Land is a limited resource, but demand for construction keeps rising. That situation, paired with the push for greater sustainability, presents a challenge. With adaptive reuse, construction firms can create new spaces without building an entirely new structure.

Since 2005 the share of design projects involving renovations, rehabilitations, additions, and historic preservation grew 14 percent, now accounting for 48 percent of billings at U.S. architecture firms, according to a new survey from the American Institute of Architects.

Slightly elevated from the adjacent street level and sheltered with landscape, an intimate reading garden with wood decking, seating, and fencing provides a pleasant outdoor space in the midst of the site’s busy urban intersection. 

The Essex County West Caldwell School of Technology had served its students for a half century and was in need of a serious renovation, inside and out. Since the original factory was converted into a school in 1976, the only major renovation was the addition of a multipurpose gymnasium in 2002. 

Retrofitting and adaptive reuse of older buildings is often an ideal eco-friendly solution — bringing existing structures up to modern energy efficiency standards without the resource consumption of new construction.

In October, Western’s San Francisco Branch was named a 2021 International Concrete Repair Institute Project of the Year Award Finalist (Historic Category) for renovation and repurposing of the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity in Sacramento, Calif.

Interior design, procurement, capital management, and project management firm Premier announced a new architecture service offering for ground-up construction and full renovation projects.

Providing natural light, while promoting a comfortable, creative and productive interior, interlocking polycarbonate translucent wall system replaced the brick exterior's broken and empty window openings.

Building Enclosure’s Editor, Lindsay Lewis, sits down with Daniel Overbey, the Director of Sustainability for Browning Day, to discuss a hot topic as of late: embodied carbon.