Advocacy
Essay: Can Historic Preservation Help Lead Us Out of the Recession
Publication Date:
September 28, 2009Written By:
James T. Kienle, FAIASource:
Contract MagazineRead more...
Synopsis:
Kienle discusses a great opportunity for our cities and towns during this recession – historic preservation and adaptive reuse. The housing and construction bust has shown us that we can not endlessly develop new buildings. Couple this with the exorbitant amount of virgin materials that new construction requires and you have a recipe to reevaluate “development.” This perfect storm has opened up the developer, architectural, and construction fields to reconsider old, vacant buildings. Kienle suggests that there is great economic potential by focusing on adaptive reuse. “Studies show that dollar for dollar, historic preservation is one of the highest job-generating economic development options as illustrated in the 2005 presentation “The Economics of Historic Preservation” by Don Rypkema.”
Doing The Numbers
Synopsis:
An open house and panel discussion was hosted at the adapted 4th+Linden buildings in Long Beach, California. The focus of the event – the success of adaptive reuse. A number of architects, developers and real-estate industry professionals attended in order to learn more about how the development of the host building site was able to succeed in light of the current economic situation. One of the main reasons the project stayed in the black was that construction costs stayed under $1 million. This was due in large part to the fact that the developer reused the building rather than tearing it down. Another ingredient for its success was the swift turnaround. As the developer was able to work with an existing building, it was faster for them to complete the conversion, sell it, and get a tenant than it would have been to tear down, permit and title, rebuild, sell, and gain tenants. Five of the eight units in the building have already been sold. Project developer Brad Gwinn, and the evening’s moderator, noted that a mix of low rent, cost per square foot, and Long Beach’s support of adaptive reuse could help the community through the recession. The key statement – “Now is the time to create opportunity,” Gwinn said, “it’s finding the incentives, working with the tools.” One of those tools is adaptive reuse.
Just Imagine: A Dream For The Capitol Theater
Synopsis:
Nadine Baker makes a passionate call to (re)found a nonprofit with the intent to raise funds to reuse the old Capitol Theater in New London, Connecticut. The theater originally closed down in the 1970s and has sat vacant and deteriorating, with renovation and reuse plans coming and going. The latest plan to reopen the building as a theater again have fallen through as the developer has lost funding. Baker sees this as an opportunity to restart what she and others attempted back in 1995. The vision is to renovate the building into a visitors center, a place to commemorate the memory of the community. Baker presents a wonder vision and while she also states that this will of course cost money, it will cost more money the longer the building stay vacant and falls apart. New London has the opportunity (again) to establish this historical building as a gem of the community, one that will attract locals and visitors.
How to Reliably Create Rapid, Resilient Renewal When Your Community is Broke, Depressed, and/or at Each Others’ Throats
Synopsis:
For communities in need of revitalization (or even stabilization), there are a number of elements that must be dealt with: funding, politics, organizing. Communities may need social, environmental, or economic restructuring and Storm Cunningham looks at what’s necessary to achieve it even with the challenging elements. It begins with a paradigm shift. Civilization has worked on a “dewealth” platform – development of land, depletion of resources, despoilment of air, water and soil. We must (and have started to) shift to a “rewealth” mindset – renewing existing assets: infrastructure renewal/replacement; brownfields remediation; historic structure renovation; the renewal of schools, health services, commerce, security, and other public services; plus the restoration of ecosystems, fisheries, watersheds, and agricultural lands. Redevelopment can be the dominant mode of wealth creation and stabilization as well as increasing our quality of life. “Smart growth has emerged as a way of collecting best practices that take a more integrated approach to creating and renewing community assets.”
Redrawing the American City
Synopsis:
In the wake of global warming, many are starting to see the value and need for Smart Growth. But as Ms. Wright points out, this is not just about developing more compact new developments, but looking at what we already have. A number of cities have suffered flight and disinvestment. The important thing now is to see the urban blight as an asset. We should reuse the old neighborhoods, buildings and infrastructure. It will save open space from being built on as well as utilize elements that have already had time, energy and resources spent on them. It’s important to “begin with the stuff you’ve already got.”
The Bay Line
Publication Date:
November 27, 2009Written By:
Ronald RaelSource:
Rael San Fratello ArchitectsRead more...
Synopsis:
Architect and professor Ronald Rael looks at the potential of reusing the eastern section of the James “Sunny Jim” Rolph Bridge (the Bay Bridge) in San Francisco/Oakland. A new bridge is currently under construction, leaving the current use of the Bay Bridge with limited days. Rael advocates repurposing the bridge (and other abandoned bridges in the US) as “possible sites for sustainable urban housing and linear parks.” Going beyond the High Line in New York City, Rael’s vision incorporates a linear park, housing, cultural activities (theatres, retail, museums), sporting facilities (tennis courts, climbing walls, skate parks) and numerous wildlife (orchards, gardens, meadows).
The full project submission can be viewed here.
Adaptive Re-Use Regulations
Synopsis:
Smart Growth Vermont outlines how adaptive reuse regulations in a community can help to support smart growth principles. These regulations “are used to allow – or to encourage – owners of historic buildings to maintain and reuse those buildings.” The process supports smart growth because: located where public infrastructure already exist, within neighborhoods with a close mix of uses nearby, designed to pedestrian rather than vehicular orientation, do not use greenfields for development. Additionally, SGV points out that this method also generates additional tax revenue and new local jobs. SGV suggests that communities incorporate adaptive reuse provisions in their zoning bylaws in order to allow for a broader range of land uses than typically allowed. They will need to be coupled with incentives for residential density bonuses, reduction in on-site parking and other facility requirements, or waivers on limitations for nonconforming structures. Communities should also consider including historic preservation standards to the adaptive reuse provisions.
Smart Communities: Curbing Sprawl at Its Core
Publication Date:
November 1, 2009Written By:
Tony ProscioSource:
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)Read more...
Synopsis:
Tony Proscio examines what some skeptics consider competing efforts: community development and Smart Growth. These skeptics claim that Smart Growth concentrates on the outer urban areas where sprawl is occurring, while community developers are concerned with the inner neighborhoods and lower-income residents. Proscio however points out that history has actually shown that these two efforts compliment one another. In focusing efforts to rebuild the urban core through community development, you are diminishing the pull to move to the outer urban areas. This has led community organizations to “recognize that their neighborhoods are far more likely to rebuild and prosper in a strong, well-managed regional economy than in a weak and haphazard one.” He paints a picture of an unhealthy community: “developed land is being abandoned and wasted, while remote, undeveloped green space is being paved over for new residents.” This is a regional issue: the inner city is losing its economic base and left with “blight,” while the outer land is being lost to development. Through his example of Allegheny West, he suggests that a healthy community and region are dependent on rebuilding and reusing the developed spaces in the inner city which then also rebuilds the employment potential of those properties. This will require a state-local collaboration of government representatives, businesses, residents, and community developers.