Preservation & Sustainability--Resources You Can Use

High Falls, Rochester NY

This weekend, The Landmark Society will be joining over 40 other organizations, businesses, and agencies as a vendor at the Greentopia Festival in High Falls. You might wonder, what is the purpose of this Greentopia and how does it possibly relate to The Landmark Society and historic preservation? First, the event itself is designed to celebrate the green movement, showcase what the region is doing to contribute to the movement, and open up a discussion about what sustainability and "green" really mean.

Genesee Valley Park, Rochester NY

That's where we come in. Although preservation isn't usually the first thing that leaps to most peoples minds' when they hear the words "green" or "sustainable," reusing our existing building stock, preserving our historic landscapes and rural spaces, and reinvesting in our urban centers and rural villages are all examples of recycling on a large scale. And, of course, there are added environmental benefits to preservation--most historic neighborhoods are walkable, older buildings were built to last with high quality materials, and most older buildings incorporate green features such as double-hung windows with operable upper and lower sash that allow you to maximize passive ventilation rather than blast the A/C.

Erie Canal & converted grain tower,
Pittsford NY

So come visit me this weekend at The Landmark Society's table at Greentopia--I and other friendly Landmark Society staff will be there all weekend. I'll be more than happy to share with you why preservation is a necessary part of ensuring the health and sustainability of our communities. Or, if you're reading this post after Greentopia, explore some of the links below to learn more about preservation and sustainability and, more importantly, how you can help save our planet by saving our historic resources.

If you only read one thing, take a look at this article from the National Trust's Preservation Magazine:
A Cautionary Tale--Amid our green-building boom, why neglecting the old in favor of the new just might cost us dearly. By Wayne Curtis.

From us, The Landmark Society:
8 reasons why preservation is an environmentally friendly activity
The Greenest Building - display board from Greentopia
Embodied Energy - display board from Greentopia
Preservation Tips - display board from Greentopia

From CITY Newspaper:
Closing the door on vinyl windows

From the National Trust for Historic Preservation:
Sustainability & Historic Preservation
Weatherization Guide
Window Know-How: A Guide to Going Green
Historic Wood Windows Tip Sheet
Energy Efficient Strategies - Cold Climates
Energy Efficient Strategies - Main Street

From the NY State Historic Preservation Office:
Weatherization Toolkit

From Old House Journal:
Weatherstripping 101 (the print version of this article has more helpful photos and inserts)

The Greenest Building - This website calculates the amount of embodied energy contained in an existing building and the amount of energy required to demolish a building. You can even convert those numbers into gallons of gasoline.


Caitlin Meives is Preservation Planner with The Landmark Society. She'll be spending this weekend celebrating her two favorite things--the natural and the historic built environments.

Exquisite East Avenue

2009 House and Garden Tour- A great success!

If you ever wondered what’s behind those nicely carved wooden windows or shimmery curtains, you got your answer on this year’s Landmark Society’s 39^th annual house and garden tour. You got this one of its kind opportunity to go inside 11 most unique houses in City’s oldest preservation districts in East Avenue- now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Being a preservationist, this tour was the greatest delight. You actually got the opportunity to go inside those magnificent mansions and see how the interiors reflect the exteriors. It was fascinating for me to see how even the same styled houses were so vastly different in their interiors. Besides that, each house had a great story to tell whether it was the million dollar kitchen at 60 Brunswick Street or the teak room at 1050 East Avenue which was especially imported from India.

Although each house was very special, but my top 5 are as follows:

5) 22 Berkley St

The house is an example of Jacobean architecture, designed by Rochester’s legendary architect, Claude Bragdon. The detailing of the house is exemplary with its oculus leaded glass windows, brick patterns, bronze entrance canopy, curved gables and metal entrance door. Currently this single residence house has four condominiums and a fifth in the carriage barn. The interior of the condominium is a brilliant mix of historic and contemporary design with a beautifully remodeled kitchen, enclosed porch with huge panes of glass, and built- in bookcases.

