"Re-urbanism" Preserves History, Conserves Energy And Enhances The Local Economy

The Western Colorado Power Company office building in Durango is now home to the Durango Coffee Company

"The greenest building is the one already built."  That's a popular and oh so true statement when we look at the environmental impacts of construction. New buildings require us to destroy and dump all of the materials and energy expended to build the old structure, and to replace those old wood, metal and masonry products with more of the same.  As far as the energy efficiency of new installations versus the old ones, the Preservation Green Lab determined that that it can take up to 80 years for a new, energy-efficient building to overcome the environmental (climate change and energy consumption) impacts caused by the new building's construction. And there's more than just environmental benefits in retaining our historic buildings.

Historic buildings convey an authentic sense of the community's history and character. They are billboards for the roots of the community and they tend to attract entrepreneurial and creative industries.  Real estate studies show that historic buildings in and near historic districts are valued at about 20% higher than their counterparts.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation-a long time advocate of rehabilitating historic buildings-has a program called "Reurbanism" that champions adaptive reuse of historic buildings. Two of their ten principals are;
Older places provide the distinctiveness and character that engender success. Older buildings give cities a sense of identity, history, and authenticity—which is the most important competitive advantage they can have in today’s economy.
Older neighborhoods are economic engines. Research shows that neighborhoods with a mix of older and newer buildings perform better along a number of social, economic, cultural, and environmental metrics than areas with only new buildings.

If you want to learn more about Re-urbanism, click on this link National Trust Reurbanism.  Architect Rick Feeney just shared a great article about this movement in Denver.  This link  at Colorado Biz will take you to the article.