TROY -- Bernd Foerster, a preservation pioneer who was a singular, questioning voice of wholesale Urban Renewal demolition of the 1960s, will return more than 30 years later to reconsider the Capital Region's preservation wins and losses.

A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor and acting dean while huge swaths of local downtowns were being cleared for massive public projects, Foerster will have the chance to see the results, including the monumental Empire State Plaza and Troy's Kennedy Towers. Foerster is now professor and dean emeritus of the College of Architecture, Planning and Design at Kansas State University.

Foerster will share his fresh insights on the Capital Region and discuss the evolution of historic preservation in a March 24 lecture, "We Are What We Keep: More Architecture Worth Saving.'' The talk will be at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 24, at the First United Presbyterian Church, 1915 Fifth Ave. The building is handicapped accessible.

"This is a golden moment. Here we have someone who was carefully cataloging the loss of whole streets, and arguing that rehabilitation -- not demolition -- would help revive cities, but this keen observer never got to see the results of such drastic measures,'' said Michael Lopez, a preservationist at the non-profit Troy Architectural Program. "Now, we'll hear how those times shaped the cities we live and work in today, and how communities can use historic preservation as a key to their future successes.''

Foerster in 1965 published "Architecture Worth Saving,'' a seminal book on significant architecture in Troy and Rensselaer County. The book urged readers to consider architecture as art and argued that well-maintained buildings did not deserve the label of white elephant so easily applied by proponents of new, sometimes, inferior buildings. Foerster also was featured in a 1964 National Educational Television documentary, "What Do You Tear Down Next?" The black-and-white film features raw, edgy images of the destruction of row upon row of buildings in downtown Troy and stark vistas of vacant land in Schenectady, where development schemes went awry. The film will be screened before the lecture.

TAP Inc., Siena Program for Sustainable Land Use and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute partnered to sponsor Foerster's return to the Capital Region. The program is partly funded by the New York Council for the Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.*

"The Siena Program for Sustainable Land Use is proud to co-sponsor this unique and timely event,'' said Director Matt Lindstrom, of Siena College." As industrial cities carve out an existence in a post-industrial economy, it's keenly important to understand how architecture and urban design can help establish thriving, vibrant community destinations."

"Bernd's work saved more than blocks of buildings in Troy. It preserved an urban lifestyle that is now so valued it is being replicated in new urbanist developments all over the country. We have the real thing and it is the basis for Troy's economic renaissance today,'' said Barbara L. Nelson, project manager of campus planning and facilities design at Rensselaer. Rensselaer's Community Outreach Partnership Center is a co-sponsor of Foerster's visit. His preservation work is "proof that individuals can galvanize a community and that communities can shape their future,'' she added.

The free lecture will be the centerpiece of a number of activities during Foerster's three-day visit, which will include sessions for architecture and planning students at Rensselaer and Siena.

* Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the New York Council for the Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.