whole communities, like New Castle, Delaware, or parts of communities, like the Vieux Carre in New Orleans or Georgetown, D.C., or important or beautiful building groups such as were or still are to be found on or about our Texas or California missions, New England greens, our Pennsylvania Dutch towns, or the Virginia court-house compounds. It is my thesis that we have neglected with resulting tragic loss, the historic and architecturally supporting surroundings of our most historic and beautiful buildings, places and squares. Important volumes have been written in the field of architectural aesthetics and theory, from Camille Sitte to Christopher Tunnard, on the value of building groups and of a supporting cast for major structures, but city by city, village by village, the national lack of sensitivity to scale and group design has done irreparable damage not only to our heritage but to the beauty of our communities. We have tended to concentrate our attention on a doorway, a cornice, or a cupola, as though a building existed in its own highly specialized vacuum. Only in a very few selected areas have we allowed our eyes to roam the full 360 degrees. Such 360-degree areas as are still remaining in New Orleans, La., Charleston, S. C., San Juan, Porto Rico, San Antonio, Texas, Georgetown, D. C., Provincetown, Mass., Herman, Mo., Natchez, Miss., or in Central Pennsylvania or New England or New York or Ohio villages, therefore, become especially precious to us. It is not easy to take stock of activities in the 3600 historic area today. They are not only varied in type and geographic distribution but they also demonstrate wide range of technical competency, historic accuracy, histrionics, and what might be called "degrees of applied emotion." From the driest of archeological "digs" to the most saccharin of our sentimental reconstructions are to be found the infinite choices which beset the historian and those of us concerned with the process of historic preservation. Somewhere in the infi ite choices to be made there is a broad b nd of good taste, discernment, and human understanding which can be adjus ed to both the scientific and romantic interests of all of us.