4) 973 East Avenue

The most fascinating aspect of this house was its adaptive reuse into a plastic surgery office. The present owners have done very sensitive restoration work, and have tried to be respectful of the history of the house; a wooden partition is added to the entrance foyer which resembles the original design. The interiors of the building have an abundance of carved wood and stained glass motifs reflective of Scotland- the original owner’s native land.

3) 1209 East Avenue

The most exciting aspect of this house was its history and evolution. The house was designed for George Eastman’s attorney by architect J. Foster Warner who also designed George Eastman’s mansion and in the same Georgian style and same railing design as that of George Eastman’s staircase. Currently the house is owned by one owner, but has been converted into two apartments on first floor with several studios on second and third floor. The attraction of the house is the extraordinary garden beautifully nurtured by the owner’s wife with features of a Zen garden.

2) 1050 East Avenue

I had special attachment to this house as it had one room with teak woodwork hand carved in India. Being an Indian, it brought back memories of all the beautiful forts and temples I visited which had similar carvings but in marble. Besides the special attachment, this house was one of the finest examples of Richardsonian Romenesque style architecture in the City with eclectic interiors reflective of J. Foster Warner’s expensive and elegant tastes.

1) 1391 East Avenue

When I visit historic houses, I have a prejudice against period furniture. I like to see contemporary design in old buildings. The juxtaposition of old and new, which depicts the passage of time has always fascinated me. Someone correctly said, “Change is the only constant in life”, and this house truly embodies this philosophy. That’s the reason for this being my number 1 choice. The house is a perfect example of Italianate architecture with a projected central three story tower. The mansion has been converted to four condominiums with a fifth unit in the carriage barn. On the tour was Charles Arena’s condominium (the owner of famous Arena’s florist). The house was reflective of the owner’s eclectic taste, with its varied art pieces and exceptionally modern furniture and beautiful floral arrangements (obviously). The most captivating feature to me was the beautiful use of space with contemporary artwork and furniture, which made you appreciate the details even more due to the lack of clutter.

Besides the magnificent architecture, it was gratifying to see thousands of people walking down the East Avenue over the weekend and appreciating Landmark’s role in the Society and commitment to preserving good architecture. I would like to thank all the people who took the tour and became a part of our mission.

Posted by Nimisha Thakur, preservation associate

Photo courtesy: Dan Palmer

We're not just saving buildings - we're saving the world!

"Existing buildings are going to be what saves the world." -Jean Carroon, June 4, 2009

On Thursday, June 4, over 85 preservationists, architects, engineers, planners, facilities managers, and others gathered in the Eisenhart Auditorium at the Rochester Museum & Science Center to learn how and why to improve the energy performance of historic buildings. Jean Carroon, FAIA, LEED, Principal for Preservation at Goody Clancy in Boston, shared her years of experience exploring ways to pair sustainability and preservation.

The day-long workshop was a good news-bad news situation.

The bad news? Climate change is a huge problem, with new evidence coming out to show the impacts of human activity on our planet are even worse that scientists thought just a few years ago. As often as I've heard about or read the statistics on this, it gives me chills every time I see the stark images of melting glaciers that point to accelerating, dramatic change. The construction and operation of buildings, as Jean said (and as I say in my own presentations on this topic), is a huge source of carbon dioxide emissions.

The good news? Because buildings are such a problem now, they also represent a tremendous opportunity to make changes - and any historic building's energy performance can be improved.

But, back to a little bad news. Many of the things that are being promoted as "the solution" - new "green" products, McMansions with lower energy bills, or - ack! - replacement windows - are ineffective or, worse, have the opposite effect of what they're supposed to. Many so-called "green" products may improve a building's energy performance, or have recycled components, or whatever, but given the full life cycle of those products - the way they were made, how they were transported, their long-term effect on the health of the building and its occupants (keep in mind, asbestos was once a miracle product touted for its energy-saving potential), it is likely that few of these new products are all they're cracked up to be, and some may even have very negative unintended consequences for human and/or building health in the long run. Not to mention the many problems with building new "green" buildings to try to stave off climate change; of course new buildings should be green, but in many cases, reuse of an existing building is a much more sustainable solution.

