Preserving with Purpose : Reimagining Buildings for Community Benefit

WhenNotre Dame burns, the world notices-but whonotices when community landmarks vanish forever?

While prominent buildingslike Notre Dame in Paris rise from the ashes, historic buildings in disinvested communities are lost at an alarming rate. The resulting holes in the fabric of the community are not only aloss of structures, but of thestories and the embedded possibilities that the buildings represent.  In Preserving with Purpose:Reimagining Buildings for Community Benefit, architect Amy Hetletvedt unfolds arevolutionary-but-simple vision for re-thinking building conservation in vulnerable communities. It begins with thequestion: what can be done now-in circumstances or communities when restoration is not wholly fundable, not possible, orpotentially not even desirable? Hetletvedt explores contextual approaches to existing buildings in disinvested communities as an alternative to demolition, explains why these buildings matter, and what communities and professionals can make ofthem, together. Preserving With Purposefeatures profiles and case studies from aroundthe world. Four profiles focus on places facing the challenges of vacancy and abandonment which have, over time, reimagined buildings using the approaches described in the book. The profilesinclude Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas;The Dorchester Projectsand Stony IslandArts Bank in Chicago, Illinois; Menokinin Warsaw, Virginia and theGranby Four Streets in Liverpool, England. Fifteen case studies cover a broader geographic range and are organized into three purposeful interventions: priority, practical and poetic. Professionals and community members are encouraged toapproach historic buildings creatively and collaboratively; to invest in strategic mending that not only addresses buildings but benefits communities. Preserving with Purpose is a compelling invitation into the beautiful and fruitful middle-groundbetween ruin and restoration.