Restore Media, LLC

Silver Lining

This headline in the New York Times caught my eye recently: "Shift to Savings May be Downturn's Lasting Impact." I have been thinking and writing about why this recession is good for traditional building, so naturally I thought this article was about a "shift" toward a greater inclination for "saving" historic buildings, now and also after the economy gets better.

The story began, "The economic downturn is forcing a return to a culture of thrift that many economists say could last well beyond the inevitable recovery." Indeed, this culture of thrift advances our historic preservation cause. Instead of knocking down and building new buildings, building owners, developers, planners, investors and government officials are thinking anew about restoration, rehabilitation and the adaptive use of old buildings. Our newfound culture of thrift has opened minds to the value of embodied energy and to doing more with what we have.

There are 300 billion sq.ft. of space in existing buildings in the U.S. The embodied energy of an historic building is equal to 5 to 15 gallons of gasoline per sq.ft. Doing the math yields a breathtaking result: 300 billion sq.ft. equals 1.5 to 4.5 trillion gallons of gas! (Embodied energy is the total amount of energy needed to build and use a building and transport the materials that go into it.)

As it turns out, the story in the New York Times was not about saving buildings but about saving money. The story went on, "In the last year, the savings rate – the percentage of after-tax income that people do not spend – has risen to above 4 percent, from virtually zero." Saving money is an apt metaphor for saving buildings. The embodied energy in traditional buildings is our nest egg, and we are investing in it to make it grow. "Poverty is good for preservation" is how one state historic preservation officer puts it. Preservation can lead us to prosperity.

A new awareness of thrift, of saving money, energy and traditional buildings, is evidenced everywhere, including at the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) annual convention. In May I attended an AIA workshop titled "Sustaining the Existing Building Stock: the Greatest Challenge of Architecture 2030." This session was presented by the AIA Historic Resources Committee (HRC), the oldest of what the institute calls "knowledge groups" within the 87,000-member association. The HRC is arguably most savvy about preservation architecture's economic, cultural and environmental value.

The workshop faculty was led by Carl Elefante, FAIA, principal and director of sustainable design at Quinn | Evans Architects. His associates on the podium were Jean Carroon, FAIA, principal, Goody Clancy & Associates; Don Horn, AIA, director of the PBS Sustainability Program for the General Services Administration's (GSA) Public Buildings Service; Ralph DiNola, associate AIA, principal, Green Building Services Inc. and Tristan Roberts, managing editor of Environmental Building News. This all-star team gave us more proof that the current downturn is good for traditional building.

The "greatest challenge" in the workshop title quickly became the "greatest opportunity" in each of the presentations. "Old buildings are the new economy," exclaimed Jean Carroon. "Preservation will lead us out of recession." Tristan Roberts cited a book called "The Restoration Economy" (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2002) by Storm Cunningham and talked about "shifting to a restorative paradigm." For Roberts and his AIA workshop colleagues, the preservation of traditional buildings is synonymous with sustainability, and sustainability is the "green lining in the economic storm clouds."

Tristan Roberts's "recession-proof green agenda" delineates cost-effective solutions such as building for the long term, making buildings adaptable for new uses, focusing on greening existing buildings, using historic tax credits and building in passive energy features. The "greenies" have embraced preservation as the building tradition for sustainability.

Roberts quoted developer Jonathan Rose: "This is a risk-averse environment. Green building has become synonymous with thoughtfully designed buildings." "Thoughtful buildings" are further defined as existing buildings. Roberts listed thoughtful restoration and rehabilitation initiatives like retro-commissioning, lighting improvements, updating mechanical system controls and equipment and sealing holes in the envelope.

More evidence of our new culture of thrift and its positive impact on traditional building was articulated by Ralph DiNola. "What's green about historic preservation?" he asked. The audience of about 125 practitioners shouted out with enthusiasm, like grade-schoolers who are eager to show off what they know: "Urban density! Transit access! Building form and massing! Daylighting!" DiNola completed the list: natural ventilation, energy conservation, use of local materials, controllability of systems, durability and embodied energy. Everyone got an A in this class.

