The most interesting architectural feature of the Rehoboth Public School is its modernist, art deco-style main entrance.
“Because of the salvage value, and the fact the contractor could do the work in the summer when there were few people on site, we were able to get a relatively low demolition cost, so everybody wins,” said Bassett.
Source: Facing demolition, Rehoboth Public School yielding legacy items | Cape Gazette
A view of the site of the proposed Mystic River Boathouse Park off of Greenmanville Avenue in Mystic.
O’Neill also noted the new direction for the boathouse would satisfy those who feel the project would benefit from a more historical maritime approach. The site falls within the Rossie Velvet Mill Historic District and contains two buildings classified as “contributing resources” to the historic district.
© 2018-Del Norte Prospector
“Once the bond passed, we started the repurposing committee that is comprised of school staff and local residents to see if we could actually get some of these buildings off of our hands and save some extra funding to go towards the new school,” explained Burr.
Source: Del Norte Prospector | Superintendent explains school repurposing project
Courtesy of Trinity Financial – Trinity Financial is redeveloping the Van Brodie Mill into affordable housing in Lawrence, Mass. The completed project will contain eight studio apartments, 25 one-, 56 two-, and 13 three-bedroom apartments.
“We are thrilled to begin the transformation of the Van Brodie Mill,” said Trinity Financial project manager Dan Drazen. “Thanks to MassHousing’s investment, this project will breathe new life into a historically significant asset while creating much-needed mixed-income housing in the Gateway City of Lawrence.”
(Photo: Gary C. Klein/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)
Officials from both groups gave similar explanations Monday for why they began marketing their proposals long before they’d normally be made public. In short, both wanted to get ahead of the city’s deliberations on the matter and get their ideas before a broad audience, hopefully generating public support for efforts to save a building whose future has long been in question.
Source: Sheboygan Armory online hype ‘very unusual,’ city official says
The bar’s Old West exterior. Photograph by @leisurelylu.
Source: Bread Bar: An Old-Time Cocktail Bar in an 1800s Bakery in the Mountains – Remodelista
The 1889 market, Vanha Kauppahalli, a landmark protected by the National Board of Antiquities, reopened last summer. It’s filled with food stalls, and Story is situated in the heart of the hall in the spot once used for loading horse carriages.
via Story Restaurant: The New Chapter for Helsinki’s Old Market Hall: Remodelista.
This 1909 postcard image of the former Chambersburg High School shows the original building that is underneath the massive structure at the intersection of Queen and Third streets. (Submitted)
In a visual display to the planning commission, McKissick unveiled reproduction of a post card that showed the original 1909 school that was set back from Queen Street at the time.
Using an aerial photograph, he explained how the building that now fronts Queen Street was erected in 1930 and connecting structures were added in 1958 to complete what now looks like a monolith from the outside, but it actually three separate building phases.
via Reuse plan promises to uncover hidden 1909 school in Chambersburg – Chambersburg Public Opinion.
PHOTO CREDIT Flickr user swanksalot
Dunn, a longtime Hyde Park resident known as the city’s “zero waste man” is preparing a historic streetcar garage and six-acre land at 93rd Street and Drexel Avenue to become the future home to the Creative Reuse Warehouse, an urban farm and commercial kitchen, composting center and a place to take and store the vast shipments of unsellable food products that come through Chicago—what Dunn estimates at 600 tons per day.
via Zero Waste Champion Eyes Historic Streetcar Garage Site For Big Sustainability Project: Chicagoist.
A pair of glass greenhouses mark the entry to the stunning transformation of a 300 year old paper mill on the southern coast of England into a ravishing sustainable gin distillery.
via Bombay Sapphire Distillery by Thomas Heatherwick Studio | 2Modern Blog.
Hallelujah!
The city also reserved $100,000 in the 2013-2014 fiscal year to offer incentives to new owners. They can earn up to $4,500 for rebuilding structures built before 2000 that are no more than 25,000 square feet.
Projects have taken off as a result, Lanning said.
“It’s grown so much because people really love funky old buildings,” Lanning said.
In the project’s first year, nine city buildings were transformed into new businesses. In 2013, there were 48.
Among these was a 53,000-square-foot uptown motorcycle garage and dealership converted to a complex of restaurants.
Projects like these aren’t easy and can cost a lot of money, but they are worth it, Lanning said. Adaptive reuse encourages community involvement and keeps people civically engaged, she added.
“People feel connected to that place more than boring buildings that look the same,” Lanning said.
via Adaptive reuse sparing iconic buildings from wrecking ball – Cronkite News.
Photo by Pablo Alcala | Staff
Sharpsburg Community Center in Sharpsburg, Ky., on April 10, 2014. Then center is in a renovated WPA era gym which had fallen into disrepair and was recently restored.
Carole and Mike Harvell stand among old windows and columns in their architectural salvage business, Appleton Mercantile Co., on Saturday in Old Appleton, Mo. (Fred Lynch)
Carole Harvell said the conversations in Old Appleton are as essential as the commerce.
