Lachlan F. Blair Papers, 1919, 1933-2000 | University of Illinois Archives

Lachlan F. Blair (1919-2001) was professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from 1966 to 1988. He specialized in historic preservation and contributed to the urban planning field through practice, teaching, and advocacy.

Blair spent many years teaching preservation and urban planning at UIUC. He earned national recognition for his work on College Hill, a demonstration study of historic area renewal (College Hill, Rhode Island, City Plan Commission, 1967), which was one of the earliest plans for urban renewal in the US to prioritize historic preservation concerns. Locally in Urbana and Champaign, Blair also served as principal in Blair Associates (1957-64) and the URBANA Group (1986-99). He was an active promoter of preservation, and he helped found the Preservation and Conservation Association (PACA) in 1981, serving as its first vice president and second president. He also worked for the passage of preservation ordinances in Champaign and Urbana, and he served on Urbana's first Historic Preservation Commission.

Blair died on August 5, 2001.

Sources:

Preservation and Conservation Association (PACA) newsletter, vol. 1, no. 4, July/August 2001, accessed April 16, 2020, http://pacacc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Vol21No4.pdf.

College Hill, a demonstration study of historic area renewal (College Hill, Rhode Island, City Plan Commission, 1967), accessed via UIUC library on April 16, 2020, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035381303&view=1up&seq=4.