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WHY THIS RECESSION IS GOOD FOR TRADITIONAL BUILDING

 

Sometimes you have to lose something to appreciate what you have. We have lost our new construction boom in a sub-prime morass. Banks won’t lend. Cheap fuel is lost forever. Ex-urban Mcmansions are boarded up in ghost town cul-de-sacs across America. This is good news for the $170 billion traditional building market .

Conservation is back in vogue, historic restoration and renovation are more sensible than ever, “embodied energy” is a new household phrase, adaptive reuse of existing buildings is the market’s hot spot, and the United States Green Building Council, heretofore construction nouveau-philes, now understands the importance of LEED standards for historic and existing buildings.

As Rick Rosan, president of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) told me, “It takes a shock like this to make people change.” ULI released “The City in 2050: Blueprints for Change,” a white paper about the future of real estate development, at the recent Urban Land Expo in Miami. Confused about the state of our industry, I decided to attend to hear what the “suits” were saying. Guest speakers included four former HUD secretaries and Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve. Attendees were the developers, building owners, and bankers who drive private residential and commercial planning and construction in the United States and around the world.

What I heard in the seminars, at the coffee bar, and in the ULI presentation of “2050” was that the world is going urban, and urban is green. The key factors driving this change are population growth, globalization, global warming, capital markets, rising energy costs, and equitable development.

ULI predicts that 80% of development will be in cities or on the urban edge. “The drive toward 2050 is about building sustainable communities that withstand the test of time,” the white paper proclaimed. “It’s about building for people and about building in harmony with the natural environment, not in spite of it. Well-planned communities, those that give residents the option to drive only a short distance, walk, bike, or take transit, have a central role to play in mitigating climate change.”

Hallelujah! When developers look to the cities and close-in suburbs, they will find a proud and sensible inventory of well-built, sustainable historic buildings that serve our needs. Many of these old buildings will require restoration, renovation, and sensitive in-fill nearby. Many more historic buildings will be adapted for new uses. These buildings, which convey our heritage, will represent  permanence and certainty in changing times. As our population grows by an estimated 100 million people over the next 40 years, our pedestrian-friendly historic neighborhoods and public buildings, parks, and squares will welcome people from around the world .

But there is sprucing up to do! Problems are opportunities. Traditional building—the restoration, renovation, preservation, and contextually designed new additions and in-fill that are necessary to serve our needs—is a solution now both obvious and urgent.

 

Peter Miller

President

Restore Media, LLC