Historic preservation is not only about bricks and mortar, not just about looking at old things or naming architectural styles, but it’s also about finding ways to preserve a community as a whole and add to a place’s cultural character.
The first-ever Lake Forest Preservation Symposium was held October 16 – 18, a three-day celebration of heritage, design, community and the future of preservation.
The event was a collaboration between The Lake Forest Preservation Foundation and Ragdale, produced in part to commemorate the shared 50th anniversaries of both organizations in Lake Forest.
Jennifer McGregor, executive director of the Lake Forest Preservation Foundation, says the three-day symposium brought together preservationists, architects, historians, architectural critics, civic leaders, national experts, and community members to consider and debate the role historic places play in shaping the future of American communities.
“The average local resident may appreciate the beauty of Lake Forest, but more rarely do they think about the part that preservation actually plays – in Lake Forest these efforts have been carefully monitored and measured, mindful and sensitive to development,” McGregor said.
The weekend public programs were abundant and varied; offerings included workshops, panel discussions, architectural tours, historic home experiences, exhibitions, and receptions.
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The symposium explored how preservation can serve not only as a tool for protecting the past, but also as a framework for civic and community identity, thoughtful growth, design excellence, environmental stewardship, and cultural continuity.
Symposium locations included Ragdale, Lake Forest College, the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Center, Lake Forest Library, Market Square, and select historic properties in Lake Forest.
McGregor says this was not a panel of preservationists agreeing with one another, but an intentionally assembled group of influential voices whose professional philosophies led to very different answers about the future of our cities.
“We specifically chose panelists with opposing views, including the lead from the Notre Dame architecture school, an architect who designed two of the world’s tallest buildings, a South Side architectural critic and author, and a global leader in vertical urbanism, to gather in little, idyllic Lake Forest, to debate themes like Preservation vs. Progress: Who Owns the Future of our Cities,” McGregor said.
Paul Sacaridiz, executive director of the Ragdale Foundation, says preservation is especially vital now, as cities large and small face growing populations and greater need for housing, workplaces, and more.
According to Sacaridiz, we have to be very careful in the decisions we make — to ask whose voices are present in larger discussions about shared spaces, how our values are reflected in the built environment, and ultimately, what kind of world we hope to live in.
“I think it’s easy to see preservation as a stumbling block to progress, as if protecting something must be at odds with moving forward,” Sacaridiz said, “but Ragdale is a great example of how a place can be thoughtfully preserved while continuing to grow and evolve.
According to McGregor, the Lake Forest Preservation Symposium arrives at a moment when communities across the country are wrestling with questions of growth, sustainability, adaptive reuse, housing, resilience, and civic character.
While preservation is often framed as a debate between past and future, this symposium, McGregor said, challenges that premise.
The weekend program was both celebratory and forward-looking – honoring the preservation achievements of the past half-century while positioning Lake Forest as a national forum for conversations that matter to communities everywhere.
“Lake Forest has never aspired to become a museum; it’s a living community where historic homes continue to be lived in, historic gardens continue to grow, historic buildings continue to adapt to contemporary life,” Arthur H. Miller, Architectural Historian and Director Emeritus, Lake Forest Preservation Foundation, said.
In 1857, Almerin Hotchkiss created a revolutionary curvilinear street plan in Lake Forest, a design that organically followed the ravines, maintaining a course set by nature; then later in 1916, the downtown city center, Market Square, paid homage to the Burnham plan.
“Lake Forest’s greatest distinction is not any single landmark, but the continuity of the community itself which exists because generations of residents chose stewardship over convenience and understood that preserving a community’s identity requires both vision and commitment,” Miller said.
Gina Grillo is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.