Emily Christensen knows This might sound a bit West Coast, but as she stepped into the old homes her company had rented to demolish, she sensed an energy. “It was very intense,” she said. “These homes have seen decades of human drama.”
Christensen and her partner, David Greenhill, founded Good Wood in 2016. Portland, Oregon, where they live, just became the first city in the nation to require homes of a certain age rebuilt instead of demolished. That means, instead of using excavators and hoofs to demolish an old building, anyone tearing down an older structure in the city has to hire a deconstruction team, who will take it apart. delicately – almost surgically – by hand. Not a mess the wood, plaster, furniture, insulation, concrete and dust, deconstruction companies can extract beautiful cabinetry, brickwork, windows, marble, brick, and laminate. The idea is that these materials can be sold and ultimately reused locally. Christensen thinks of Good Wood, which also reminds and sells reclaimed wood, as a kind of modern and sustainable forestry company, with no cuttings.
Deconstruction, as Christensen has found, is an interesting idea. Using old materials to make new things feel meaningful. It also helps that reclaimed wood tends to be very pretty. But a growing number of US cities argue that the idea also makes for good policy. Over the past five years, cities as diverse as Baltimore, Cleveland, Boise, San Jose and Palo Alto in California have adopted their own clearance policies; San Antonio worked on one for four years.
City officials say the construction prize is a green alternative to demolition, putting up to 85 percent less materials in landfills. Building and construction materials account for just under 10% of the world’s energy-related global carbon emissions, based on Rocky Mountain Institute. Use salvaged materials that help eliminate emissions related to manufacturing and transporting new building materials. Plus, it’s not as noisy as knocking down a house and doesn’t release dust or toxic materials, such as asbestos, into the air. Advocates say it creates jobs even for those without high-tech skills, while stressing the importance of sustainability. As climate is warming“The circular economy is one of the promising alternatives,” said Felix Heisel, an architect, assistant professor and director of the Building Circles Laboratory at Cornell University.
Good Wood exemplifies Portland’s success. Over the past four years, the city has renovated more than 420 single-family homes and duplexes that have been registered as historic sites or were built before 1940. Good Wood has demolished 160 homes in the past four years. that number. Today, 19 contractors are licensed for deconstruction in the city, thanks in part to city-sponsored training. The city’s construction waste expert, Shawn Wood, is one of the country’s leading experts on reconstruction policy. He said the cost of deconstruction has gone down since the rule went into effect, though it’s hard to say exactly how much.
But all that manual labor comes with a price. Rebuilding a building can be 80% more expensive than demolishing it, according to one report from Portland State University, although the sale of some of the recovered materials may offset some of the costs.
