Throwback from 2015.
From the chapel, more than 250 tons of material was reused or recycled with almost 85 percent diversion, and nearly 700 tons of material was reused or recycled from the laundry with a 73 percent diversion rate. Overall, the three buildings totaled 1,717 tons of material of which 1,246 tons was reused or recycled, making the project a successful venture.
The Growing Pavilion is made with natural materials, including mycelium.
Produced by creative organization Company New Heroes and biotechnology company Krown Design, the biobased building — put in place for Dutch Design Week — was built using only materials that grow on this earth, including timber and mycelium.
Source: This New Building Is Made From Mushrooms That Actually Clean the Air | LIVEKINDLY
Matt Bolen of Waterloo-based Edge Architects in front of the century-old Huck Glove factory before construction began.
PETER LEE
“Call it a new generation that doesn’t necessarily place the same value on suburban, shiny new things,” he says, explaining that younger employees want to live and work in communities with a history. “The great thing about these older buildings is they have a story that people can connect to.”
Source: Century-old glove factory to anchor new, state-of-the-art centre – The Globe and Mail
“I’m first and foremost a preservationist,” Sauer said. “I don’t like to see historic buildings come down.” But, when buildings are demolished or remodeled, saving as much as possible is important, Sauer said, noting, “I don’t like seeing this stuff end up in a landfill.”
“One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat,” architectural historian Vincent Scully Jr. lamented.
The new Runway Rink at the TWA Hotel allows guests to skate on the tarmac around the hotel’s 1958 Lockheed Constellation Connie airplane, a vintage airliner which has been converted into a cocktail lounge.
Source: Ice Skate Next to a Vintage Airliner on the Tarmac at NYC’s TWA Hotel – Untapped New York
Many Viequenses build their own homes, but this practice is hindered by the limited supply and high expense of building materials, which are shipped from the main island. The “Unearthing Resources” concept would help to make Vieques more self-sufficient by finding new uses for materials from the island’s growing landfill. The proposal would establish a warehouse for different categories of recycled materials, and provide educational resources for building techniques, including classes. An instructional booklet for materials reuse would help to evolve the culture of self-sufficiency.
Source: 13 Proposals to Boost Resilience in Vieques, Puerto Rico
Policies worldwide recognize that the construction sector needs to take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, tackle the climate crisis and limit resource depletion, with a focus on adopting a circular economy approach in construction to ensure the sustainable use of construction materials.
Instead of simply knocking buildings down and sending the CDW to landfill, circular construction would turn building components that are at the end of their service life into resources for others, minimizing waste.
Source: How we can recycle more buildings – Solid Waste & Recycling – Solid Waste & Recycling
The warm and vast pool at the spa at Tschuggen Grand Hotel (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Stretching over 800m, its relaxation pool is bordered by views of the snow covered mountains, the two saunas, one set at an eco friendly 60 degrees, are made from reclaimed wood and have windows that act as a portal to the icy, white world outside.
Source: Warming the soul and learning to ski in Switzerland – Manchester Evening News
The project is an ode to the industrial and cultural heritage of Amsterdam and brings to light the importance of water to the area. The suites, spread all throughout the city, are a love letter to Amsterdam architecture, from Amsterdam School to Modernism.
Source: These adaptive reuse hotel suites in Amsterdam are built inside old bridge houses
The tropical game room features shuffle board, bumper pool, and foosball. Images courtesy of Cedar Street
“Mid-century modernism was a no-brainer as the source of inspiration for design,” Fritz tells Curbed. “Tiki lounges and mid-century go hand in hand. There was a sort of obsession with tropical environments in Hollywood movies of the era, and Hawaii became a state at the end of the era, forever enmeshing American and Polynesian culture.”
Source: Uptown office building reborn as midcentury-inspired apartments – Curbed Chicago
Photograph by Lara Swimmer
American firm Lever Architecture used weathering steel and original timber in the adaptive reuse of two factories built over 70 years ago for a hay-baler manufacturer.
