Choosing a sensible re-use for historic Forest Service buildings

The beginning of the end for a historic building often comes when it no longer serves any purpose, because nobody wants to spend maintenance funds on an unused building. To save a building, make sure it has a use.

In some cases, historic buildings can be renovated to again serve their original purpose. For instance, many old bunkhouses can be remodeled so they meet modern needs. By insulating and sealing against drafts, replacing the heating and cooling systems and wiring, adding communications and entertainment wiring and outlets, updating bathrooms, remodeling kitchens, and providing new shades and mattresses, or perhaps new built-in storage for sleeping areas, these buildings can once again perform well. Modifications can usually be achieved more economically than replacing the building and without impacting the features that make the building a valuable historic resource. The National Park Service’s Technical Preservation Services Website, Applying the Standards for Rehabilitation, contains great information on how to rehabilitate a historic building.

Buildings that remain in use for more than a decade almost always evolve to accommodate changing needs. Construction methods, Codes, and technology advance. The realities of budgets and missions bring new expectations of comfort, practicality, convenience, and purpose. Sometimes more space is needed and sometimes less space is used as work moves from one part of a Forest to another or as functions are consolidated or decentralized. Thus, it may make sense for a historic ranger’s house or bunkhouse to become an office or for an isolated cabin or lookout to be rented for recreation use. Offices may become bunkhouses for work centers. Cookhouses may be converted to meeting and break rooms, and their kitchens used for lunch preparation and to house the office coffee maker. Warehouses may become fire stations. Tree coolers may become warehouses. The key is to match the needed purpose to historic buildings of about the right size and configuration, so that they can be renovated at less cost than would be needed for demolition and construction of a new building. The National Park Service’s Website How to Preserve contains great tips and information on how to renovate for a new use.

Sometimes a building would be suitable for a continued or new use if it had a little more space in it. Additions to historic buildings must be done carefully. An addition must be different enough from the historic building so that it doesn’t appear to be part of the historic building, but it can’t be so large or so shockingly different that it overwhelms the historic structure. The size, scale, massing, materials, and proportions of the new addition must be compatible with the historic building but not imitate it. The National Park Service’s Webpage on Special Requirements for New Additions to Historic Buildings and Preservation Brief 14, New Exterior Additions to Historic Buildings: Preservation Concerns explain how to add to historic buildings without unduly damaging the historic resource.

Keep in mind that the keys to choosing an appropriate use for a historic building are need, location, and size, and follow the guidelines for a successful building re-use.