From the Editor

SOHO Celebrates its 40th Year!

Join us in the commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of Save Our Heritage Organisation. SOHO was founded on January 1, 1969. We will be celebrating the last 40 years of achievements with considerable pride looking forward to the future with confidence by building on the solid foundation provided by the experience gained during our first four decades.

SOHO has been controversial at times and the organization has more often than not been on the cutting edge, from embracing the modernism movement to explaining and defining how environmental, sustainable and smart growth issues all parallel historic preservation. And in some cases we have come up with unconventional solutions that have brought us great success.

There may have been a time when preservation was about saving an old building here and there, but those days are gone. Preservation is in the business of saving communities and the values they embody. - Richard Moe, President, National Trust for Historic Preservation

It is appropriate at this time to acknowledge each individual member of SOHO, both new and old, the four decades of Presidents and Boards of Directors and the many volunteers who have all worked to make SOHO into one of the most formidable preservation advocacy voices in the country. While staffing at SOHO was limited and sporadic during its formative years, the last nine years have been witness to the hard-won stability of full-time staff; all of these people are to be congratulated. Also deserving of congratulations are our friends in the preservation field, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation with whom SOHO is a local partner. It is important to also acknowledge our great relationships with people in the media who have all been so generous over the years in covering our preservation stories and SOHO events. We value all of our partnerships with other like-minded organizations, local governmental agencies, and businesses.

To all who have helped SOHO in every year and through each decade to achieve our great success and status, we wholeheartedly say thank you.

For our official 40th Anniversary launch, a retrospective is being written by architectural historian, critic and preservationist Ann Jarmusch. She will be culling our archives, conducting interviews and researching the organization's history. All members will receive this; we will be sending out the 2009 calendar of events along with your special invitation to pick up the publication in person or have it mailed to you.

We encourage you and your friends and neighbors to join with us over the course of the next year's celebrations and share in our success.

With the many possibilities the future holds for you and your community SOHO really must depend on you more than ever. Our work is for the greater community good; it is for not only those of us who live and work here but for the generations to come and it is impossible to do alone. Consider making a donation today. We have an easy online donation process or you can call your credit card in or just send a check.

Community character is the theme of this issue of Our Heritage. Our new president Curt Drake addresses smart growth, Ann Jarmusch looks at it from the personal perspective, interviewing a few of the region's preservation leaders.

Julie Kolb writes about the need for historic districts and shows that this is one solid way of securing the future of all our cities and county. For preservationists it is the best way to protect areas at large rather than fighting for each structure one by one.

Kristin Kirwan speaks about what so many of us shake our heads in wonder at; how San Diego is destroying its renowned architectural personality in favor of another region's look. Janet O'Dea and Allen Hazard discuss the identification and importance of character-defining features and the personal stories each building has to tell.

More and more views are being expressed through the publication and we would like to add yours too! Please see page 52 for more details on how you too can get involved.

With this last issue of the 2008 year we get to congratulate once again the People In Preservation honorees and take yet another look at this year's Most Endangered.

On behalf of our board and staff we hope you will enjoy this double edition of Our Heritage.