Source: Lever Architecture turns Portland factories into creative workspace
Courtesy of Culturespaces
The structure was first operational between 1941 and 1943, used by the Germans to house U-boats. The converted bunker has already hosted temporary shows and concerts, but now four of its sheds will become permanent exhibition spaces.
Source: Bordeaux’s WWII submarine base will become the world’s biggest digital art centre – The Spaces
ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF
Imploding the building was an option but considered too risky to public safety.
“You can’t put a dollar value on health and safety.” Deconstruction was a more conservative option but the company did not want to end up in court if demolition caused problems.
Source: The bulk of the BNZ building in Wellington will be re-cycled and re-used | Stuff.co.nz
MONICA HERNDON / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
For example, the staircase combines six different woods from 10 different buildings in what Clark calls “an ode to Frank Furness,” the legendary architect who designed the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. “I kind of puzzled it together,” he says.
Source: A South Philly rowhouse reborn through Craigslist, flea markets, estate sales, salvage yards
The property still looks like an industrial site from far away, but every square inch has been repurposed for recreation.
“I’m an architectural ambulance chaser. I’m here to pick up the pieces.” Adam Hills is sitting in his retail showroom on one of west London’s grungier thoroughfares. He is explaining the business model for Retrouvius, the salvage and interiors company he co-founded in 1993.
Source: Architectural salvage: antidote to the age of bling | Financial Times
The Idea File, staff writers Jim and Deb Fallows explore the phenomenon of the dead mall, and its emerging afterlife.
Rotor, Plateforme Réemploi, 2017. Source: Rotor.
Reusing architectural elements is a practice that is as long as the history of mankind. At one point, midcentury, this practice started to disappear. Industrial progress, capitalism, evolving demographics, and culture led to a different paradigm of practice. We’ve never seen our approach as one of invention. Our practice is more today about rediscovering existing practices. We see ourselves trying to connect the past to potential futures.
Side view of part of the old Banks school. Photo via Jeff E. Newman
In plain English, the City’s looking for just the right developer who can buy the property as is and develop it into something fabulous.
“We are already selling pieces from the hotel’s interior on our website. Items for sale include light fixtures fashioned from Venetian glass and French crystal, along with more than 40 marble mantels carved in a variety of styles, including a $40,000 inlaid marble mantel from the US Ambassadors Suite. More affordable items include steak knives ($25), polished bronze swan hook ($45), stainless steel slotted egg spoon ($20), and a steel ice scoop ($10),” added Browne.
Source: Deconstructing the Legendary New York Waldorf Astoria Hotel
Green, the deputy ombudsman, points to a $4 million project in the Overlook neighborhood. The contractor failed to remove the siding before demolition took place. The penalty? Just $876 in administrative fees due to the stop-work order. (BDS does not issue fines for first-time violations.)”Why follow the rules if the fine totals $876 and you’ve saved $5,000 on removing the siding by hand?” Green asks. “Human nature is not on the side of doing right.”
Workers from the Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse have already begun the deconstruction process as part of YWCA Evanston/North Shore’s long-term expansion plan. (YWCA Evanston/North Shore)
YWCA is partnering with the Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse because the local non-profit organization employs high quality, sustainable deconstruction practices.
Source: Evanston YWCA Partners with Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse | Evanston, IL Patch
The Tilia version is made of dark linden wood, and the Salvage version is made of an airy and lightly recycled spruce wood. In both cases, the headset uses a dual 3.5mm jack layout – one per side.
Source: Erzetich Thalia, a fully hand-crafted headset made from recycled wood – Inceptive Mind
Homes along Laukahi Street with Hawaii Loa Ridge homes in the background, 2015. The City and County of Honolulu could pass a law to require better use of teardowns.
Seeing the pile of rubbish that was once a house made of beautiful clear heart redwood, I could not help thinking about the environmental activists, U.S. National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service staff who have worked for decades in California to save the remaining giant redwoods from logging, while here in Hawaii we are using them for landfill. There was a significant value loss as well since similar redwood boards (8-feet-by-8-feet) would cost at least $50 each if bought locally.
Source: How Not To Waste A House On Oahu – Honolulu Civil Beat
Reclaimed timber—the entryway alone used more than 2,000 pieces of reclaimed timber. Art installations made from 85 percent repurposed construction waste, recycled and diverted from landfills.
Minimising waste is high on the agenda here, and goes beyond the menu; recycled steel and plastic bar chairs are by Snøhetta, while the overall design is the work of Box 9 Design, and features poured concrete floors, custom fitted ply wood booths with sage green upholstery, an open kitchen and long tables made from reclaimed wood for group dining.
Source: Ozone — London, UK
Because the vacant buildings anchored Main Street, their rehabilitation would signal that things downtown were changing for the better. And by repurposing the former hotel—once a jewel of the area—they could connect Rawlins’s nascent entrepreneurial ecosystem directly to the community’s history and distinct sense of place.
Source: How a rural Wyoming town is repurposing historic assets to spur local entrepreneurship
The Oregonian/OregonLive
A work crew deconstructs a Southeast Portland home in 2015 (The Oregonian/File)
The majority of council members said Wednesday that they plan to approve the ordinance, and Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly said they would like to see a more severe penalty for violators. A first offense can lead to a fine of up to $500 and a third or more can be up to $1,500. “I support everything else, but I think if you’re going to hold people accountable, they’ve got to feel it,” Hardesty said. “This is not something that they’re going to feel.”
Source: Portland may expand which old homes must be dismantled by hand – oregonlive.com
“Number one, it’s an economic driver,” said 15th District Alderman Russell Stamper II. “We’re providing opportunities for individuals to learn skills on how to deconstruct, put some money in their pocket, and most of all have a job right here in the city of Milwaukee.”
Source: City contractor begins first housing deconstruction project
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is now accepting applications for the 2020 Derelict Building Grant Program. The program promotes the reuse or recycling of building materials from dilapidated buildings in communities of 5,000 residents or less.
Source: Application Period Open Now For DNR’s 2020 Derelict Building Grant Program
Homeowners love features that come with a story, says Rich Ellis, publisher of Architectural Salvage and Antique Lumber News. “When you can point to your floor and say it came from an old shoe factory in Connecticut, for example, that’s a big attraction,” he says. There are between 500 and 700 architectural salvage businesses across the country, and business has been good, he says.
Source: Salvage shops offer decor with a story | The Sumter Item
This was the first deconstruction project in the City of Milwaukee since the passage of an ordinance in January, 2018 which hopes to create a new market for repurposed building materials, reduction of waste and job creation for Milwaukee residents.
Source: American Companies completes apartment construction in Milwaukee | By Deb Reinbold
“I am sad about the lack of recycling of building materials of our classic homes here in the Bay area. Recycling was once the pride of our city,” Davis told Berkeleyside. As interest in the re-use of original architectural pieces declined, she said, overhead expenses — garbage collection, PG&E, EBMUD, alarm systems, worker’s compensation and higher wages — have continued to grow, which has made it hard to keep the business running smoothly.
Source: Shop Talk: Ohmega Salvage; Totally Rad Gallery; Women Made — Berkeleyside
Located in a rural area in Quebec, the old barn was in near ruins until the Montreal-based firm was hired to convert it into a secondary family home. Thankfully, instead of bulldozing the beautiful old building to the ground, the studio managed to salvage nearly every single material to reuse in the new design.
Source: Decrepit barn in Quebec was converted into stunning modern design by salvaging old materials
Nick Glimenakis
The Clover Hill Foundry is a house with history. Originally built in the late 19th century, the interconnected brick buildings in Somers, New York, were first used as the hub for an ore mining operation. Later in the 1940s, three artists bought the dilapidated buildings, renovating them into standalone homes for their families.
