20 Reasons why Preservation is $mart

On March 3, 1999, at the National Audubon Society of New York's Conference on Smart Growth, Mr. Donovan Rypkema outlined the economical benefits of historic preservation. He is my favorite writer on the practicality of historic preservation
Reason One

Public Infrastructure. Almost without exception historic buildings are where public infrastructure already exists. No new water lines, sewer lines, streets, curbs, gutters required.

Reason Two

Municipalities need financial resources if they are going to grow smart. Vacant, unused, and underused historic buildings brought back, to life are also brought back as tax generating assets for a community.

Reason Three

New activities-residential, retail, office, manufacturing-in historic buildings inherently reinforce the viability of public transportation.

Reason Four

If we are to expect citizens to use their cars less, and use their feet more, then the physical environment within which they live, work, shop and play needs to have a pedestrian rather than vehicular orientation.

Reason Five

Another element in the drive to encourage human movement by means other than the automobile is the interconnection of uses. Based on the foolishness of post World War 11 planning and development patterns, uses have been sharply separated. Historic neighborhoods were built from the beginning with a mix of uses in close proximity. Cities with the foresight to readjust their zoning ordinances to encourage integration of uses are seeing that interconnectivity reemerging in historic areas.

Reason Six

As a strong proponent of economic development, I am certainly glad the phrase is Smart Growth as opposed to no growth. Smart Growth suggests that growth has positive benefits and I would agree that is true. The encouraged reinvestment in historic areas in and of itself revitalizes and revalues the nearby existing investment of both the public and private sectors.

Reason Seven

We see periodic headlines about some real or imagined "Back to the City" movement.
Certainly people moving back to the core of a town or city of any size have a positive impact on a whole range of environmental goals. In nearly every instance it is back to the historic neighborhoods and historic buildings within the city. We need to pay attention to market patterns, and if it is back to historic neighborhoods to which people are moving, we need to keep those neighborhoods viable for that to happen.
Reason Eight

Smart Growth also implies economic growth means new jobs. But who is creating the new jobs in America? Not General Motors, or IBM, or Kodak. Eighty-five percent of all new jobs in America are created by small businesses. And for most small businesses there are few costs that are controllable, but there is one: occupancy. Older and historic buildings often provide the affordable rent that allows small businesses to get started.

Reason Nine

Business districts are sustainably successful where there is a diversity of businesses. And that diverse business mix requires a diverse range of rental rates. Only in downtowns and older commercial neighborhoods is there such diversity. Try finding any rental-rate diversity in the regional shopping center or the s-called office park. There ain't none. Older business districts with their diverse rents are Smart Growth.

Reason Ten

Let me distinguish new construction from rehabilitation in terms of creating jobs. As a general rule new construction is 50 percent labor and 50 percent materials. Rehabilitation, on the other hand, is 60 to 70 percent labor. While we buy an HVAC system from Ohio, sheetrock from Texas and timber from Oregon, we buy services of the carpenter and plumber, painter and electrician from across the street. They subsequently spend that paycheck for a hair cut, membership in the local Y and a new car.
Reason Eleven

Solid waste landfill is expensive in both dollars and environmental quality. Sixty to 65 percent ofmost landfill sites are made up of construction debris. And much of that waste comes from the razing of existing structures. Preserving instead of demolishing our inventory of historic buildings reduces that construction waste. Preserving instead of demolishing our inventory of historic buildings is Smart Growth.

Reason Twelve

Its critics have pointed out that so-called New Urbanism is neither new nor urban. New Urbanist development is fully compatible with the goals of Smart Growth. I would argue that New Urbanism reflects good urban design principles. But those principles have already been at work for a century or more in our historic neighborhoods. The sensitive renewal of those neighborhoods is Smart Growth.
Reason Thirteen

Smart Growth advocates a density of use. Historic residential and commercial neighborhoods are built to be dense.

Reason Fourteen

Historic buildings themselves are not liabilities as often seen by public and private sector demolition advocates, but are assets not yet returned to productive use.

Reason Fifteen

The rehabilitation of older and historic neighborhoods is putting jobs where the workers already are.

Reason Sixteen

Around the country historic preservation is the one form of economic development that is simultaneously community development.

Reason Seventeen

Reinvigorating historic neighborhoods reinforces existing schools and allows them to recapture their important educational, social and cultural role on a neighborhood level.
Reason Eighteen

No new land is consumed when rehabilitating a historic building.

Reason Nineteen

The diversity of housing sites, qualities, styles and characteristics of historic neighborhoods stands in sharp contrast to the monolithic character of current subdivisions. The diversity of housing options means a diversity of human beings who can live in historic neighborhoods.

Reason Twenty

I'm not opposed to acquiring greenbelts around cities or development rights on agricultural properties. Those are certainly important and valuable tools in a comprehensive Smart Growth strategy. But they only reduce the supply of land to be developed; they do not address the demand for the new use of that land. The conversion of a historic warehouse into 40 residential units reduces the demand for ten acres of farmland. The economic revitalization of Main Street reduces the demand for another street.