The Revitalist

With the US population at 300 million, USA Today looks at where will all those people live. The exec. director of Smart Growth America is quoted as saying, "The rate of land consumption is twice the rate of population growth." The article runs down some of the evolving trends in development and urban planning that will hope to address the pressures of growing population and declining greenfields. But the words "adaptive reuse" or "historic preservation" are not mentioned once. The adaptive reuse of former industrial and commercial buildings in urban cores (already built to handle high-density populations) is inherently a sustainable solution to this housing crunch. Unfortunately, while the smart growth and brownfields redevelopment advocates are really good at getting their word out, the preservation and adaptive reuse crowd lags behind. We have an opportunity to participate in the reshaping of our communities that serves many needs at once, but we aren't selling ourselves well. Preservation organizations need to focus not just on saving historic homes, but also on their role in the community and economic revitalization of our cities. The greenies, smart growthists, brownfielders and the adaptive reusers are all working for the same goal – we need to start working together.