News Round-Ups

Preservation Round-Up: 11 Most in the News

Posted on: June 8th, 2012 by David Garber 1 Comment

Each year, the week of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places announcement is always busy with events, web updates, press calls, and media coverage. And each year we're fortunate to help draw a lot of attention to places that need it.

Our lists of threatened historic places resonate because they cover a wide set of history and place interests, and a diversity of geography, site type, and related people groups. As you can see below, this year's list is no different, so we thought we'd share some of the great pieces that came through the wire over the past couple days.

David Garber

David Garber is the Coordinator of Blog Content & Outreach at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is a native of Washington, DC, and loves the intersection of preservation, innovation, and sustainability.

Preservation Round-Up: Found on Facebook Edition

Posted on: May 24th, 2012 by David Garber 2 Comments

Today's Preservation Round-Up is a selection of stories you alerted us to on our Facebook page. As much as we have our ear to the ground for local preservation stories and efforts around the country, we can't be everywhere at once, so we greatly appreciate your shares. Here are some recent posts worth checking out.

Historic Preservation Needs in Los Angeles

"I've just created a shared google map for alerting folks to historic preservation emergencies in their LA communities. Click to see what's in danger near you, and please add any place you are worried about which is not already on the map."

The Last Humble Gas Station

"Humble Oil was once the most important oil company in Texas with service stations stretched across the state and huge refineries that supplied both Texans and motorists across the country."

Massive Fergus Falls, Minnesota Hospital in Danger of Demolition

"What would you do with 700,000+ square feet of pretty much raw space? The Historic Fergus Falls State Hospital (now RTC) is in need of your ideas. No idea is too outlandish - what would you do with this building?"

Philadelphia's Historic St. Peter’s Church Needs You

"St. Peter’s is one of those places that makes you realize you can go home again. From her beautiful windows to the high boxes inside the church, to the climb up the stairs for a look out over the church yard, St. Peter’s is just a very cool place."

Kickstarter to Restore a Historic Building and Open a Coffee House

"I am trying to save this historic building and create a gathering place for the community and visitors! The Kickstarter project is to help raise the funds to complete the restoration of the building and create an outdoor space open to the public." ... Read More →

David Garber

Green Round-Up: Density and Industry Edition

Posted on: May 21st, 2012 by Rachel Bowdon

The eight-hundred-year-old St. John's Hospital in Bruges, Belgium. (Photo: lhonchou)

Remaking an Eight Hundred Year Old Hospital -- True Green Cities Blog

"The oldest part of St. John’s Hospital in Bruges, Belgium dates from 1270. Subsequent buildings date from the 14th through 17th centuries. Today the complex of at least 10 buildings houses a hospital museum, a historic dispensary museum, an art and community center, a Picasso gallery and a restaurant. It was actually a hospital until 1976. It occupies a large piece of land overlooking one of the main canals and opposite the Church of Our Lady, which contains one of the only Michelangelo sculptures outside of Italy. It could be location, location, location but add to that the European ethic of reuse, and this hospital has found new uses that keeps it even more active than it’s ever been."

The Limits of Density -- The Atlantic Cities

"There can be no doubt that density has its advantages. In general, denser cities are more productive, more innovative, and more energy efficient. But only up to a point. The key function of a city is to enable exchange, interaction, and the combination and recombination of people and ideas. When buildings become so massive that street life disappears, they can damp down and limit just this sort of interaction, creating the same isolation that is more commonly associated with sprawl."

Could Battersea Power Station Be a Trailblazer for Green Renovation? -- businessGreen

"... Battersea could be a perfect case study for how governments and businesses should deal with the raft of aging coal-fired power stations that are due to start going offline over the next decade, raising a host of questions about sustainable building strategies and whether it is greener to retrofit an old building, or demolish it, recycle the materials, and create a greener development on site."

Building for the Needs of an Information-Based Economy -- UrbanLand

"Google’s decision to locate its Pittsburgh operations in the inner city is but one way America’s ever-expanding knowledge economy is changing the real estate sector—something it is expected to continue doing. Not only are high-tech companies looking for unusual spaces that are reflective of their corporate culture, but firms in the knowledge sector are also reviving inner-city neighborhoods, spearheading the drive for sustainability, and even changing the way some new buildings are designed."

