Retaining Concrete History: The Beauty of Reusing Old Buildings
When people hear the word “history,” they often think of black and white photos, or maybe texts with dates and names. People think of it as something untouchable and cannot be experienced. Some find it hard to appreciate it because of the lack of personal relevance.
The lesser common idea is that people can actually experience history. Children can step on the floors that their great-great-grandparents walked on. You can enter the same establishments that your recent ancestors used to go.
Construction companies that do adaptive reuse of old buildings make this possible. Hogan & Associates Construction, Inc. says old buildings may not have their past purposes anymore, but they retain their historic features.
The idea behind adaptive reuse is you take an already existing building and give it a different function. Reusing a manufacturing plant and converting it to an office can be an example. You can have an old ferry terminal and alter it as a market.
The process of reviving old buildings actually saves cost. But, more importantly, it saves a huge fragment of the past. It gives a neighborhood an amount of historical relevance — a story to tell. Residents who have visitors can bring them around and tell something about these historic establishments.
In fact, historic buildings make cities more attractive. Old buildings may not have the value rooted in the price of materials, but it relies on sentiment and culture. Most people will frown upon tearing down of a century old building, even if it does not even have a direct connection to them.
Even environmentalists love the idea of adaptive reuse. It could probably be the greenest way to build. It will consume fewer resources as it is already there. More importantly, there will be no trees or other landscapes affected by the construction. It lessens the disturbance to other living creatures, like birds or land animals that putting up a new building does.
The best thing about adaptive reuse is that a place retains a concrete history. It makes a part of the past within people’s grasp of personal experience.
