Community Concerns - Historic Rehabilitation
Once viewed as obstacles for the wholesale redevelopment of communities, even dilapidated historic buildings can become a district’s centerpiece. Some of the most economically challenged communities still have wonderfully grand old buildings at their cores. Even more modest buildings can provide a community (especially an economically depressed community) with an asset and economic foothold to better things.
But often historic buildings are difficult to rehabilitate due to significant costs. New buildings are custom designed to suit the functions placed within them. Old buildings, however, are what they are. They might have built-in limitations that are hurdles to redevelopment.
Communities that have strong urban plans and strategies for their overall redevelopment can offer backing for the redevelopment of historic buildings. From providing convenient parking to creating nearby public gathering spaces, communities can make the redevelopment of historic buildings more viable.
Neighborhoods - Nodes of Places
Architectural hallmarks from the past can become bellwethers for the future when renovated or adaptively reused. In fact, sometimes an old church, department store, of historic civic building is the most recognizable element at the heart of a district.
Neighborhoods - Tools for Planning
Preserving key historic buildings is something that many communities would like to see done, but they feel helpless. Communities can make the rehabilitation of historic building more marketable by providing an urban design strategy for surrounding areas which incorporates parking, gathering places, and other amenity elements.
Buildings - Forming the Public Realm
In places with historic buildings, it’s important that new designs complement the historic surroundings. This doesn’t mean new buildings should mimic old ones. Find out what elements of new building design should be consistent with contextual influences and which ones can be contemporary.
Public Places - Small Gathering Spaces
In more urban and historic settings, often the most convenient location for an intimate gathering space is where a historic building once stood. While the loss of that building may be regrettable, a high-quality thoughtfully designed public gathering space may offer an economic advantage to those surrounding buildings which still have some life left in them.