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Heard to hold architecture debate
BY DANNY GALLAGHER, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Collin County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the country and when new buildings and houses are being built on almost a monthly basis, it's easy to overlook the historical influences that brought it here.
“The most interesting thing about it is just how much the county's changing,” said Byrd Williams, chairman of the photography and graphic design department of Collin County Community College. “We are sort of the test lab for the urbanization of the future because there's nobody growing like us Š but we've got to keep our history intact, too.”
The Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary will hold a presentation and roundtable discussion on the preservation efforts and issues surrounding the county's historic architecture at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“Really the idea is how do we try to preserve that environment and do we want to preserve it,” Giersch said. “We're asking is that important to us and is our past important to us Š In my mind, really what we're looking at is our environment and how do we function within that space.”
Williams said the growth of cities such as Dallas and Fort Worth have shown how urbanization can affect historical architecture, so the discussion is a way of cutting the issue off at the pass.
“My role is to sort of make everybody aware of this preservation,” Williams said. “With the value of communities such as Dallas and Fort Worth over the last 150 years and the explosion of Collin County, I feel like we need to raise the consciousness of this heritage we have.”
Giersch said since Collin County was sparsely populated in the 1830s, very little historic architecture remains, with the exception of some homes and buildings such as the Chestnut Square Historic Village, and architecture is one of the keys that can help Collin County retain its historical influences.
“Architecture is certainly the embodiment of human endeavors, so in that sense, it does capture our history and it does connect us to our past,” Giersch said. “It's really to get people to question themselves and ask is it important and is it something people want to preserve.”
Contact Danny Gallagher at dgallagher@acnpa-pers.com.
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