The Waterfront Futures Group identified Sustainable Development and Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings as one of the Guiding Principles of the Waterfront Redevelopment Plan. read more...
Why is Adaptive Reuse crucial to Sustainable Development practices?
"Green buildings" and sustainable development are not synonyms. Historic preservation is a significant component of sustainable development. Razing historic buildings results in a triple hit on scarce resources:
First, demolition throws away embodied energy. Embodied energy is defined
as the total expenditure of energy involved in the creation of a building
and its constituent materials...read more
Much of the "green building" movement focuses on the
annual energy use of a building. But the energy embodied in the
construction of a building is 15 to 30 times the annual energy use.
Second, demolition replaces existing buildings with materials vastly more
consumptive of energy. Brick, plaster, concrete and timber are among the
least energy consumptive of materials. Plastic, steel, vinyl and aluminum
are among the most energy consumptive of materials.
Third, embodied energy savings increase dramatically as a building life stretches over fifty years. It is inaccurate to say a development plan is sustainable when historic buildings and their components are being thrown away. Sustainable development involves adaptive reuse of existing buildings.