Now back to the bright side. The most important things that we can do to reduce our personal carbon footprints are good for historic buildings! Insulating attics and basements, installing programmable thermostats (and setting the temperature on the low side in winter, high in summer), washing clothes in cold water and drying them on a clothesline, turning off the lights, maintaining boilers and steam traps, repairing and caulking around leaky windows so they perform as they were designed to - these are small steps, but they matter, and they won't harm (and may improve) your building physically or aesthetically. These steps are inexpensive and have a short payback period, so not only are they effective in reducing energy consumption, they save money for the building owner.

On a larger scale, of course, we need to stop demolishing buildings that could be recycled, avoid building unnecessary new buildings, and find new uses for old buildings. These are the actions that can truly have a global impact. Once again, these things are obviously good for historic buildings, and good for the economy - studies have shown that building reuse creates more jobs than new construction, and is a more effective economic stimulus.

Here's the best news of all. Even with her thorough understanding of the implications of climate change, and the role of existing buildings in contributing to it, Jean believes that "the preservation movement is, in many ways, the hope for the future," and that "existing buildings are going to be what saves the world."

Jean believes that the historic preservation movement embodies "a culture of repair, a culture of renewal." That's what we're all about: keeping what we have, fixing it rather than throwing it out, sticking to tried and true methods designed to ensure that the things we have - particularly the well-designed, well-made things we love - last a really, really long time. And making sure that when something new is built, it contributes in a positive way to the long-term environmental, economic, and cultural health and sustainability of our communities. Given our nation's throwaway culture in recent decades, we've sometimes seemed to be shouting into the wind. But the winds are changing, and we should be at the forefront.

The session was presented by the National Preservation Institute, and cosponsored by the Landmark Society of Western New York, the Preservation League of New York State, and AIA New York State.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Green Strategies workshop: There's still time to register!

There's still time to register for next week's "Green Strategies for Historic Buildings" seminar, which will be held June 4 in the Eisenhart Auditorium of the Rochester Museum & Science Center. This daylong professional workshop is aimed at architects, developers, property owners/managers, planners, engineers, and anyone else who works with historic buildings and wants to improve their energy performance.

The presenter will be Jean Carroon, Principal for Preservation at Goody Clancy, a Boston design firm. She has received national recognition for her achievements in the field of sustainable design for historic buildings. Our colleagues at the Preservation League of NYS, who heard Jean give a similar presentation last year, report that she is an excellent speaker and exceptionally knowledgeable about the topic. I'm very much looking forward to learning from her!

Learn more and register now for this exciting educational opportunity!

The workshop is presented by the National Preservation Institute; cosponsors are The Landmark Society, the Preservation League of New York State and AIA New York State.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Debunking the window-replacement myth

This weekend's Washington Post had an article saying what we keep saying: there are much more cost-effective (not to mention historically appropriate) ways to increase your house's energy efficiency than wood window replacement. Our colleague Erin Tobin, a Rochester native who now covers eastern New York State and New York City as a regional director of technical and grant programs for the Preservation League of New York State, had this comment on the article:

At least this article debunks the myth that replacing windows will save lots of money in energy bills, although it does repeat the falsehood that replacement windows will last for "decades" (how about "decade" if you're lucky). I'm glad to see the quotes from some of the energy auditors, but who is talking to the federal Energy Star people? Not even a mention of storm windows? And nothing about screens and summertime efficiency (aka fresh air).

The point Erin makes about the short lifespan of replacement windows is one I make in my own talks on sustainability, and I like to cite Donovan Rypkema, a historic preservation expert who says: "Regardless of the manufacturers’ 'lifetime warranties', thirty percent of the windows being replaced each year are less than 10 years old." Throwing out vinyl windows after less than 10 years doesn't sound all that "green," does it?

