A concern for preserving features of the built and natural environment stretches back for several millennia, but only over the past century or so has there been a concerted and systematic effort to work towards saving these types of places. Many such Top 10 endangered places or buildings lists are released every year, but one of the more intriguing is the biennial list of the top 100 most...

In the early 1960s, Colonel James A. Gray started the organization that would become the World Monuments Fund (WMF). With a keen eye towards preserving places and monuments associated with the great cultural achievements spread across the continents, the WMF’s first project was to assist in the restoration of the medieval churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia. With offices in New York and across Western...