Architecture is Awesome: #34 Adaptive Reuse

 

The Tate Modern, an example of adaptive reuse (photo by MasterOfHisOwnDomain, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

This is another in my series of posts inspired by 1000 Awesome Things, the Webby Award-winning blog written by Neil Pasricha. The series is my meditation on the awesome reasons why I was and continue to be attracted to the art of architecture.

Adaptive reuse is a process that adapts buildings for new uses while preserving their original features. Adaptive reuse prolongs a building’s life, often retaining major systems, including the original structure, the shell, and even the interior materials. The practice breathes life into old buildings by converting them into something newly useful, whether it is as fresh commercial space, multifamily housing, community centers, mixed-use facilities, or something else.

 

The High Line, New York (my photo)

Wonderful examples of adaptive reuse abound in many cities. For example, the Tate Modern art gallery in London is housed in a building that was formerly the Bankside Power Station, a decommissioned electricity plant. Taking an adaptive approach allowed builders to create a unique and beautiful art gallery. Another noteworthy model is New York’s High Line, which transformed an abandoned section of railroad on Manhattan’s west side into an elevated linear park. Since its opening in 2009, the High Line has become a popular and well-used city icon.

 

Closer to home, The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts converted the former First Baptist Church in downtown Eugene into a well-used performance venue and music school, while the proposed redevelopment of the Eugene Steam Plant is a catalyzing opportunity to provide an iconic community destination along the city’s riverfront.  

The Jaqua Concert Hall in the John G. Shedd Institute, Eugene.

Eugene Steam Plant vision by the deChase Miksis Development.

In communities with a noteworthy heritage of historic architecture, adaptive reuse restores culturally significant sites that otherwise would be left to decay or be razed to make room for new buildings or wasteful parking lots. In too many cities, the loss of such a built heritage has contributed to the systematic destruction of what was a coherent urban fabric in favor of blockbusting, car-oriented development. Adaptive reuse is an effective strategy for countering this detrimental trend.

 

New isn’t always better, especially when viewed through a sustainability lens. By saving countless solid, older buildings from demolition, adaptive reuse capitalizes on the operational and commercial performance of valuable existing assets. It is certainly the most environmentally sound approach to development. Adaptive reuse decreases a building’s potential carbon footprint by reducing the need for new construction, which in turn lessens its embodied energy (embodied energy being the energy consumed during the extraction, manufacture, transportation, and installation of new building materials).  

 

Adaptive reuse can also help contain urban sprawl. When builders search for new construction sites, they often choose land located outside of a city center because of budget friendly considerations. While developers may find the calculus for such development to be favorable, the fallout of sprawl is its externalized costs:  the erosion of community identity, greater fuel consumption, higher public spending on infrastructure and servicing, the adverse impact of lowered tax bases for central cities, and harmful environmental outcomes. Adaptive reuse leverages existing resources and is a powerful tool for rejuvenating established neighborhoods.

 

Adaptive reuse is often cost-effective. While a project to renovate an existing building may require more labor to execute than one built from scratch, the savings in material costs is often significant, especially as the price of new materials has skyrocketed in recent years. Adaptive reuse also forgoes the cost of demolition, which can represent a substantial portion of a construction budget.

 

Skylab Architecture’s new headquarters (image from Skylab’s website)

Adaptive reuse is not restricted to architecture of historic significance and can be a strategy for extending the useful life of many obsolete buildings that have outlived their original function. An excellent recent example is the new headquarters of Skylab Architecture in Portland. The firm chose to creatively adapt two old steel warehouse structures in the city’s NW industrial area (one of them a prefabricated Quonset hut), transforming them into not only its dynamic new workspace, but also as a place to host events for the larger design community.

 

Adaptive reuse is AWESOME because it gives old buildings a new lease on life by repurposing them for uses unforeseen by the original builders, all while retaining many of their historic and most attractive features. The process is an admirably sustainable approach to building that preserves built heritage, reduces sprawl, and reinvigorates the urban fabric.  

 

Next Architecture is Awesome:  #35 Problem Solving