Campus Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse: Leverage These Tools to Achieve Your Planning and Sustainability Goals

As colleges and universities across the country strive to adapt to a changing academic landscape, many heritage campuses must reckon with historic buildings that no longer align with current programmatic needs and fail to meet current sustainability and resiliency standards. Rather than replace these buildings, architects, designers, and preservationists view these underutilized structures as opportunities to implement sustainability strategies and introduce flexible learning spaces, while creating designs that stay true to the culture and identity of the campus.

In an article published by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE, LEED AP discusses innovative strategies and carbon accounting tools which strengthen the campus preservation and planning process. The article features our recent collaboration with Agnes Scott College, where our team used the Carbon Avoided: Retrofit Estimator (CARE) Tool to compare and analyze the embodied, operational, and avoided carbon impacts of building reuse compared to new construction.