The purpose of this thesis is to promote a perspective of architectural evolution centred on heritage interpretation and its spatial representations, driven by matters of values, identity, and local history. This work suggests novel site analysis methodologies based on frameworks borrowed from storytelling, semiotics, and photography, working towards the design and development of 'Symbols, Sentinels and Reading Rooms' for the site. Findings and approaches orbit around ongoing, timely proposals for a new public library and architecture school, imagining conservation and its representations as facilitators of a public's sense of a 'co-created' place. As an exploratory project, the work argues that heritage conservation, in practices of design and planning, is an overlooked force in its capacity to foster and sustain relationships with the public. 'Cultivating Literacies of Place' strives¬ to make Central Industrial's spirit of place known—the site's atemporal stories, visual language, and the interpretation of heritage.