The adaptation and reuse of historic properties for contemporary uses resides at the intersection of historic preservation, design, real estate development, and tax credit finance. The responsibility of the preservation professional requires navigating the complex, and at times contradictory aspects and priorities of these disciples.
Students will explore the fundamental principles and develop the basic analytic skills and decision-making processes required to envision, plan, and propose the adaptive reuse of a historic property from building selection and evaluation to preservation and reuse conceptualization, to approvals process planning, and project budget development.
Utilizing the criteria established by The Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation and other resources of the National Park Service (NPS), students will select, evaluate, and report on the significance and potential eligibility of a building, the review and approvals process, its likelihood of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and evaluate its design potential for adaptive repurposing for contemporary use. Then, utilizing industry developed finance and tax law and tax credit resources, students will formulate a development budget utilizing historic tax credits as part of the finance structure for the proposed reuse / redevelopment strategy.
Teaching materials include federal statues and guidelines, industry and professionally developed resources of tax finance and tax law, along with case studies.