Welcome to Wednesday’s “Why haven’t I revisited rehab lately?!” stream of consciousness update. No, I’m not soliciting clever repartees suggesting that I should have checked into rehab a looong time ago. Instead I’m hoping to prime the proverbial pump — think, jumpstart my creative juices with an eye to eventually clarifying my vision for the art of historic rehabilitation — with a long overdue brainstorm about our non-technical, passion powered, curiosity centric approach to protecting, adapting, and honoring historic architecture. That’s a mouthful (and an ambitious scope) for sure, ergo the preliminary exploration today.
Where to start?
Diving into the concept of historic rehabilitation would be logical, but I’ve done that elsewhere. (That said, it was also a preliminary push, so I’ll try to flesh it out further down.) Instead, let’s open with a look at the phrase prefixing the title of this post.
The Art of…
Rather than rules, recipe, or technical advice, “the art of” something suggests that an activity demands creativity (and other faculties more diverse and nuanced that simply following directions.) Unique expression and style might influence the process. Intuition and/or a distinctive interpretation might differentiate the process. Experience and mastery might shape the process as much as technical expertise. In other words, referring to the art of historic rehabilitation is acknowledging that the process (and the final product) benefit as much from artistic vision and creativity as from technical knowledge.
Re-reading that last paragraph I’m struck by how pedantic it sounds. Yuck! Will need to revise with a morning brain, for sure.
Historic Rehabilitation
There are many ways to protect architectural heritage, and I don’t pretend to be an expert when it comes to articulating the differences between the panoply of conservation approaches. But for me there exists an important balance between safeguarding and celebrating historic authenticity with adapting for practical usability.
Less stringent than historic preservation, historic rehabilitation emphasizes maintaining the historic integrity of architectural heritage while balancing its relevant functionality for modern day use.
Both preservation and rehabilitation are sensitive to the imperative of preserving the historic character and value of a resource, but modern functionality weighs more heavily in the case or the latter. When an architecturally significant resource is abandoned or in advanced stages of disrepair, both approaches are viable means of saving and revitalizing the resource. Likewise, both can be complex, painstaking, lengthy, and expensive processes. In fact, sometimes the scope exceeds the means and/or justification for revitalizing a property, and all too often valuable architectural and cultural heritage is indefinitely neglected and eventually lost.
The potential for integrating modern functionality (and therefor relevance) into an historic property can be the difference between its recovery or it neglect. (Source: Historic Rehabilitation)
The most notable differentiator, in my estimation, is the question of flexibility. Preservation is pretty inflexible: pure restoration with as close to 100% authenticity as possible. But historic rehabilitation endeavors to provide a more flexible, more pragmatic path for balancing the responsible stewardship of an historically significant building (and preserving the community’s unique heritage and character) while the building’s future by ensuring its relevance and practical function. If the ultimate goal is to protect historic character, in some/many cases historic rehabilitation can offer more modern, viable, and pragmatic alternatives to preservation by neglect (and potential loss of the heritage altogether).
Rehabilitation is defined as the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values. (Source: U.S. National Park Service)
Historic rehabilitation is a way to protect architectural heritage that balances historic authenticity with modern utility.
In short, historic rehabilitation (rehab) is the process by which an historic property is returned to a state of usefulness while maintaining its historic character. Starting out with a comprehensive analysis of the cultural and/or architectural heritage ensures a solid foundation for planning the entire rehabilitation process. Drawing upon the collaborative expertise of diverse professionals, rehab must be tailored to the unique character and historic significance. Ranging from minimalist repairs and overdue maintenance to more involved intervention such as modification to ensure structural integrity, installation and/or removal of windows and doors, and even construction of non-historic additions. (Source: Historic Rehabilitation)
Now let’s see if I can draw upon our almost two decade Rosslyn adventure to pulls everything together into the art of historic rehabilitation.
The Art of Historic Rehabilitation
Let’s return to my previous post about historic rehabilitation back in January 2023 since it offers well deserved credit to an Essex friend for guiding me toward the ideas that now inform this post.
[Back in 2006 and 2007] as Rosslyn’s newest stewards, when Susan and I were still running on dreams, optimism, and a totally unrealistic sense for the magnitude of the project we’d undertaken, our twin objectives were to preserve the immense heritage we’d inherited while ensuring that our new home was a functional, energy efficient modern home attuned to our needs and lifestyle. Todd [Goff] helped me understand that what we were undertaking was indeed an historic rehabilitation, and that paradigm shift that he initiated catalyzed a shift in my thinking not only about our revitalization of these four historic buildings, but indeed the entire ethos underlying our pivot from Manhattan to Essex and own own personal reawakening… (Source: Historic Rehabilitation)
Prior to Todd’s assist and redirect, I would have simply looked at our mission as preservation. I mightn’t have had the cause to reflect on meaningful, impactful differences between the two. But considering the difference between historic preservation and historic rehabilitation helped amplify my understanding while helping me to better define the questions that underpinned so much of the decision making that Susan and I were navigating. And this in turn catalyzed a more personal shift in my own awareness of what initially inspired my North Country homecoming (and my desire to nest for a while in an environment that I associated with nurturing and nostalgia) while also recognizing a more profound need to create something new and different. In other words, our Rosslyn rehab was a vehicle for our own rehabilitation, a rediscovery of my most authentic and enduring character in order to adapt, reorient, and to effectively reboot. (Sorry, linguists, I know that word borrowing from another domain can trigger you. But our NYC-to-Essex transition was nothing if not a reboot!)
I’m wandering. Wondering. Beyond the art of Rosslyn’s historic rehabilitation and into the art of my own rehab… ongoing.
Did I warn you that this post would be a rough and preliminary foray? Yes!
What do you think?