Preservation Is Overtaking Us "Preservation
is Overtaking Us" brings together two lectures given by Rem Koolhaas at
Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and
Preservation, along with a response (framed as a supplement to the
original lectures) by Jorge Otero-Pailos. In the first essay Koolhaas
describes alternative strategies for preserving Beijing, China. The
second talk marks the inaugural Paul Spencer Byard lecture, named in
celebration of the longtime professor of Historic Preservation at GSAPP.
These two lectures trace key moments of Koolhaas' thinking on
preservation, including his practice's entry into China and the
commission to redevelop the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg,
Russia. In a format well known to Koolhaas' readers, Otero-Pailos
reworks the lectures into a working manifesto, using it to interrogate
OMA's work from within the discipline of preservation.