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

"This Old Wasteful House"

Be sure to check out the recent New York Times Op-Ed piece by Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, on how appropriate energy upgrades to older houses can address some of our country's most pressing needs:

We need to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. We want to create jobs, and revitalize the neighborhoods where millions of Americans live. All of this could be accomplished by making older homes more energy-efficient.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Want to create jobs and conserve energy? Re-use a building!

The message that preservation is the ultimate form of "green architecture" is gaining traction at the national level. The National Trust's blog today points to a new ad by the WE campaign (Al Gore's organization) that highlights how rehabilitation of historic buildings is a great way to conserve energy and create jobs. You can watch the 30-second ad on the National Trust's blog.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Landmark Letter in Newsweek

Laura and I made Newsweek!

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator

Preservation and Climate Change - A View from "Across the Pond"

Last week the National Trust for Historic Preservation held its annual conference in Tulsa. I wasn't able to make the trip to Oklahoma but have been following along via the National Trust's blog, where Trust staffers have been describing the sessions, their impressions of Tulsa, and more. A post describing a session on climate change and historic preservation, featuring speakers from the United Kingdom, caught my eye. From the description posted by Barbara Campagna, it sounds like it was quite a far-reaching session, containing information on current and projected impacts of climate change on specific historic properties, discussion of how to truly measure values related to sustainability, and explanations of steps that British preservation organizations are taking to both adapt to climate-induced changes and to reduce the energy needs of historic buildings. Here's a particularly chilling passage from Barbara's description:

Decades of neglect and little investment leads to slum clearance and wholesale redevelopment, while whole life costing tied to embodied carbon modeling has been using carbon calculations (15-20 years) assigned by bankers and investors that are likely less than the true value of our material culture. In terms of ecological sustainability, models suggest that melting ice caps will cause a breach of the Thames and catastrophic flooding of London.

At the end of the post are some interesting links to British organizations that are pursuing this type of holistic view of climate change as it pertains to historic buildings - great stuff.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator

Getting Ready for Winter?

A recent article in the Boston Globe about "buttoning up" your house for the winter includes a neat interactive graphic (click on the image of the house to see the graphic) where you can see the payback period for various weatherization techniques. The shortest payback period? Window plastic wrap, that clear plastic you can install on the inside of your windows in the fall and remove in the spring. The longest? Replacement windows - at 33 years (according to this article, anyway - other studies have found much longer payback periods, well longer than the expected life of the windows).

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator

And now for something completely different? Not really!

Last week’s “Your Old House” workshop brought a devoted band of old-house enthusiasts to our Stone-Tolan House. Home-repair columnist and Landmark Society board president Jerry Ludwig took us on a walk around the house to demonstrate how homeowners should inspect their own houses. As the sun went down and the rain started to fall, we went inside the barn to hear architect and trustee Virginia Searl explain the most cost-effective ways homeowners can improve the energy efficiency of their houses. I learned a lot and came out of the session with a long to-do list for upcoming weekends!

When I saw the list of four topics to be covered in this fall’s workshops, the one that jumped out at me was this week’s topic: “Composting 101.” The relevance of this topic might not be immediately apparent, so I thought I’d share my own perspective on why this is part of the series. (I could have just asked Rebecca, who coordinates the series, or Beverly, who is doing the presentation, but instead I’ll just take a stab at it and they can let me know if I’m right!)

I suppose the most obvious answer is that our houses and gardens are closely intertwined, and often people with an interest in one have an interest in the other. On a more philosophical note, it’s about being stewards who live in the present but are aware of the past and the future. As the current owner of an old house, I see myself as part of a continuum that reaches back to previous owners and forward to the future generations who will someday love and care for my house as I do today. As my family adapts our 1920s house to our own needs and desires, we have a responsibility to treat what our predecessors have left us with respect and to think ahead to what we will leave to the next owners.