DiNola also discussed the new 2009 LEED rating system, which he said is more preservation friendly and brings more good news in difficult times for traditional building. He cited the collaboration between the United States Green Building Council, which manages the system, and the preservationists (AIA-HRC, the Association for Preservation Technology Inc., the National Trust for Historic Preservation) to set standards that better recognize and encourage the construction or renovation of buildings within a dense community (infill).

Called "Credit 2- Development Density and Community Connectivity," LEED 2009 increases points for urban infill from 1 to 5. Likewise, the new LEED 2009 gives buildings near public transportation 6 points, up from 1 in the old standards. Jean Carroon pointed out that transit-oriented housing produces 40-50% fewer cars per household than other housing types and reduces vehicle miles by 38%. There is more work to be done on LEED to strengthen the link between preservation and points, but LEED 2009 makes good progress.

Is preservation green like trees or green like money? Both. This point was conveyed by Carl Elefante, who presented information sourced from Donovan Rypkema's "The Economics of Historic Preservation" (1994; 2nd edition published in 2005 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation), a book more relevant in this recession than it was when originally written. The economic benefits of preservation read like a stimulus package without the price tag, so now more policymakers are listening. The economic benefits include job creation, downtown revitalization, heritage tourism, appreciation of property values and small business incubation. Elefante explained that in sustainable economics, a concern for the environment and a concern for economics are merged. Sustainable economics both revives growth and changes the quality of growth while meeting basic human needs.

Perhaps the most symbolic good-news-in-bad-times speaker on the workshop panel was Don Horn, director of the PBS Sustainability Program for the GSA, the largest landlord in America. His participation in this workshop points to the momentum for traditional building, even when so much private construction is stalled. Horn reminded us that this recession produced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a federal program aimed at adding jobs and cutting emissions. Already, ARRA stimulus money is in the pipeline to repair and improve many of the GSA's 430,000 historic buildings, including $5.5 billion for green building upgrades and $750 million for courthouses, both traditional and mid-century Modern buildings.

"The greenest building is the one that is already built."
—Carl Elefante, FAIA, Quinn Evans Architects

E-valuating Existing Buildings

Building Community
Building of Nature
Integrated Design
- Systems Integration
- Climate Integration
- Building Site Integration
Durability and Maintanability
Adapatability
Embodied Energy

In addition to GSA properties, other federal buildings, many historic, will be restored and rehabilitated now, even when this work had been deferred in the boom times. ARRA is the largest traditional building stimulus since the New Deal.

The federal government is not the only landlord using this downturn to spruce up existing traditional buildings. New York City's Empire State Building is planning a $520 million historic renovation designed to reduce the historic skyscraper's energy consumption by 38% a year by 2013, making it more attractive to corporate tenants. When the biggest landlord and the owners of the tallest historic building both undertake traditional building in a recession, observers have said, maybe this recession is indeed good for traditional building.

Is the McMansion culture really dead? Has the wrecking ball been mothballed for good? Is our new culture of thrift here to stay? I am encouraged, again, by a press release Rhett Butler of E.R. Butler & Co. sent me. It touted his new line of hardware with the title "Materialistic Disenchantment." His new hardware designs return to simpler forms. Out with the new and in with the old. Preservation is an idea whose time has come.

Jean Carroon says that since the Historic Preservation Act of 1974, the seminal law that effectively launched the historic preservation movement, "the preservation movement has ossified." Our economic crisis has accelerated preservation's role in climate change and economic recovery and re-energized the preservation movement.

It's true that the traditional building business has suffered along with the rest of the real estate and construction markets, so my silver-lining optimism might seem theoretical. But traditional building hasn't suffered as much, problems are opportunities and lessons of our recent past are informing a bright new future for existing and historic buildings, as well as for the professionals who restore and improve them.

