i CHARLESTON CONTRADICTIONS: A CASE STUDY OF ...

towards a more Modernist curriculum, buildings from the past became less valued and
studied. As a result of this process whereby architects seemed to forget about or ignore
the history of their field, the historic preservation movement stepped in to save these
buildings and raise awareness of their importance. However, despite the fact that historic
preservation is very much interested in saving historic buildings, the overall philosophy is
in agreement with the Modernist principles that led to the rise of the movement in the
first place.
Several international conferences in the mid-twentieth century, and the documents
that resulted from them, helped to establish the ideas that now frame historic preservation
policy in the United States. The first one was the Athens Charter for the Restoration of
Historic Monuments that resulted from the meeting of the First International Congress of
Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments in Athens in 1931 (ICOMOS 1996).
This document set forth seven principles for historic preservation, including the ideas that
monuments deserve protection at the national level, modern techniques and methods are
permissible in preservation projects, and historic sites need strict protection. All of these
ideas would later be incorporated into preservation legislation and policy at the federal
level in the United States.
The Modernist architect Le Corbusier authored another Athens Charter, not to be
confused with the ICOMOS version, as a result of the 4 th meeting of the Congrès
Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne—better known as CIAM—in 1933 (Gold 1998,
225). The members of CIAM were interested in both architecture and town planning and
how the principles of Modernism could be applied to those fields. The charter advocated
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