Modernist and some Postmodernist buildings have long since passed the normal fifty-year threshold for landmarking, yet because they don’t seem “old,” they’re often not considered historic and risk being lost or irreversibly altered. (Our sense of time has changed: in 1955, when Disneyland opened, Main Street, USA portrayed an era only fifty years older that seemed incredibly nostalgic and old-fashioned. Imagine a theme park opening today with people piloting Mazda Miatas around Postmodernland [though Disney’s Tomorrowland, largely transported from the 1964 New York World’s Fair, got a Postmodern makeover in 1998 to make it seem less dated].)

I had the privilege of carrying out the first three landmarkings of Modernist and Futurist buildings in San Luis Obispo (the Schwartz, Pimentel-Orth, and Page-Selkirk Houses, designed by late San Luis Mayor Ken Schwartz), as well as preventing the delisting of the only Postmodern landmarked building in the city (Marshall’s Jewelers, designed by Richard Yaco with wrought iron by master blacksmith Gary Cully). What is relatively recent is often overlooked or even reviled—until it’s too late to save it.