If every building is both an addition and a subtraction, every act of unbuilding is also both a subtraction and an addition. – Keller Easterling
St. Louis-based cultural and architectural historian Michael Allen takes a deep look at the city this month. As the Pulitzer’s urbanist-in-residence, Allen is leading a series of public programs to unpack the complex social, political, and historical contexts of our current exhibition, raumlaborberlin: 4562 Enright Avenue. Focused on the shifting cityscape of St. Louis and other similar post-industrial cities, Allen’s residency explores the characterization of vacancy, the emergence of new urban forms, the geography of land management systems, capital reinvestment, and the politics of preservation.
Allen’s work emphasizes the multifaceted dimensions of preservation planning in Rust Belt cities. He founded the Preservation Research Office (PRO) in 2009 and serves as the Director, leading the independent public architectural history and historic preservation company in architectural surveys, historic district nominations, and rehabilitation planning efforts across the City of St. Louis, East St. Louis, and other cities in Missouri and Illinois. In addition to his work at PRO, Allen holds appointments as Lecturer in Landscape Architecture and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches courses in critical urban geography, historic preservation, and architectural history.
Keller Easterling, Subtraction. Critical Spatial Practice, ed. Nikolaus Hirsch and Markus Miessen, vol. 4 (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2014), 74.