Whether we think about it consciously or not, we old-house owners are recyclers, choosing to re-use precious resources rather than to create something new. In my family’s case, and I suspect in many of yours, this is indeed a conscious decision and one that we are trying to extend to other aspects of our lives. Recognizing that we are temporary stewards of the environment just as we are temporary stewards of this house, we are making an effort to think more carefully about the environmental impacts of many things we do, from the food we eat to the household products we use; we're trying not to throw away things we could reuse and to recycle as much as possible. This year, we, like many other families, started a vegetable garden for the first time, inspired by a desire to eat as locally as possible. In our small, mostly shady, city lot, we grew peas, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, and peppers; not only did these taste better than any other veggies we’ve ever had, they were a great teaching tool for our kids, who got a kick out of watching those tiny seeds grow into plants and into food we could eat (or in their case, not eat).

Composting, of course, is part of that continuum. My family has a kitchen scrap pail and a tumbling compost bin, so even the clipped tomato branches and carrot peels are not wasted but are going right back to make next year’s garden even better.

I look forward to hearing Beverly’s tips Tuesday night and hope to see you there! To buy tickets in advance or to read about the rest of our series, check our website.

By Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator

A green conundrum: sustainability, density, and preservation

An interesting article from Seattle points out the need for environmentalists and preservationists to find common cause as that city pursues its strategy for a "sustainable" future.

According to the author of the article, Seattle's sustainability policies suffer from a single-minded focus on increasing density. There are clear environmental advantages to denser urban fabric: a certain level of density is needed to ensure walkability, viable public transportation, lively street life, and so on, and directing redevelopment toward a region's core reduces the pressure to sprawl outwards. The author of the article argues, however, that Seattle's pursuit of increased density comes at the exclusion of other goals, including historic preservation and the conservation of the embodied energy that old buildings represent.

The issues in Seattle are so different as to be almost unrecognizable to us in Rochester: in Seattle (and some other trendy cities) the demand for high-rent housing in desirable city neighborhoods leads developers to eye existing buildings for demolition and replacement by higher-density apartments and condominiums. Redevelopment of hot city neighborhoods has always resulted in the demolition of older buildings, but now some cities like Seattle are encouraging this process as evidence of their "green" credentials.

Unlike in Seattle, here in Rochester the resurgence of downtown housing has (so far, at least) taken the form of the adaptive reuse of existing buildings, with the exception of the Sagamore, which was built on a long-empty lot (of which there are many left to be redeveloped, as a flight over downtown or a peek at Google Earth will dramatically reveal). We have not seen the demolition of historic buildings to make way for high-density downtown housing. Instead, we have the opposite problem: although our region's population is not growing, it is continuing to spread ever more thinly across an ever-widening area, leading to the decline of existing neighborhoods in the city and suburbs.

In Rochester and Seattle the issues are different, but the point is the same: as communities think about how to be greener, a great place to start is the recognition that the existing building stock is a critical environmental resource that must not be squandered. It would be unfortunate if environmentalism became yet another justification for treating historic buildings as disposable, when in fact the reuse of existing buildings conserves their embodied energy and keeps their irreplaceable materials out of the landfills.

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust, may have said it best: "It makes no sense for us to recycle newsprint and bottles and aluminum cans while we’re throwing away entire buildings, or even entire neighborhoods."

(photo of New construction in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood by Chuck Taylor, www.crosscut.com )

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator

Ten ways to turn your old building green

The new issue of the Landmarks Observer, the newsletter of Greater Portland Landmarks, Inc., has a helpful article on sensible, sensitive things owners of older houses can do to make their homes greener. The article appears on page 2 of the newsletter, available as a pdf.

If they can do it in Maine, we can do it here!

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator

Preservation Districts and Green Preservation in City

Landmark Society staffers are featured in two fine articles in City Newspaper’s recent Home Design section. Rebecca Rowe is the featured interviewee in an article about preservation districts, and I worked closely with the author of an article about energy efficiency and historic houses. I was glad to see that the author of the latter article absorbed what I told him about the environmental advantages of historic buildings, and interviewed experts who could tell him about some simple fixes for common complaints about the energy performance of older buildings. If you’d like a printed copy of this special section, please stop by the Landmark Society – the fine people at City let us take the extra copies, and we’re happy to distribute them.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator