The Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure. Rag & Bone blog
A few months ago, North Carolina-based developer Grubb Properties demolished the old Grant Park School, a Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure built in 1930.
Source: In Atlanta’s Grant Park, 1930 school razed for luxury apartments, townhomes – Curbed Atlanta
Designer and architect Patricia Urquiola speaking at the 2019 Fortune Brainstorm Design conference in Singapore.
“If we use a material that has been used before to make something new, we have to add value to that new material.”
Source: For One Designer, the Materials Are the Message | Fortune
© Strands of History
Where do bridges go when they die? Or more specifically, where do the pieces of large infrastructure go when they get demolished or repaired? Well, one company is finding one intriguing way to recycle old, discarded scrap cables from San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge — by incorporating them into elegant and timeless pieces of furniture.
Source: Elegant furniture made with discarded cables from Golden Gate Bridge | TreeHugger
JACKIE MEIRING
The beams featured in this photo are originally from a Wellington wharf.
It’s not just for the sake of the environment but it also gives homeowners a chance to think outside the box when furnishing or renovating to make a home that extra bit special.
Source: Sustainable style: Is old timber best? | Stuff.co.nz
Hydraulic shears takes down part of the old ACRA building for the new Aspen city offices on March 6.
Anna Stonehouse/The Aspen Times
“We had a goal of 65 percent for diversion and we are at 74 percent,” said Brain Thomas, the project manager for Shaw Construction. “We are happy with Aspen Deconstruction. They knocked it out of the park.”
Source: Construction debris to make way for Aspen government office mostly avoids landfill | AspenTimes.com
The sustainable installation is the winner of the 2019 City of Dreams competition. (Courtesy Somewhere Studio)
“Even though it’s a raw material that’s basically used for storage, it looks and behaves like processed cross-laminated timber,” he said. “When we began the project, it occurred to us that we had this big pile of wood staring at us that would otherwise be thrown away, so we decided we wanted to show off its quality and strength.”
Source: Somewhere Studio uses reclaimed CLT for 2019 City of Dreams pavilion – Archpaper.com
Dating back to 1910, the building rises 12 storeys and encompasses just over 126,000 square feet (11,706 square metres).
The team sought to preserve original elements where possible, such as high ceilings, wooden flooring and ornate detailing.
Source: Fogarty Finger revamps New York office with glass and cosy wood
[Photo: Stijn Bollaert/courtesy Civic Architects]
The design is an extraordinary example of adaptive reuse, transforming a decaying industrial building for constructing and storing trains into a place for learning and storing books–while retaining the existing industrial materials, flaws and all.
The building housing trains in 1939. [Photo: courtesy Civic Architects]
Source: LocHal is a gorgeous library in an old train warehouse
Wooden Ya Know It, was founded on the idea that just because it’s old or used, doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful. Old, reclaimed wood and materials have more character and can be much more beautiful than new materials. Handmade architectural elements and furniture crafted with reclaimed materials, reflects what is lost in this day of machine made, cookie cutter home decor and furniture. It also cuts across architectural style to reflect your taste and design from the rustic to the contemporary. Our Goal
Photo by Melissa Romero
It would also mark the latest of Furness’s works to be eradicated. Since the architect’s death in 1912, many of his Philly-based buildings fell into disrepair, and faced the wrecking ball—largely over the first half of the 20th Century.
Source: Frank Furness-designed South Philly church on track for demolition – Curbed Philly
“The reuse industry needs to continue building more circular economy partnerships to repurpose reclaimed materials on a larger scale, “ Goodman says.
Source: The salvageable lifecycle – Living Building Chronicle
The 26,000 pound chiller has been donated to Friends of Charlottesville Ice Park, a nonprofit working toward creating a new rink in Brookhill, a mixed-use development set to be built along U.S. 29 at Polo Grounds Road. Along with the refurbished chiller, ice park equipment, such as lighting bleachers and commercial kitchen equipment also will be repurposed, according to a news release.
Source: Chiller removed from former Main Street Arena • Charlottesville Tomorrow
The theft was spread on social media, and officers started investigating possible locations of the items. The fixtures were eventually located at West End Architectural Salvage in Des Moines. The light fixtures were retrieved, and the owner of the store identified the seller as McGinn. He was paid $350 for each item. “The owner of the store appraised the light fixtures at $2,000,” the police report said.
Source: Man pleads guilty to stealing antique fixtures at Capitol II Theatre | Newton Daily News
Exterior of the Stehli Silk Mill off Martha Avenue. LNP Photo
“People are under a misconception that the property is run down. That’s not the case. The bones are solid. The roof was 100 percent replaced,” he said.
This bar counter at Hoppy Daze brewpub in Otay Mesa West was constructed from upcycled bowling alley lanes from the former Vista Entertainment Center, through a program to recycle construction materials. (Bruce DeMoss, Hoppy Daze)
“It was actually better than I envisioned,” he said. “When we were building it, we were like every day, this is going to be cool. It ended up above our expectations. We built it so that it was all re-purposed everything.”
Source: From bowling alley to brewpub, recycled lumber gets new life – The San Diego Union-Tribune
Fulshear City Council voted to demolish the Switch House on FM 359 and salvage the materials for a future project. (Courtesy city of Fulshear)
“No one wanted this end result,” Assistant City Manager Brant Gary said. “But the results from the architect’s review, the current condition and the fact that that it had been converted into a more modern home. All of those things added to the decision-making process.”
Source: City of Fulshear to demolish Switch House, salvage materials | Community Impact Newspaper
This space was originally outfitted by acclaimed Parisian industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the mind behind the 1955 Coca-Cola contour bottle, the 1959 TWA twin globes logo, the 1963 Studebaker Avanti, and the 1962 Air Force One livery. Max Touhey
To access the guest rooms, patrons enter through space-age flight tubes—which you may remember from the film Catch Me If You Can. Clean lines meet a touch of glam in the rooms, which feature leather upholstery; a pop of primary color; Hollywood-style vanities; and custom walnut, brass, and glass details.
Source: The TWA Hotel Turns an Abandoned Airport Terminal Into a Midcentury Dream – Dwell
Photo via Mon Valley Initiative. If Seen call Braddock police at 412-351-5400, or Mon Valley Initiative at 412-464-4000.
Zinski said her organization is concerned that the windows may be sold to an antique dealer or architectural salvage dealer for re-use in a house or business. The purchasers may not realize they are in possession of stolen property.
Source: Stained Glass Windows Stolen From Historic Pittsburgh-Area Church | Pittsburgh, PA Patch
Heather Passmore, left, her husband Jacob Crest, right, their daughter Gwendolyn Passmore, 4, and dog Fred, at a home they had hoped to purchase and have moved to a location up the coast, in Vancouver, on Jan. 19, 2019.
DARRYL DYCK/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
The attraction of a used house is obvious. The Nickel website is offering a 1920s character house currently on south Vancouver Island with 2,700 square feet for $162,000, moving included.
Image Credit: Paul Massey
Bricks were salvaged from the demolition of the building’s interior to create the wall of the side extension. Similarly, the wood ceiling joists are left exposed, giving an indication of how the structure fits together.
Source: IN THE RAW: IDEAS FOR EXPOSED BRICK WALLS | Livingetc
UNBUILDERS — Adam Corneil, who operates Unbuilders, says he aims to collaborate, rather than compete, with traditional demolition contractors, letting them take down a building to the wood frame.
“Tens of millions of dollars of lumber are purchased every day in this country,” he explains. “The fact we’re just shredding it (old wood structures) up and burning it is completely irrational in my mind.”
Source: Unbuilders Deconstruction takes a new approach to demolition – constructconnect.com
Mark Nichols, a Portland-based remodeler, works on framing the second floor walls of the Blair Building in downtown Washougal, in October 2016. The upper level of the historic building on Main Street has been transformed into four studio apartments with modern amenities. (Contributed photo courtesy of Heidi Kramer)
Local couple Bruce and Heidi Kramer spent three years rebuilding the second floor of a nearly 100-year-old structure known as the Blair Building.
Source: Building the Blair Lofts | Camas-Washougal Post-Record
A burgeoning expansion witnessed by the construction industry is primarily driving the global reclaimed lumber market. This is mainly due to highly preferred properties present in reclaimed lumber such as superior stability, high strength, less carbon footprint, and good durability. Such characteristics make the lumber perfect for utilization in various types of construction projects.
Source: Reclaimed Lumber Market – Survey On Future Scope 2028 – Honest Version
“The most destructive thing is to demolish a building” says Nicholas Grimshaw
Grimshaw’s new Via Verde development will also offer adaptable homes. Photo is by Esto
“I’ve got very passionate about it lately. I’ve even suggested that when architects submit a building for planning permission they should be asked to suggest ways in which it can be used for alternative things in the future,” he continued. “The more of that that goes on in the world, the better place the world will be.”
Source: Nicholas Grimshaw interview on reusing buildings and micro homes
Modern architecture made of recycled materials can help raise the profile of greener approaches to building, move the industry as a whole closer to closed-loop ideals and even preserve physical connections between past, present and future.
Source: Linking Past and Present: Modern Architecture Made of Reclaimed Materials | Urbanist
Public Domain Concrete demolition via PXhere
Workers performing concrete chipping at substructure bridge repair sites had the highest level of respirable crystalline silica exposure, a time-weighted average of 527 micrograms per cubic meter of air. That is more than 10 times the PEL of 50 micrograms per cubic meter that OSHA established in its most recent silica regulation (1926.1153).
Source: Another reason to avoid concrete: silica dust | TreeHugger
Berkeley County Water and Sanitation workers continued to cover mounds of waste with dirt on Thursday, January 10, 2019, to control any odor coming from the Berkeley County landfill on Highway 52. Brad Nettles/Staff. Brad Nettles bnettles@postandcourier.com
It turns out that the problem began when construction and demolition debris was diverted from the landfill where those materials normally are buried and instead were put into the municipal solid waste landfill…
…C&D debris can include drywall, which contains gypsum, a substance that can produce hydrogen sulfide gas when exposed to water or moisture under anaerobic conditions within municipal solid waste.
Source: Berkeley landfill mystery odor finally solved | Editorials | postandcourier.com
The original idea came from local politicians in 2006 or 2007. According to the waste management plan, all the municipalities should reduce waste and start some kind of business where it is possible to reuse these unwanted resources.
Source: Climate-smart shopping in the world’s first recycling mall | LivingIt
Flanked by two office buildings also owned by Meridian, the Victorian home is the only one currently slated for demolition. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Over the objections of residents who pleaded that it be saved, the Red Bank planning board approved the demolition of a 118-year-old Victorian house owned by Riverview Medical Center Monday night.
Source: RED BANK: Turning aside pleas, board OKS demolition of Victorian house.
(Photo: Barry Gray)
The passion for many in Stittsville to have the ‘Bradley-Craig Barn’ kept in place and integrated into a new subdivision can set tears flowing. To actually read this 52 page thesis and see how this heritage building has been thoroughly researched, with a re-purposed use being realistic, is what Stittsville residents have been pronouncing for many years.
“You never know when you might see something,” said Paula Bishop, owner of City Girl in the Country, an architectural salvage company in Antrim that specializes in sinks. “I am not afraid to knock on people’s doors if I see something in their yard. And I didn’t realize at first that so many New England homes have their own junkyard in the backyard.”
Source: Everything and the Kitchen Sink | Elf | sentinelsource.com
Customers are taking note: 93% of global consumers expect more of the brands they use to support local social and environmental issues, according to a report by the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). The report also found that an estimated 68 million adult Americans base purchasing decisions on their values – personal, social, and environmental – and say they will spend up to 20% more on environmentally sound products.
At the ReTuna shopping mall in Sweden everything for sale is recycled, thanks to its clever location.
Source: The shopping mall where everything is recycled – BBC News
His approach is unique in that he didn’t hop out and buy a sheet of plywood, instead reclaiming it from things like cabinet doors.
Be a Patreon for Keith Decent!
Source: A Decent Reclaimed Wood Guitar
I have a great love for CRT televisions. Especially small ones form the 80s and 90s. A few months ago I found one at the junk shop. Color, still working, $10. How could I say no.
Source: Reuse That Old Thrift Store TV: 3 Steps (with Pictures)
Over the last few years, the floors of some of our rackhouses in Clermont were in need of redoing, so we pulled up the floorboards. We thought it would be a shame to throw away so much history, so we stored them for something special. Each box of Booker’s® 30th Anniversary Bourbon is made from the reclaimed wood of those floors – the same floors walked by legends Booker and Fred Noe as they selected batches of Booker’s.
Source: Booker’s Bourbon
Above: The recently installed kitchen—in what had been the officer’s mess—is far from new looking. In keeping with the exterior, the couple went with a crepuscular matte charcoal for the cabinets, left the storm-ravaged brick walls exposed, and kept signs of 21st-century life largely under wraps.
the HMS Owl, a World War II air squadron control tower, fit the bill: it had been left derelict for decades and Justin and Charlotte took on its restoration
Ben’s Barn was constructed with a mix of reclaimed materials sourced not only from the former farmhouse and barn that had stood on another portion of the site, but also from a midcentury modern teardown in Weston, Massachusetts.
Ryan Cox used a stencil (from Royal Design Studios) to create the living room’s ornately patterned walls. Photo by Emily Minton Redfield.
“Historically designated neighborhoods do a great job protecting the exteriors of historical homes, but we’re losing our historical interiors,” Ryan says. “Every renovation strips away more and more of the original character, and we lose a lot of the workmanship that went into the build.”
Liz Gordon
“Environmental aspects are so important that we save as much as we can. You wouldn’t be able to find any of it because it would all be in the landfills,” says Gordon.Good to know your Spanish Revival restoration pieces not only look good, but aren’t bad for the planet.
Source: Antique Hardware Finding New Life as Interior Fixtures
An arborist removes a tree to prepare the lot for the removal of the Mayo house and the construction of new town homes.
Amelia Templeton/OPB
“I thought, ‘I could save the house,’” said Cleo Davis, an artist who lives just a few doors down.The Mayo house appealed to him because demolition and lost opportunities are a big part of his family’s story — and part of the African-American experience in this part of Portland.
Stacked flooring that was taken out of the former Case buildings in the Water Street Redevelopment Area deconstruction. An Appleton company, Urban Evolutions, bought all of the wood and timbers from the project area. Photographed in January 2019.
The first project, Janson said, was pulling out all of the maple flooring. They were able to save close to 200,000 board feet of flooring and about 400,000 board feet of decking, or subfloor, from the buildings. (A board foot is 1 by 12 by 12 inches, or 144 cubic inches.)
Source: Case deconstruction is lumber mother lode | Money | journaltimes.com
MinnPost file photo by Bill Kelley
Burying construction debris can dredge up naturally-occurring chemicals in the soil like arsenic and manganese that leach into groundwater after precipitation.
In order to catch up with demolition, Adams said he wants people who don’t deconstruct buildings to pay what he calls the “social costs” of carbon emissions to cities, which is the price of mitigating climate change. Reuse and recycle of construction waste cuts down on emissions in part because of the energy it takes to create new building materials. Adams pegged that carbon cost at roughly $9,000 for a typical house. He said cities should use that money to offer grants to homeowners who can’t pay for decon
Source: The problem, and politics, of throwing old houses in the garbage | MinnPost
Paramount Assets bought 36-40 Clinton St., pictured above, and 30-32 Clinton St.
We saw this as an excellent opportunity to reposition two historically significant assets to the benefit of both the City and residents alike.
Source: Century-old Properties in Newark’s ‘Billion Dollar Triangle’ to Get Face Lift | TAPinto
For reclaimed wood customers like Sween, the two remaining Globe Elevator structures — undamaged by the fire — might serve as a source for wood.
Source: For Globe Elevator owner, December fire was ‘devastating’ | Duluth News Tribune
I was reading about the scale of the abandoned housing problem – that there are 40-60,000 abandoned, vacant, or blighted houses in Philadelphia. The idea was to create an organization that could take on the abandoned housing blight block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.
Source: Q&A with Greg Trainor of the Philadelphia Community Corps – Shareable
From his humble beginnings in Belgium to his current home in Gravenwezel Castle, explore the sophisticated elegance behind one of today’s most prestigious tastemakers.
The city’s economic development agency, St. Louis Development Corp., is testing an alternative process this year that deconstructs buildings piece by piece. The more expensive process is used to salvage materials as well as reduce health risks from dust and debris. City officials said it isn’t financially feasible to use “deconstruction” to remove all of St. Louis’ 12,000 vacant properties, but they hope to expand the 30-building pilot project in the future.
Source: Officials: St. Louis demolitions could reverse lead progress – Herald-Whig –
Duplexes at 2075 N. Cambridge Ave. were set for deconstruction last summer. (Photo: Stephanie Morse/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Of nearly 500 city-owned houses slated for demolition, only five were deconstructed in 2018, according to the Department of Neighborhood Services. The department struggled to get reasonable bids from contractors, said Tom Mishefske, neighborhood services commissioner.
Source: Backlog leads Milwaukee to suspend deconstruction rule for old houses
