Architects Find it Beneficial to Restore the Past

Banker & Tradesman, August 12, 2002,
by Brett Donham (reprinted with permission from The Warren Group)

Most of the time, old buildings are better than new ones. They are better looking, they are less expensive, they are more energy conserving, they are easier to get permitted and make a greater contribution to our urban fabric...Frequently, older buildings are less expensive to restore and adapt to new uses than building new... [And] buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places are eligible for investment tax credits, which can be critical in obtaining equity financing.

Old buildings contain enormous amounts of latent energy that does not need to be respent in fixing them up...An existing building is a known quantity. Neighbors know what it looks like and they are used to it and accepting of it. An existing building may have been built before present zoning was put in place, earning the building an exemption from some of the present restrictions. Historic buildings bring a tacit community support to a zoning approvals or public design review process. Similarly, the Massachusetts Building Code relaxes some if its requirements for existing historic buildings.

The new Chelsea Police Headquarters is an example of these points. Originally built in 1897 as a combined courthouse and police station in the American Renaissance style, the building had deteriorated badly over the years... Finally, in the mid-1990s a decision was made by the Commonwealth to restore rather than demolish it. By 2001 the interior had been gutted and rebuilt and the exterior had been restored to its original condition. It emerged as part of the new Chelsea, giving a sense of pride and historical continuity to the major public square in the city. A new building of that size and architectural significance could not have been built on that site, and Chelsea would have lost something irreplaceable. It won a preservation award from the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

Everyone involved in the business of building has a larger responsibility to our shared culture. Building confers on us all a responsibility to further our culture by preserving the significant artifacts of it. These artifacts are not just the special individual buildings, but more frequently are the collection of buildings in a community that preserve the spirit of a time and place. They show us all on a daily basis, in a way that museums cannot, the changing norms and taste of the past as well as the unifying sensibilities that created communities. Older buildings provide a sense of identity and a sense of pride in community that cannot be sustained in any other way.