New Pathways: Historic Preservation & Sustainability

In April of 2008, the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) worked with other agencies, organizations, and businesses to sponsor a workshop on sustainability and historic preservation. The workshop, titled New Pathways: Historic Preservation & Sustainability, attracted over 100 participants to hear leaders and authorities in historic preservation, green building standards, architecture, planning, and building codes.

The keynote speaker was Barbara Campagna, AIA, of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) and point person on the Trust's Sustainability Initiative. Her presentation illustrated several interesting points including:

  • The large contribution of the built environment (homes, office buildings, stores, etc.) to our carbon footprint
  • Buildings built before 1920 match the energy efficiency of buildings built since 2000; buildings built during the last decades of the 20th century are the most inefficient.
  • The amount of energy wasted when a building is demolished versus the energy saved when an existing building is rehabilitated.

The first day of the workshop also included a panel discussion led by former Seattle City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck, FAIA, an acknowledged leader in historic preservation, design and sustainability. The panel included architects, developers, building contractors, and John Neff, City of Lacey Building Inspector and who also serves as Chair for the Washington State Building Code Council. Downtown Seattle's historic Cobb Building served as a fascinating case study, focusing on how developers transformed the office building into upscale apartments while adhering to historic preservation standards and green building principles.

The second day included a unique workshop experience that provided participants with close inspection of an historic building just before rehabilitation for office and retail use was set to begin. The group toured the Furuya Building in the Pioneer Square Historic District courtesy of Conover Bond Development of Spokane. Participants discussed and identified preservation, building code, sustainability issues and opportunities that the building presented. The group concluded that the project could well meet LEED Silver rating based upon its re-use of materials and central location.

Overall, the workshop was successful in bringing together a large and diverse range of participants. An important accomplishment was that the presenters clearly articulated the benefits of historic rehabilitation in helping to reduce carbon emissions, the ability of those projects to attain LEED status, and the realization that historic building design and techniques are inherently sustainability and should be recognized as such. DAHP has posted the conference agenda on its website which includes links to many of the presentations.

Aside from the great speakers, DAHP acknowledges and appreciates the workshop contributions of the following organizations: U.S. General Services Administration, Washington Association of Building Officials, Washington State Building Code Council, City of Seattle Historic Preservation Program, and City of Seattle Sustainability Office, Artifacts Consulting, Conover-Bond Development Corporation, GGLO Architects, Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, and National Trust for Historic Preservation.