In his book, winner of UMW’s 2025 Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize, Daniel Campo highlights the unique revitalization the movement is bringing and the people who are making it possible.
A lecture by the winner of the University of Mary Washington’s 2025 Center for Historic Preservation Book Prize will be presented on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 5:30 p.m., in Combs Hall, Room 139. Daniel Campo will speak about his book, Postindustrial DIY: Recovering American Rust Belt Icons.
Once bustling with more manufacturing jobs than anywhere else in the country, the Northeastern Great Lakes region hit its peak in the late 1940s. As the economy changed, cities like Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh closed factories, and the American Rust Belt began to take hold.
Now, as the area dusts off the rust, communities have begun to see beauty in the abandoned and reward in restoring once-meaningful structures. It’s a bottom-up renovation phenomenon that’s catching hold across the globe. Campo’s book digs into grassroots urbanism, as sites – iron mills, train stations, grain elevators – are renovated.
“The work calls attention to the power individuals have in shaping their environments … while the DIY era may be shifting, it is not yet over,” said jurors, who deemed it an exciting and empowering approach to historic preservation. “The book serves as a valuable roadmap for those interested in preserving sites that have historically been seen as liabilities – factories, silos, furnaces – and the innovative strategies that can drive change.” Read more.