Celebrating the 50th: Professor to discuss resilience of San Antonio’s cultural heritage

Oct. 29, 2019 — William Dupont, the San Antonio Conservation Society Endowed Professor at UTSA and founder of UTSA’s Center for Cultural Sustainability, will present A Resilient Heritage: Designing San Antonio’s Future to Preserve Our Past as the 10th installment of the 50th Anniversary Scholars Speaker Series on Tuesday, Oct. 29. 

Dupont’s work informs how communities, designers and policymakers use heritage. His goal is to make cultural heritage more resilient and to raise awareness about what Dupont argues is one of the great challenges of our time. “I start from the premise that cultural heritage, like natural heritage, is easily harmed or destroyed if we do not make careful choices about how to keep what we value,” he said. 

He noted that San Antonio’s current growth rate will have negative effects if we do not plan carefully. “Rapid economic development has high potential to displace people from their homes, disrupt living heritage and destroy historically significant places,” Dupont explained. 

Fast change strains the existing built environment, increases vulnerability to disasters and decreases resilience to sustain, survive or recover. On the positive side, Dupont observes how greater resilience of cultural heritage strengthens communities, increases respect for cultural identity and deepens our understanding of each other as humans. 

The presentation will show how all heritage resources are vulnerable to threats from rapid economic transformation, natural disasters and global climate change. His body of work proactively designs for a future that retains the wisdom of past generations, promotes continuity of cultural identity and increases resilience of the built environment. Dupont conducts his research with the assistance of passionate colleagues and lots of enthusiastic students. 

“The work is important because change will happen inevitably,” Dupont said, “and it is certain to negatively impact what we value about heritage resources unless we take action now to make smart choices for the future.” 

He invites anyone to attend who loves the process of creative design and likes to apply rational thought to solving important problems. “They will see that UTSA has a great faculty and student body who are doing important work to improve the future of San Antonio,” he said. 

Dupont’s presentation is hosted free to the public by UTSA’s College of Architecture, Construction and Planning on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at the Southwest School of Art, Coates Chapel, 300 Augusta St., in downtown San Antonio. Doors to the venue, which includes a cash bar, will open at 6 p.m. Dupont will begin speaking at 6:30 p.m. and will be available to meet with attendees and answer questions at 7:15 p.m. 

To celebrate 50 years as San Antonio’s urban serving university and to thank San Antonio for its support and commitment to higher education, UTSA is presenting its 50th Anniversary Scholars Speaker Series throughout 2019, featuring experts on a broad range of contemporary issues that impact society today. Each event is free and open to the public.

— Pamela Lutrell

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