The building and construction industry is responsible for a significant portion of the world’s pollution. For decades, the industry has tried to shrink its carbon footprint in several ways.
Whether it’s retrofitting older buildings with green building materials, or building from the ground up with sustainable building materials like recycled steel or bamboo, or installing low-flow fixtures like toilets and water taps, small changes go a long way.
Another way the building and construction industry can help the environment is through adaptive reuse of current structures.
Table of Contents
What is Adaptive Reuse?
How Adaptive Reuse Works
Environmental Benefits of Adaptive Reuse
Energy Reduction
Environmental Stress
Visual Appeal
Reduced Expansion
Other Benefits
Economic Sustainability
Launch New Businesses
Time Savings
Eliminate Demolition Costs
Preservation
Unlimited Opportunities
Final Thoughts
What is Adaptive Reuse?
To put it simply, adaptive reuse is taking something old and making it new again. One of the most common examples of adaptive reuse is taking items like pallets, wood whiskey barrels, and other objects that would otherwise see the trash being turned into furniture and décor.
According to former president of the American Institute of Architects Carl Elefants, “The greenest building is the one that already exists.” When we talk about adaptive reuse in building and construction, we keep the shell of the building and repurpose the inside to suit the new needs. An old one-room school house or train depot becomes a private residence, or a former warehouse becoming an entertainment mecca featuring restaurants, a comedy club, and more.
How Adaptive Reuse Works
Out with the old, in with the new. It’s what we say when we want a change of furniture, décor, or even clothing. We box it all up and drop it off at a thrift store for someone else to find and love. In building and construction, it means tearing out old fixtures, plumbing, wiring, and more to make way for a new business and its needs. A building is taken down to the studs and reimagined for the new use.
For example, the historic school house we spoke of in the beginning had a very different use than the residential home it will become. The one-room school houses of days gone by didn’t need much, but were built to very different standards than what is required of a home today. Added to that, homeowners will want all the necessities of living: indoor plumbing, electrical, a kitchen, laundry room, bedrooms, and more. All of this needs planning, lots of updates for new codes, and the like.
Environmental Benefits of Adaptive Reuse
As we stated in the introduction, the building and construction industry is the leading industry in contributing to the world’s overall pollution – but that’s not an award to be proud of. Through the use of recycled and other sustainable materials, the industry has made significant progress toward minimizing the carbon footprint with the built environment.
Energy Reduction
Finding new uses for old structures means a significant reduction in energy consumption or the built environment. In fact, a large percentage of a building’s carbon emissions come from the materials themselves in all phases: fabrication, delivery to the site, and construction/assembly.
The energy used to demolish and subsequently build a new structure is eliminated as well.
Environmental Stress
With demolition comes debris, as well as the potential to release toxins like mold and asbestos, which, once airborne, have the ability to be inhaled and cause irritation and sickness. They also affect the natural outdoor surroundings immediately around the structure as well as out into the community. A carefully deconstructed, remediated, and rebuilt space causes less environmental stress.
Additionally, using what is already in place reduces the need to break new ground and disturb soil and native and well-established vegetation. Repairs and updating for code compliance takes place inside the existing building and does not need to spill out into the environment.
Visual Appeal
While not directly related to the building’s environmental impact, repurposing an old building breathes new life into it and turns what was once a broken eyesore into a vibrant renewed space a community can be proud of.
There’s no doubt going to be some exterior work to be done, including replacing doors and windows, cleaning up and replacing broken brickwork or faded paint or siding, and more. Giving the building a face lift and cleaning the exterior grounds offers a cleaner outdoor environment. Taking the time to install new landscape and other plantings will go a long way in sprucing up the building’s visual appeal, as well as bring in the carbon-absorbing powers of greenery to improve air quality in the area.
Reduced Expansion
As populations grow, more housing and services are needed to handle the peoples’ needs. If a community has a vacant building waiting for its next life, that community may turn to adaptive reuse. Communities can opt to fill it with housing or necessary services and businesses without clearing and using more land.
This is especially important in urban areas where green space is a premium that’s quickly diminishing as populations grow. Communities can choose to reuse an old building in favor of building on one of the last green spaces available in the area.
Other Benefits
The benefits of adaptive reuse don’t stop at environmental impact. There are many other reasons communities should turn toward adaptive reuse.
Economic Sustainability
When you’re working with an existing building, many of the barriers that cost time and money when building from the ground up are eliminated. Potential costs benefits from going down the path of adaptive reuse include:
– Reduction of hurdles related to greenfields (zoning, anti-development)
– Financing
– Design & construction costs
– Environmental impact of new construction
Such savings can mean an urban project attaining the feasibility to move forward versus a downtown site becoming another surface parking lot.
Launch New Businesses
Some buildings are repurposed for living space, while others become other businesses than the one(s) that came before. In the case of the latter, an older building can make it easier for new businesses to enter a market. Start-ups can finally move out of the garage or off of the kitchen table and into an appropriate space at a potentially lower rate than a space in a newly-constructed or recently-constructed building.
Time Savings
Time is money. The months or possibly years it may take to construct a new building is time and money wasted. By renovating and reusing an existing structure (for business purposes, not residential), businesses can move into the building much faster, bringing their services and an infusion of money into the community more quickly than waiting through the months and possibly years needed to approve, build, and open a new building.
Eliminate Demolition Costs
Earlier we spoke about one of the environmental benefits of adaptive reuse was to avoid the environmental harm caused by demolition. Reduced air quality, the possibility of releasing improperly treated and remediated mold or asbestos and the like are environmental concerns to be considered during demolition.
Adaptive reuse not only eliminates the environmental concerns surrounding demolition, but the financial worries as well. Every step of the construction process costs money. Whether that’s the cost of surveying and clearing greefields for a totally new project or demolishing what came before in order to clear the way. If you’re looking to build a new building on an old site, you’ll need to consider that demolition costs are going to be up to 10% of your project’s budget. Without the need to demolish, those funds can be spent on build out and improvement.
Preservation
The only way to get historic buildings is to maintain them to a standard at which they’ll last for decades or even centuries. Many universities with an “old campus” side of the school have a building or group of buildings that have stood their since the school opened – they may be as old as the 1800s, or as recent as the 1960s. These buildings are still standing because their owners have taken pride in them, maintained them, and updated them as necessary to meet current needs.
Adaptive reuse may be a part of that preservation process when it comes to certain buildings. Giving a building ‘new life’ through adaptive reuse ensures it will be around for decades to come.
For example, the BOB (Big Old Building) in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a four-story, 70,000 square foot red brick building built in 1903 as Judson’s grocery warehouse. It’s current owners saved it from demolition by breathing new life into it as one of Downtown Grand Rapids’ entertainment destinations. Without this adaptive reuse, this charming old building full of history would have been demolished and new construction set in place, losing the building to history and only the memories of the people who knew it in its heyday.
Unlimited Opportunities
There are a number of ways to repurpose an old building. Entertainment, office space, retail space, and even residential uses are possible in many older buildings. From turning an old warehouse into urban lofts or a mixed use building featuring entertainment, retail opportunities, and housing, there are many ways our historic buildings can be reused and last long into the future.
Final Thoughts
The staff at Realty Asset Advisors is here to help you with all your ideas for the inside of your new construction building, as well as to help you imagine what could be in an old, seemingly tired space. We look forward to speaking with you about your adaptive reuse needs.
Contact us today!
