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Home > Design Guidance > Design Objectives > Historic Preservation

Historic Preservation

by the WBDG Historic Preservation Subcommittee

Last updated: 08-02-2012

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Overview

Preserving historic buildings is essential to understanding our nation's heritage. In addition, it is an environmentally responsible practice. By reusing existing buildings historic preservation is essentially a recycling program of 'historic' proportions. Existing buildings can often be energy efficient through their use of good ventilation, durable materials, and spatial relationships. An immediate advantage of older buildings is that a building already exists; therefore energy is not necessary to create new building materials and the infrastructure is already in place. Minor modifications can be made to adapt existing buildings to compatible new uses. Systems can be upgraded to meet modern building requirements and codes. This not only makes good economic sense, but preserves our legacy and is an inherently sustainable practice and an intrinsic component of whole building design. (See also Sustainable and Sustainable Historic Preservation.)

Photo of Tacoma Union Station rotunda in Tacoma, WA

Tacoma Union Station, Tacoma, WA. Designed by the architectural firm of Reed and Stem and constructed in 1911 and renovated in 1987. Tall ceilings, generous daylight, and grand ceremonial spaces give historic buildings enduring investment value and make them attractive for a variety of uses.

Realizing the need to protect America's cultural resources, Congress established the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966, which mandates the active use of historic buildings for public benefit and to preserve our national heritage. Cultural resources, as identified in the National Register for Historic Places, include buildings, archeological sites, structures, objects, and historic districts. The surrounding landscape is often an integral part of a historic property. Not only can significant archaeological remains be destroyed during the course of construction, but the landscape, designed or natural, may be irreparably damaged, and caution is advised whenever major physical intervention is required in an extant building or landscape. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act established the public mandate to protect these resources.

Some practical and/or intangible benefits of historic preservation include:

  • Retention of history and authenticity
    • Commemorates the past
    • Aesthetics: texture, craftsmanship, style
    • Pedestrian/visitor appeal
    • Human scale
  • Increased commercial value
    • Materials and ornaments that are not affordable or readily available
    • Durable, high quality materials (e.g., old growth wood)
Rehabilitated historic hotel, Cape May, NJ

Rehabilitated historic hotel, Cape May, NJ. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service

  • Retention of building materials (refer also to WBDG Sustainable Branch)
    • Less construction and demolition debris
    • Less hazardous material debris
    • Less need for new materials
  • Existing usable space—quicker occupancy
  • Rehabilitation often costs less than new construction
  • Reuse of infrastructure
  • Energy savings
    • No energy used for demolition
    • No energy used for new construction
    • Reuse of embodied energy in building materials and assemblies

Following passage of the NHPA, the Secretary of the Interior established Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties to promote and guide the responsible treatment of historic structures and to protect irreplaceable cultural resources. Today, the Standards are the guiding principles behind sensitive preservation design and practice in America.

  • Apply the Preservation Process Successfully—The preservation process involves five basic steps: Identify, Investigate, Develop, Execute, and Educate. Successful preservation design requires early and frequent consultation with a variety of organizations and close collaboration among technical specialists, architects, owner/occupants, and preservation professionals.

Work on historic properties requires specialized skills. The Secretary of the Interior has identified professional qualification standards for a variety of preservation disciplines.

Four Treatment Approaches

Within the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties there are Standards for four distinct approaches to the treatment of historic properties: preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

Preservation focuses on the maintenance stabilization, and repair of existing historic materials and retention of a property's form as it has evolved over time.

Rehabilitation acknowledges the need to alter or add to a historic property to meet continuing or changing uses while retaining the property's historic character.

Photo of Alexander Hamilton Custom House

Alexander Hamilton Custom House, New York. Constructed 1899-1907 and renovated in 1994. Original drawings, photographs, and other archival documents are used to determine the original appearance of missing features to be replicated within restoration zones.

Restoration depicts a property at a particular period of time in its history, while removing evidence of other periods.

Reconstruction re-creates vanished or non-surviving portions of a property for interpretive purposes.

Additional Standards and Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Resources such as landscapes, archaeological and maritime resources, etc. are maintained by the National Park Service.

While each treatment has its own definition, they are interrelated. For example, one could "restore" missing features in a building that is being "rehabilitated." This means that if there is sufficient historical documentation on what was there originally, a decorative lighting fixture may be replicated or an absent front porch rebuilt, but the overall approach to work on the building falls under one specific treatment.

Treatment Plan

Photo of San Francisco Court of Appeals in San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Court of Appeals, San Francisco, CA. Designed by James Knox Taylor in 1905 and rehabilitated in the early 1990's. Onsite surveys identify significant features to be retained as part of a comprehensive preservation plan.

Determine the appropriate treatment for a historic property BEFORE work begins, at project initiation. This includes making sure that the proposed function for the historic property is compatible with the existing conditions in order to minimize destruction of the historic fabric. Generally, the least amount of change to the building's historic design and original architectural fabric is the preferred approach. To develop a treatment plan, site assessments are conducted to identify character-defining features and qualities. These assessments also examine the building or property as a whole to establish a hierarchy of significance, or "zones," corresponding to specific treatments. Zoning establishes preservation priorities.

Of concern to preservation and design professionals is the cumulative effect of seemingly minor changes over time, which can greatly diminish the integrity of a historic building. Major preservation design goals include:

  • Update Building Systems Appropriately—Updating building systems in historic structures requires striking a balance between retaining original building features and accommodating new technologies and equipment. Building system updates require creativity to respect the original design and materials while meeting applicable codes and tenant needs.
  • Accommodate Life Safety and Security Needs—The accommodation of new functions, changes in technology, and improved standards of protection provide challenges to the reuse of historic buildings and sites. Designers must address life safety, seismic, and security issues in innovative ways that preserve historic sites, spaces and features.
  • Comply with Accessibility Requirements—Accessibility and historic preservation strategies sometimes conflict with each other. Designers must provide access for persons with disabilities while meeting preservation goals.
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Related Issues

Integrating Historic Preservation Concerns with Safety/Security Issues

We live and work in a changed environment: a world in which safety and security concerns have been elevated to their highest level since the founding of our nation. Preservation practitioners must now be concerned with the safety of an historic building's occupants, as well as the security of equipment and data. It is inevitable that the needs of historic preservation as established by the Secretary of the Interior will come into conflict with new federal guidelines and requirements for anti-terrorism force protection. For example, windows and fenestration details may be character-defining aspects intrinsic to an historic structure; however, it has become a universally-accepted fact that the majority of human injuries in an explosion are the direct result of exposure to high-velocity glass shards. Windows and openings in historic buildings that are vulnerable to possible terrorist activity may need to be reinforced to protect life and property. The US Army Corps of Engineers is performing experiments with various solutions to the problem of window glass failure in explosions and other terrorism-related activities. The need to meet safety and security requirements in historic buildings is critical when considering the necessary space between structures and public roads and parking areas. (See also WBDG: Accommodate Life Safety and Security Needs)

Interior of historic Atlantic City Convention HallExterior view of historic Atlantic City Convention Hall

Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall, Atlantic City, NJ. Photos courtesy of the National Park Service.

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Relevant Codes and Standards

Federal Mandates

For a list of other Federal Historic Preservation and cultural resource laws click here

Standards and Guidelines

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Major Resources

WBDG

Aesthetics, Cost-Effective, Functional/Operational, Historic Preservation—Additional Resources, Secure/Safe, Sustainable

Federal Agencies

Organizations/Associations

Publications

Training

Other

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