field guide to the cultural landscape that comprises one of the Midwest’s most famous byways.    The highway corridor and lakeshore offer evidence of human activities that began after the retreat of glacial ice, when the Anishinaabe people plied the waters of Lake Superior. Euro-American explorers and traders followed, and soon the footpaths established by the region’s first inhabitants were used by dogsleds, horse-drawn sleighs, and coaches-and then, in 1917, the rugged trails became the early motor road that would eventually be Minnesota Highway 61.    Arnold R. Alanen follows these denizens and visitors, exploring the material world they built along the way: cabins and resorts, docks and fish houses, farms and logging operations, as well as churches, cemeteries, streetscapes, bridges, schools, lighthouses, parks, waysides, and roadside attractions. Interwoven with his tour of the built environment are stories of the people who shaped the cultural heritage along Minnesota’s North Shore.