Peter H. Miller
President
Restore Media, LLC


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News Silver Lining This headline in the New York Times caught my eye recently: "Shift to Savings May be Downturn's Lasting Impact." I have been thinking and writing about why this recession is good for traditional building, so naturally I thought this article was about a "shift" toward a greater inclination for "saving" historic buildings, now and also after the economy gets better. The story began, "The economic downturn is forcing a return to a culture of thrift that many economists say could last well beyond the inevitable recovery." Indeed, this culture of thrift advances our historic preservation cause. Instead of knocking down and building new buildings, building owners, developers, planners, investors and government officials are thinking anew about restoration, rehabilitation and the adaptive use of old buildings. Our newfound culture of thrift has opened minds to the value of embodied energy and to doing more with what we have. There are 300 billion sq.ft. of space in existing buildings in the U.S. The embodied energy of an historic building is equal to 5 to 15 gallons of gasoline per sq.ft. Doing the math yields a breathtaking result: 300 billion sq.ft. equals 1.5 to 4.5 trillion gallons of gas! (Embodied energy is the total amount of energy needed to build and use a building and transport the materials that go into it.) As it turns out, the story in the New York Times was not about saving buildings but about saving money. The story went on, "In the last year, the savings rate – the percentage of after-tax income that people do not spend – has risen to above 4 percent, from virtually zero." Saving money is an apt metaphor for saving buildings. The embodied energy in traditional buildings is our nest egg, and we are investing in it to make it grow. "Poverty is good for preservation" is how one state historic preservation officer puts it. Preservation can lead us to prosperity. A new awareness of thrift, of saving money, energy and traditional buildings, is evidenced everywhere, including at the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) annual convention. In May I attended an AIA workshop titled "Sustaining the Existing Building Stock: the Greatest Challenge of Architecture 2030." This session was presented by the AIA Historic Resources Committee (HRC), the oldest of what the institute calls "knowledge groups" within the 87,000-member association. The HRC is arguably most savvy about preservation architecture's economic, cultural and environmental value. The workshop faculty was led by Carl Elefante, FAIA, principal and director of sustainable design at Quinn \| Evans Architects. His associates on the podium were Jean Carroon, FAIA, principal, Goody Clancy & Associates; Don Horn, AIA, director of the PBS Sustainability Program for the General Services Administration's (GSA) Public Buildings Service; Ralph DiNola, associate AIA, principal, Green Building Services Inc. and Tristan Roberts, managing editor of Environmental Building News. This all-star team gave us more proof that the current downturn is good for traditional building. The "greatest challenge" in the workshop title quickly became the "greatest opportunity" in each of the presentations. "Old buildings are the new economy," exclaimed Jean Carroon. "Preservation will lead us out of recession." Tristan Roberts cited a book called "The Restoration Economy" (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2002) by Storm Cunningham and talked about "shifting to a restorative paradigm." For Roberts and his AIA workshop colleagues, the preservation of traditional buildings is synonymous with sustainability, and sustainability is the "green lining in the economic storm clouds." Tristan Roberts's "recession-proof green agenda" delineates cost-effective solutions such as building for the long term, making buildings adaptable for new uses, focusing on greening existing buildings, using historic tax credits and building in passive energy features. The "greenies" have embraced preservation as the building tradition for sustainability. Roberts quoted developer Jonathan Rose: "This is a risk-averse environment. Green building has become synonymous with thoughtfully designed buildings." "Thoughtful buildings" are further defined as existing buildings. Roberts listed thoughtful restoration and rehabilitation initiatives like retro-commissioning, lighting improvements, updating mechanical system controls and equipment and sealing holes in the envelope. More evidence of our new culture of thrift and its positive impact on traditional building was articulated by Ralph DiNola. "What's green about historic preservation?" he asked. The audience of about 125 practitioners shouted out with enthusiasm, like grade-schoolers who are eager to show off what they know: "Urban density! Transit access! Building form and massing! Daylighting!" DiNola completed the list: natural ventilation, energy conservation, use of local materials, controllability of systems, durability and embodied energy. Everyone got an A in this class. DiNola also discussed the new 2009 LEED rating system, which he said is more preservation friendly and brings