Main Street’s Comeback: And How It Can Come Back Again

Mary Means is best known for leading the team that created the National Main Street Center. More than 1,600 towns and historic neighborhood corridors in 40+ states have successfully used the Main Street Approach to bring people back to their historic cores. Her small but mighty planning firm has helped communities and other public interest organizations with strategic plans that achieve strong public support. Her work has been honored by the American Planning Association with its 2018 Planning Pioneer Award, and by the National Trust for Historic Preservation with the 2020 Crowninshield Award, the highest honor in historic preservation.Randall Mason teaches in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at University of Pennsylvania, where he is Associate Professor in the Department of City & Regional Planning. He is also Senior Fellow, Penn Praxis. His books include The Once and Future New York: Historic Preservation and the Modern City (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) and Giving Preservation a History: Histories of Historic Preservation in the United States (edited with Max Page; Routledge, 2004). Mason was awarded the 2012-2013 National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize. B.A., Bucknell University, M.S., Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D., M.Phil., Columbia University