Committee on the Environment

"Everything flows, nothing stands still" (Plato)
Adaptive re-use, a sustainability measure

Reuse of old buildings is an age-old practice. Adaptive re-use as a significant component of sustainability is a newer argument. The EPA has noted that building construction debris constitutes around a third of all waste generated in this country, and has projected that over 27% of existing buildings will be replaced between 2000 and 2030.  To have more buildings re-used is a considerable challenge. 

One could argue that one of the most creative cases of a recycled structure nationally would be the conversion of old grain silos into luxury condominiums in Locust Point, Baltimore, the Silo Point project. So it was an apt place for preservation and development experts to convene at Silo Point to discuss "adaptive re-use". But there was a certain irony in the fact that the meeting started with a hand-out titled "Learning from Los Angeles". Who would think of the city of angels when it comes to historic buildings?

The Los Angeles"baroque" movie palace on Broadway, LA now serves as an event space (photo: ArchPlan)

ULI and National Trust Partnership for Building Reuse

To answer this question Jim Lindberg, Planning Director at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Denver and leading a new partnership between the Urban Land Institute and NTHP for adaptive reuse had come to Baltimore along with Michael Powe, Research Manager for the NTHP and based in Seattle and Jeana Wiser, Project Coordinator at NTHP based in Los Angeles (see all three in this video). Los Angeles, it was explained, was just the beginning of a joint project in collaboration with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) of making the case for adaptive reuse. Research and examples will be broadened by adding other cities such as Baltimore and Philadelphia.