more good news in difficult times for traditional building. He cited the collaboration between the United States Green Building Council, which manages the system, and the preservationists (AIA-HRC, the Association for Preservation Technology Inc., the National Trust for Historic Preservation) to set standards that better recognize and encourage the construction or renovation of buildings within a dense community (infill). Called "Credit 2- Development Density and Community Connectivity," LEED 2009 increases points for urban infill from 1 to 5. Likewise, the new LEED 2009 gives buildings near public transportation 6 points, up from 1 in the old standards. Jean Carroon pointed out that transit-oriented housing produces 40-50% fewer cars per household than other housing types and reduces vehicle miles by 38%. There is more work to be done on LEED to strengthen the link between preservation and points, but LEED 2009 makes good progress. Is preservation green like trees or green like money? Both. This point was conveyed by Carl Elefante, who presented information sourced from Donovan Rypkema's "The Economics of Historic Preservation" (1994; 2nd edition published in 2005 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation), a book more relevant in this recession than it was when originally written. The economic benefits of preservation read like a stimulus package without the price tag, so now more policymakers are listening. The economic benefits include job creation, downtown revitalization, heritage tourism, appreciation of property values and small business incubation. Elefante explained that in sustainable economics, a concern for the environment and a concern for economics are merged. Sustainable economics both revives growth and changes the quality of growth while meeting basic human needs. Perhaps the most symbolic good-news-in-bad-times speaker on the workshop panel was Don Horn, director of the PBS Sustainability Program for the GSA, the largest landlord in America. His participation in this workshop points to the momentum for traditional building, even when so much private construction is stalled. Horn reminded us that this recession produced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a federal program aimed at adding jobs and cutting emissions. Already, ARRA stimulus money is in the pipeline to repair and improve many of the GSA's 430,000 historic buildings, including $5.5 billion for green building upgrades and $750 million for courthouses, both traditional and mid-century Modern buildings. "The greenest building is the one that is already built." —Carl Elefante, FAIA, Quinn Evans Architects E-valuating Existing Buildings Building Community Building of Nature Integrated Design Systems Integration Climate Integration Building Site Integration Durability and Maintanability Adapatability Embodied Energy In addition to GSA properties, other federal buildings, many historic, will be restored and rehabilitated now, even when this work had been deferred in the boom times. ARRA is the largest traditional building stimulus since the New Deal. The federal government is not the only landlord using this downturn to spruce up existing traditional buildings. New York City's Empire State Building is planning a $520 million historic renovation designed to reduce the historic skyscraper's energy consumption by 38% a year by 2013, making it more attractive to corporate tenants. When the biggest landlord and the owners of the tallest historic building both undertake traditional building in a recession, observers have said, maybe this recession is indeed good for traditional building. Is the McMansion culture really dead? Has the wrecking ball been mothballed for good? Is our new culture of thrift here to stay? I am encouraged, again, by a press release Rhett Butler of E.R. Butler & Co. sent me. It touted his new line of hardware with the title "Materialistic Disenchantment." His new hardware designs return to simpler forms. Out with the new and in with the old. Preservation is an idea whose time has come. Jean Carroon says that since the Historic Preservation Act of 1974, the seminal law that effectively launched the historic preservation movement, "the preservation movement has ossified." Our economic crisis has accelerated preservation's role in climate change and economic recovery and re-energized the preservation movement. It's true that the traditional building business has suffered along with the rest of the real estate and construction markets, so my silver-lining optimism might seem theoretical. But traditional building hasn't suffered as much, problems are opportunities and lessons of our recent past are informing a bright new future for existing and historic buildings, as well as for the professionals who restore and improve them. Peter H. Miller President Restore Media, LLC

Restore Media, LLC, is the producer of the Traditional Building Exhibition and Conference and the publisher of Clem Labine's Traditional Building, Clem Labine's Period Homes, BuildingPort.com, Traditional Product Reports, Traditional Product Galleries, and tradweb—the Directory of Custom Building and Restoration Services. Copyright 2010. Restore Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.