“We don’t know what a lot of things are until somebody tells us,” she said. “We’re constantly learning. Somebody will bring something in, usually an old-timer who remembers what they used on the farm or in their home, and ask, kind of testing us, ‘Do you know what this is?’ Then we have the younger generation, who are curious and like to ask what things are and what they were used for. So we’re bridging the gap between generations.”
Each Ace Hotel is located in an emerging neighbourhood and is designed to reflect its character. The concept by the company’s founder Alex Calderwood centres around fitting out old buildings using a modest budget and utilising industrial salvage. Calderwood sadly passed away in November last year and this hotel is the first to open since his death.
Photography is by Spencer Lowell.
Well written article on adaptive reuse by Klaus Philipsen. Do yourself a favor and read the entire article.
The ULI/NTHP collaboration is intended to become a nationally important step in overcoming the roadblocks, especially by showcasing best practice examples of adaptive re-use along with practical guidance for how obstacles can be overcome. Although the project is still in its initial stage, some creative new ways of making the case can be expected, including an extensive data collection and mapping strategy in which data about property values, new construction, demolition, vacancies and markets will be examined. Most data are now typically openly available as part of the “open data” movement in which many cities participate.
The Mission Gables house near the Redlands Bowl, to be featured on the Redlands Y Holiday Home Tour, is an example of adaptive re-use. The house was built in 1898, converted to apartments and had fallen into disrepair when the city bought it in 1959.
via REDLANDS: Home Tour to include Mission Gables house | San Bernardino County News | PE.com.
The natural beauty of this pastoral two-acre property, with its coveted views of the historic Jamestown windmill and the Newport Pell Bridge, is a source of inspiration for the artistry that Jennifer and David pour into their home. Nearly every inch of their restored 1787 colonial has been custom-designed and crafted by the pair, who make a living blowing glass in their post and beam studio located on the grounds.
via David and Jennifer’s Handmade Home House Tour | Apartment Therapy.
“This is a restoration, renovation and expansion of the existing historic theater,” Lekometros says. “It’s a historic tax credit project. The theater building is the star of the show, so to speak. The building is very dramatic. It sits in a place where the fabric of the neighborhood is a very important part of Church Hill and we are trying to find a new vitality for it.”
The project will include a blend of commercial space on the street level and rental apartments above the retail space.
The second site, called the Nolde Garage project, will include over 6,000 square feet of retail space with frontage on 24th Street and Patrick Henry Park. Additionally, it will include 16,000 square feet of residential apartments, split between a renovation of the historic Nolde Garage, and the ground up construction of townhouses.
“This was an old stable building that became a garage. The mindset we are bringing is about salvaging the building on the property and expanding it on the same level,” Lekometros says. “The need for housing at different levels does exist and there’s an appropriateness to the project given the rebirth of the neighborhood.”
via Lawrence Group Designing Two Reuse Projects in Richmond, Va. | Multi-Housing News Online.
According to a 2012 study, retrofitting an old building to make it 30% more energy-efficient is greener than building a new one with the same energy use. In other words: saving factories makes sustainability and business sense.
In Philadelphia, a former manufacturing capital that no longer needs its factories, residents can now choose to live in the Rag Flats, a former rag factory, or the Capital Flats, a former meat-packing plant. Both have been turned into modern apartment buildings featuring roof gardens, solar panels, and water collection. “This city used to be an industrial hub and no longer is, but people are moving back into the city”, explained Timothy McDonald, president of Onion Flats, the firm behind the Rag Flats and Capital Flats conversion. “These kinds of buildings aren’t built anymore. And look at the effects of global warming. Saving buildings like these is just common sense.”
How will the city of tomorrow adapt and reuse the city of today? I don’t think we ask that question broadly enough, and our day-to-day, property-specific incrementalism can easily overshoot the greatest lessons from history. A hometown case in point transported me from Seattle to Croatia for inspiration about why we should think beyond limited geographies, time frames and lifetimes when we discuss urban redevelopment options.
Recently, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Seattle-based Preservation Green Lab made urbanist media headlines (including Emily Badger’s Atlantic Cities story) with a report stating the environmental benefits of green retrofits of historic buildings, as compared to new, state-of-the-art, energy-efficient construction. A local church restored as townhouses joined the list of intriguing Seattle adaptive reuse projects typical of national trends.
Almost simultaneously, Seattle Times columnist Nicole Brodeur described a protest-free goodbye to a neighborhood icon in my Seattle neighborhood. A 112-year-old repair garage and offices (demolished last Friday) will soon become the nostalgically named Pike Station, comprised of new townhouses, complete with a courtyard and intermixed retail.
Read the entire amazing article here via What the History of Diocletian’s Palace Can Teach Us About Adaptive Reuse – Design – The Atlantic Cities.
