Reinvention through reuse : strategies for the adaptive reuse of large-scale buildings

Abstract

The practice of adaptive reuse has grown in popularity in the United States over the past few decades, with now about 90% of architect-commissioned work involving some interaction with an existing structure. While the practice of reuse has existed informally in the form of garage-as-guest house or barn-as-garage conversions and so on, it is only since the late 1960s that architects and engineers have begun to approach it critically, as a design problem. It is often lauded for fostering the development of a sustainable built environment, however, it has its unique challenges. This thesis traces a brief history of the designer's role in the sustainable development discourse, with focused attention paid to the adaptive reuse solution. Furthermore, it attempts to identify the challenges and discuss how they each pertain to the architect, the preservationist, and the engineer. Through the examination of reuse case studies, a coarse classification of project typologies. The second portion of the thesis tackles a specific reuse problem in the Old Post Office in Chicago, Illinois. The Post Office was selected because of its heavily planned context, its historical and cultural significance, the real interest that has been expressed in its reuse, and its size.

(cont.) The thesis builds on the earlier classification system to propose an integrated strategy with which to approach the redevelopment of the building. The final part of the thesis briefly describes a few environmental evaluation methods that might be used to judge the sustainability of the reuse project. The proposed solution is analysed to see if the design decisions made with environmental sustainability in mind can be quantified.