Calculating The True Economic Benefit Of Green Buildings -- Fast Company Co.Exist

"Standard real estate practices have a hard time modelling for the system-wide and long-term benefits that building more sustainably provides. A new system, called Economics of Change, finds the real cost."

Rachel Bowdon

Rachel Bowdon is the program assistant for the Sustainability Program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

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Preservation Round-Up: NIMBYs Are People Too Edition

Posted on: May 10th, 2012 by David Garber

The Mossback Manifesto on Urban Density - Crosscut.com

"I don't think NIMBYs are always wrong. It's not an epithet in my vocabulary. In fact, they often get a bum rap for caring too much at a time when too many citizens don't care enough. NIMBYs are often good folks acting locally and who often know more than the people with clipboards and white boards. That said, I don't think the Not-in-My-Backyard stance is sustainable as a guiding philosophy. I think of NIMBYs like those little crabs you find on the beach that raise their claws when you've turned over their rock."

A Move Toward More Affordable Preservation - SFGate

"San Francisco's policy governing historic preservation districts and landmarks must take into account the financial hardship concerns of property owners and low-income housing developers, pedestrian-safety improvements and development challenges, under legislation given preliminary approval by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. [...] "San Francisco is a great historic city, but it is not a museum," said Supervisor Scott Wiener, chief sponsor of the legislation."

Historic Preservation and Its Costs - City Journal

"Historical buildings add value, interest, and beauty to cities. Beautiful architecture of the past deserves to be recognized and saved, just as we preserve other types of art. We must also recognize, however, that our cities are not museums but living and evolving centers of commerce and culture."

Can Paul Rudolph’s Architecturally Vital Orange County Government Center Be Saved? - Vanity Fair

"Rudolph, who died in 1997, was probably the finest maker of compositions in three dimensions of modern times; he could put planes and solids and lines and textures and surfaces together in a way that at its best was sublime. Rudolph buildings are like Mondrian paintings turned into space, and when you walk into them, if you can get beyond the fact that they are not warm and cuddly, they can thrill you and, at their best, ennoble you."

A Quiet War on Landmarks, or Fixing the Problems with the Preservation Commission? - The New York Observer

"Is the city’s Landmarks Law broken? To the uninitiated, that would have been the likely conclusion from a hearing held at the City Council today. Eleven different pieces of legislation addressing myriad issues at the commission were debated. [...] The city is under assault from a nanny state stuck in the past seemed to be the clear message. For the large crowd assembled in protest for what turned out to be a four hour meeting, the case was quite the opposite: It was the city’s daring Landmarks Preservation Commission, keeper of the soul of the city, that was under assault."

David Garber

Green Round-Up: Smaller Buildings Edition

Posted on: May 3rd, 2012 by Rachel Bowdon 1 Comment

A whopping 95 percent of the country’s existing commercial buildings are smaller than 50,000 square feet and account for 44 percent of energy usage in all commercial buildings. But, did you know that the majority of green retrofits are performed on the other five percent of buildings?

Taking into account their greater homogeneity and economies of scale, owners of large buildings have an easier time commanding the capital and the technical support needed for energy retrofits. In contrast, owners of smaller buildings -- which typically have unique and varied characteristics and requirements -- often are not adequately served by financial or technical resources, or by regulatory frameworks designed with larger and newer buildings in mind. The National Trust’s Preservation Green Lab has been committed to advancing the reuse and retrofit of older, smaller buildings though its Older Building Performance Program.

Like the Preservation Green Lab, Living City Block is also committed to bringing new investment to smaller, older buildings. In her article, Greening an Entire Block Instead of Just One Building, The Atlantic Cities writer Emily Badger explains the concept:

"Living City Block's basic concept is simple. Small buildings rarely have the resources to do a serious retrofit. For most of them, the idea is cost-prohibitive. But what if you combined a small building with 10 more like it?"

Could building owners achieve the kind of economies of scale comparable to larger buildings by working collaboratively rather than separately? We're about to find out. Living City Block is currently testing this concept on two blocks in Denver comprised of 17 buildings, 16 of which are historic. The project is expected to see a 50 percent reduction in the buildings' combined energy use.

Check out more green preservation stories after the jump. ... Read More →