That includes the emissions involved in extracting raw materials, manufacturing, transporting, constructing, maintaining, renovating and extinguishing a building and the materials it comprises. Not only does an adaptive reuse project use fewer resources, but Elefante counts these buildings as resources themselves. Every city and town in the nation has dozens, hundreds, even thousands of abandoned and partially occupied buildings.
Renewing existing buildings is the smartest smart-growth strategy. Retrofits are overtaking new construction in many sectors. The U. Retrofitting existing buildings to meet high-performance standards is the most effective strategy for reducing near- and mid-term carbon emissions, the most important step in limiting climate disruption.
Community Development Block Grants from Chester County's Department of Community Development have provided financing for many adaptive reuse projects throughout the County, e. Liberty House is a unit affordable rental housing facility is an example of a reuse in a suburban landscape. Washington Square Professional Offices and Apartments in West Chester Borough is an example of a successful adaptive re-use of a former school building into a mixed use building in an urban landscape.
The Pierce Elementary School, built in , was closed in The reuse project was initiated by a private entity interested in preservation of older buildings. Market studies suggested the need for apartment and office uses within walking distance to the town center, and provision of adequate parking was considered a key factor for project development.
Zoning was in place which allowed the school building to be reused. A development plan was put together and the project was determined to be economically feasible. The school building was purchased directly from the school district, and the project was undertaken in the s using a combination of private funds owner and investor monies and bank loans and public federal rehabilitation tax credits.
Building code standards for rehabilitations were employed for meeting safety standards. Due to thorough planning, factors which otherwise might be considered a reuse risk, e. The design for the new use incorporated defining historic and architectural building features and retained as much of the school's interior floor plan as possible to facilitate reuse.
In October , Pocopson Township took possession of 68 acres at the northwest corner of the intersection of Lenape-Unionville and South Wawaset Roads. This land was transferred from Chester County to Pocopson at no cost to the Township.
The transaction included the Eusebius Barnard House, an early s stone house and a stop on the Underground Railroad located opposite the Pocopson Home.
This historic stone house will eventually be renovated and repurposed to house the Township's administrative offices and public meeting space and as a home for the Kennett Underground Railroad Museum. A top priority is to utilize green and resource renewal technologies to make the renovated building a showcase project for carbon footprint reduction. Retrofitting the existing wood windows is important to maintaining the historic appearance of the structure while reducing energy usage.
Water reuse and energy saving electric lighting are also part of the plan. Adaptive Reuse Adaptive reuse is the process of repurposing buildings for viable new uses and modern functions, other than those originally intended to address present-day needs. Then you can look for unique attributes and characteristics that make the building special. These features can be highlighted in new and exciting ways, once again giving them purpose and prominence. This allows for seemingly doomed buildings, and the often debilitated communities in which they stand, a chance at a new and brighter future.
Above all, the biggest driving factor behind adaptive reuse is the ability to keep stories and memories intact. More human resources are needed and less building materials, meaning lower investment costs and more room to focus on restoration and revitalization.
Adaptive reuse is one of the most maximized uses of recycling. Through it, the value of the triad reuse, recycle, repurpose comes right to the surface.
Federal historic tax credits often count for a highly useful finance opportunity for funding adaptive reuse projects. This can apply to famous historical structures as well as regular storage houses from the past.
If a building is registered on the National Register of Historic Places, up to 20 percent of its rehabilitation expenses can be accounted for. This extends to buildings older than 50 years old. A more comprehensive wording of adaptive reuse, is adaptive re-use architecture. It applies to buildings that are no longer used, or perhaps are no longer suitable for their original roles. They are assessed and repurposed for other things, while maintaining the level of culture of their time of origin.
The movement towards preservation is surprisingly new. Legally protecting historic buildings became more common and normalized in North America only in the s, and even then, it was a slowly growing trend to spread across the states.
However, as people began to understand the rationale behind reusing old buildings, it grew faster.
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