Our essential questions are:

What determines if a site is preserved and how do preserved vs unpreserved areas change over time? 

How can studying NY history and photographing it improve our understanding of its future?

We have been exploring our first essential question through analysis of the photos we have been taking and additional research. By looking at the photos, we can research the story behind every building and use that to determine what affects preservation. Other forms of research tell us about how areas will change once they have been designated for preservation, which is in the form of landmarking and historic districts. Another way that we have been researching is by meeting with Yukie and reading additional sources. Some of these include Seeking New York by Tom Miller and Working by Robert Caro, which has a section on the work of Robert Moses. The second question is an extension of the first, and will come later in our project as we gather more photos and information. This is not very different from what we expected and is successful in preparing us to succinctly answer both questions. I would say the main challenge is filling up hours when there are circumstances that prevent us from going to other neighborhoods to take photos. We are both playing school softball and I am playing outside of school so the past couple of weeks it has been a little difficult to make trips. We have addressed this by spending more time during these days going through photos we have taken and researching them individually, which can be very time consuming. So far we have learned about the influence of money and power on preservation, as well as the increased likelihood of institutions such as churches and schools being preserved. We have also learned a lot about landmarking and the process of development in the city. We want to learn more about the process of preservation and development outside of the city, so that is what we are going to focus on next.