RALEIGH -- For a guy who didn't get into historic preservation for the history, Dan Becker sure knows a lot of it.
Name a notable building in Raleigh, and the details pour forth. He waxes poetic on the architectural flourishes and once-remote location of the Joel Lane house, details the purpose each of Glenwood Avenue's hotspots once served, traces the smattering of mid-century modern homes and offices in the University Park community back to the then-shocking tastes of a few professors.
But what Becker really loves is design - the often intangible elements, from floor plans to trim, that make a home, a street, or a neighborhood just feel good when you sit down to dinner or walk your dog.
"I didn't get into this because I like old things," he says. "I'm into the qualities of historic neighborhoods that add to our day-to-day experience."
In 25 years as director of the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission, Becker has helped shape the character of Raleigh's historic neighborhoods, championing an approach that welcomes the new while embracing the old, allowing the city to grow while still preserving relics of its past.
The commission celebrates its 50th anniversary today, and Becker is marking the occasion by handing over its reins, though he continues to work on preservation issues for the city. He is known nationally for his preservation work, serving as a board member and past president of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions.
"Dan is a tireless champion of preservation and the benefits of it," says Fred Belledin, chair of the commission. "He's been in the forefront of understanding where we need to have some flexibility to allow these areas to continue to evolve."
The entire city bears the imprint of the commission's work, Becker says, both in helping save buildings from the wrecking ball and in preserving the character of historic areas. The commission handles applications for exterior changes to buildings in historic districts.
"One of Raleigh's treasures is that you can follow the path of our development through time and find representative examples of what it was like from the very earliest years," he says. "We have this story line of our city's development over time."
Raleigh's Historic District Commission, created by the City Council in 1961, was among the first in the Southeast. It was founded over concerns about the impact of the city's first suburban shopping center--Cameron Village, built in the 1940s - on downtown. The national Historic Preservation Act wasn't adopted until 1966.
As what Becker disdainfully calls "automobile culture" flourished, downtown was abandoned in ever more dramatic fashion, leaving the stately buildings of the city's center to be hacked into boarding houses, demolished, or ravaged by time.
The same scenario played out across the country, Becker says, and a good number of important buildings were lost. But Raleigh's commission helped stem this tide with a steady diet of public education, government investment and tax incentives.
Success in Oakwood
One of the city's greatest successes is Oakwood, which was nearly paved over by a highway to downtown as part of a state plan adopted in the 1960s. Property owners rallied, raising enough revenue to buy historic buildings and sell them to homeowners willing to restore them. Property values soared.
The city commission played a role, too, Becker says.
"The thing that gave people security to make those investments was the historic district," he says. "That means you can love your home and care for it with the assurance that the people next door to you aren't going to do something really stupid."
Of course, the restrictions placed on property owners in these districts have also landed Becker in the middle of heated controversies - over a replica of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse erected on an Oakwood lawn, for instance, or the restaurateur who painted his downtown shop cherry red and sunshine yellow.
But such conflicts are relatively rare, Becker says; the commission, on average, approves 98 percent of its applications. In fact, many of Oakwood's homes have been discreetly enlarged.
Belledin, the commission chair, is also an architect who has also worked with Becker on getting projects approved. He describes Becker as a "master diplomat."
"He's passionate and it comes through, but he's also a realist," said Belledin. "He looks at how do we find the best balance of competing criteria to arrive at a solution that's not just fair but improves things, too."
Unlike "museum districts" that seek to faithfully replicate a certain historical area, Raleigh's historic districts are dynamic areas where contemporary buildings are allowed, provided they fit in aesthetically, a standard the historic districts commission upholds.
A prime example of this aesthetic is the building that now houses Marbles Kids Museum - with its thoroughly modern design that still seems to fit in amidst the downtown historic district.
"I like places that integrate the new while honoring what they had before and adding to it," Becker says. "That continuous tapestry is what really appealed to me as a designer."
Still a city planner
Becker, 56, grew up in Ohio, in a home that faced a river on one side and the small town of Maumee on the other. His father was a sales manager for a company that sold scientific glassware, such as beakers. His mother, a chemist, died when he was only 13.
Becker was diagnosed at age 2 with what would turn out to be a profound hearing impairment. Years of therapy and hearing aids have allowed him to hear and to speak nearly perfectly.
His career path began with a high school aptitude test that indicated he might enjoy a career in architecture. He liked the idea, and went to Miami University thinking he would be the next Frank Lloyd Wright.
He instead became interested in the way that buildings fit in with their surroundings, an idea that reminded him of his childhood home. He catered his studio work around environmental projects. One of them, a recreational project along the Miami River, went on to be his first job out of college.
From there, he moved to Memphis, where he worked on more urban preservation projects. As his career path continued into historic preservation, he never finished his qualifications to be an architect.
He came to Raleigh in 1986 with his wife when he landed a job with the city leading the commission.
While he is handing over those duties, he will continue in his role with the city as long-range planning manager. For at least the next year, that means he'll be focusing on steering a new comprehensive plan to approval - turning his attention toward the city's future, while keeping an eye forever on its past.
