How To Unify The Many Meanings of ‘Green’
By Guest Writer on August 17th, 2010Written by Meghan Kleon
Historic preservation and sustainable design present two different ways of valuing, seeing, interpreting, and talking about our buildings. Take a look at this photo:
George Washington Littlefield House (1893) on The University of Texas at Austin Campus. (Photo courtesy of the author.)
If you’re a preservationist, you probably see:
- a durable window system,
- a distinct and possibly character-defining feature of a building, and
- something of irreplaceable historic value.
If you’re a sustainable design professional, you probably see:
- drafty, single-pane windows,
- a way to provide natural daylight and views for the building’s occupants, and
- a large environmental and economic footprint.
As preservationists and sustainable design professionals, we “read” buildings very differently, and we speak specialized languages, which can make it difficult to communicate and collaborate on projects. Our lack of common language can literally prevent us from being able to “see” the same conditions, let alone envision shared solutions.
Battle Hall (1910) on The University of Texas at Austin Campus. (http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2003/architecture.html)
Usually the difference in language between two professions is fairly obvious right away. Who hasn’t been in a meeting where you felt slightly bewildered by all the unfamiliar words and acronyms being thrown around the room? But sustainability and preservation are unique because we often use the exact same words — it’s just that those words have different meanings depending on which field you’re in.
For example, to most preservationists, the definition of “sustainability” is literally to sustain something, to keep it in existence. And because of that, as Mike Jackson points out, “many preservationists feel that preserving buildings is inherently an act of sustainable design.”
However, to a sustainable design professional, sustainability is about more than enduring. (Although, I’m the first to admit that sustainability could learn a lot from preservation’s notions of maintenance and durability!) For the sustainable design professional, a building also has to address ecological, economic, and social equity concerns in order to be considered sustainable.
Another example is the definition of the word preservation. To most sustainable design professionals, “preservation” usually refers to the protection of a natural landscape and resources, not the rehabilitation of historic buildings.
Unfortunately, much of the time it isn’t obvious that we’re using different definitions until we’re working together on a project, and feeling frustrated that we’re talking past each other.
So how can we start to create common definitions?
One way is to talk about a historic building from both the sustainability and the preservation perspective, paying attention to what conflicts arise between the goals and values of the two approaches, what is shared between the two, and how might we enhance the sustainability of historic buildings while still maintaining their integrity.
When you’re in Austin for the National Preservation Conference this October, the Green Makeover Field Session at the University of Texas will be a great opportunity to learn about approaches to green practice in preservation settings through tours of three historic campus buildings: Battle Hall (1910, Cass Gilbert), Main Building and Tower (1933-37, Paul Cret), and George Washington Littlefield House (1894, James Wahrenberger). The tours will be preceded by an orientation and conclude with what is sure to be a lively question-and-answer session. (Register for the conference today!)
Let’s start to create a new hybrid language — one of sustainable preservation — to talk about our historic buildings!
Meghan Kleon, LEED AP, is a PhD student in Architecture, a Sustainable Cities Doctoral Initiative Fellow, and the coordinator of the Graduate Portfolio Program in Sustainability at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research is focused on the intersection of sustainable design and historic preservation. Visit her online at meghankleon.com.
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