Roadmap to ReUrbanism: Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Building Reuse

Margaret O'Neal, associate director for communications and partnerships for the Preservation Green Lab, lays out the barriers that ReUrbanism is up against. Outdated zoning, rigid building codes, and requirements that disproportionately favor large new construction hamper preservation, even though it is likely to benefit communities. Crafting model policies, along with strategies and best practices to promote their adoption, is a way forward for preservationists and our allies toward the ultimate goal of ReUrbanism: making adaptive reuse the default and demolition a last resort.