Landmarks Association of St. Louis

Missouri Historic Preservation Activity Growth Outpacing US GDP

 

Donovan Rypkema.

October 1, 2008 

On September 11, 2008, Donovan Rypkema delivered a rousing keynote speech on "The Economics of Historic Preservation" at the Missouri Statewide Preservation Conference in St. Charles. Rypkema's talk focused on Missouri, where he told the room of nearly 200 people that over $2 billion has been invested in historic preservation since the passage of the state historic rehabilitation tax credit in 1998. The news got even better as Rykema showed that Missouri historic preservation activity has grown at a faster rate than the state and national gross domestic products every year since the tax credit was created.  The full text of the speech with its useful accompanying graphs and figures is now online, courtesy of Missouri Preservation. 

Read the speech here in PDF format.

Rykema is author of the hallmark book The Economics of Historic Preservation (1994), principal of PlaceEconomics in Washington, D.C., and a frequent lecturer and writer on preservation economics.