Source: Upstate NY weekend home stunningly renovated from former ore foundry – Curbed
Restore Oregon – 1912 Fire Station No. 17 in Portland
That night, recipients of 12 coveted DeMuro Awards will be applauded for their preservation and reuse of architectural and cultural sites, and the impact the improvements have made on their communities.
This is a full tour of a cozy cob micro cabin built by Marie France Roy, a professional snowboarder from Canada. She wanted to build a home with natural and reclaimed materials
On the issue of waste in construction, Resource’s Allan Sandilands suggests that the lack of media coverage is a contributing factor to the limited public response to the sector’s waste problem. Where plastic pollution has been heavily documented in regard to its effects on wildlife, Sandilands notes no such coverage has occurred for the construction industry, which he refers to a the “silent sector”.
Source: How is the construction sector combatting its waste?
BOB WILLIAMS FOR THE INQUIRER
Tara Dugan at her shop, worKS.
Tara Dugan is an exception. In 2016, while searching for a building to open a boutique, she noticed an empty, 70-year-old gas station on a lightly traversed road in Kennett Square, a borough of just over 6,100 people. She saw the potential in an unloved structure, she said, as did three women who repurposed a Sunoco gas station in Malvern to serve gourmet fare.
Source: Ruthlessly competitive fuel market creates closed-station blight — and opportunity for reuse
The Solid Waste Division (SWD) strives to enhance the efficacy of Construction & Demolition (C&D) recycling. SWD is offering a new $700,000 C&D Grant Program for innovative projects that support King County’s Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan (Comp Plan). As established in the King County Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP), King County aims to divert C&D materials from landfills at a rate of 85 percent by 2025, and also has a countywide goal of zero waste of resources by 2030.
The specific solicitation for the C&D Grant Program can be accessed here – https://procurement.
kingcounty.gov/procurement_ OVR/detail.aspx?bidid=4231 (click “Enter as Guest”).
Source: C&D grant program – King County
We got a bunch of pallets from a trucking company. They were in good shape for the most part, but they were dirty.
Source: Pallet Coffin for Halloween : 7 Steps (with Pictures)
30 Best Upcycle Car Part Ideas
Buildings like the vacant row houses in Baltimore can be demolished, but they can also be deconstructed to salvage the materials. The salvaging process requires much more time and labor than demolition. For Baltimore – a city with an unemployment rate of nearly 5%, climbing up to 15% or more in some neighborhoods, and a poverty rate nearly double the national average – this presents an opportunity.
Prasad would like to see architects ‘go for it’ even without the requirements of the London Plan. He said: ‘Circular economy applies to buildings of all scale and all types, and I would love to see it being applied to smaller buildings than the threshold indicates at the moment.’ He said this was not ‘a glum duty’ or ‘dreadful imposition’. ‘It’s a fantastic opportunity to innovate and think in different ways. And the lovely thing is, it can be done on so many fronts. As the name implies, the circular econo
The project will see over 1,000 homes demolished and materials reused. Based on an initial assessment of the regeneration project, the scale of benefits that may be realised through comprehensive implementation of Clarion’s circular economy strategy are significant.
Source: PlaceTech | Recycling buildings in the circular economy
Manzanita celebrates the uniqueness of CARTM and its reuse /recycle leadership and the fact that the City was the first coastal community to ban the use of plastic bags all in the name of environmental stewardship. Reusing building materials and diverting demolition materials from a landfill all contribute to LEED points which are not available for new construction so why did the City decide to not give citizens the opportunity to even have this discussion and prevent approximately 500 dump truck loads of building material from being hauled to the landfill?
Source: OP/ED: You never know what you got till it’s gone. – Tillamook County Pioneer
The house was their living quarters, initial work space, and ongoing project—it had been added onto over the years, and the previous owner, a high school shop teacher, “trash picked historic doors and windows considered garbage,” says Margaux. “He used his finds to restore the rooms closer to their former, albeit frankensteined, self.”
Source: A Vintage-Style Kitchen Remodel by Peg and Awl Marries Old and New
