Boston — Jean Carroon, Principal at Goody Clancy and Board Member of Preservation Massachusetts has emerged as a leader in the movement to recognize the essential role adaptive reuse can play in the transition to sustainability that will transform North America – and the world – in the 21st Century.

Using 50 exemplary buildings from across the continent, she documents dozens of imaginative ways to advance sustainability within heritage projects. Sustainable Preservation also demonstrates how a thoughtful, imaginative approach can transform structures as mundane as a strip-mall supermarket into high-performing environmental stars that delight contemporary use. Congratulations Jean!

To purchase a copy of Sustainable Preservation: Greening Existing Buildings, click here.

A tour guide to dark places, their people long vanished

By Emily Sweeney|The Boston Globe| November 7, 2010

Massachusetts — Jason Baker likes taking pictures of abandoned buildings, inside and out.

Armed with his trusty flashlight and camera, Baker recently visited the long-shuttered Lakeville State Hospital, where he captured haunting images of empty hallways and dilapidated examination rooms.

The 29-year-old calls himself an “urban ruins photographer,’’ and his passion for documenting decaying places has brought him into the darkened corridors of insane asylums, closed schools, and other deserted institutions.

Baker just published his third book, “Abandoned 2,’’ which features his photographs accompanied by a collection of short horror stories. He will be showing some of his work at Gallery X in New Bedford this month.

Baker, a Marlborough native who now lives in Malden…

For the full article, click here.

To view the gallery of abandoned properties in Massachusetts, click here.

Massachusetts hometown of W.E.B. Du Bois comes to terms with famous son

By Russell Contreras|The Washington Post| November 8, 2010

Great Barrington, Massachusetts — He’s the most famous son of this quiet mountain hamlet in western Massachusetts. But until recently, people looking for signs of W.E.B. Du Bois’s life and legacy in Great Barrington would have had a hard time finding them.

For decades since Du Bois’s death in Ghana in 1963, the civil rights activist and scholar has drawn praise for his writings but scorn from residents upset that he joined the Communist Party, became a citizen of Ghana and often criticized the United States over race relations.

FBI agents and riot police guarded a park dedication to him more than 40 years ago. Efforts to name a school after him were blocked. Some residents saw him as the father figure of black radicalism, and they remained conflicted over his legacy and his relationship with the largely white town he often romanticized in writings.

But now, as Great Barrington prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, supporters say Du Bois is finally getting his due…

For the full article, click here.

Get acquainted with the resources on Preservation Massachusetts 2010 Most Endangered List. Visit our YouTube page and watch the 2010 MER video and see incredible images and learn about these incredible yet threatened resources.

Click here to watch the video and don’t forget to subscribe to PM’s channel on YouTube!