The College of Built Environments awarded Research Restart funding to multiple project teams in 2022. Below are descriptions of their progress and project status to-date. July 2022 Cohort: Arthur Acolin received funding for their project entitled “Accessory Dwelling Units as Potential Source of Affordable Housing Across Generations.” A no-cost extension was approved in May 2023 due to delays in implementing the survey for the project. In July 2023, design of the survey instrument and postcards was completed, and next steps…
Person: Kathryn Rogers Merlino
College of Built Environments’ Research Restart Fund Awards Four Grants in Second Cycle
The College of Built Environments launched a funding opportunity for those whose research has been affected by the ongoing pandemic. The Research Restart Fund, with awards up to $5,000, has awarded 4 grants in the second of its two cycles. A grant was awarded to Manish Chalana, faculty member with Urban Design and Planning to help support his efforts to carry out archival research and fieldwork in India for his new book exploring the history and memory of non-dominant groups…
[Re]Evaluating Significance: The Environmental and Cultural Value in Older and Historic Buildings
Merlino, Kathryn Rogers. (2014). [Re]Evaluating Significance: The Environmental and Cultural Value in Older and Historic Buildings. Public Historian, 36(3), 70 – 85.
Abstract
Traditionally the value of a building is measured through the historical, cultural, or architectural significance that has emerged from the established traditions of historic preservation policy in the United States. Although the designation of historic properties is a critical venue to save our most historically significant buildings, it does not account for those that fall outside of the established categories of significance. Accounting for the environmental value of buildings and understanding them as repositories of energy and materials repositions the way we value of the built environment for a more sustainable future.
Keywords
Adaptive Reuse; Historic Preservation; Sustainability; Cultural Preservation; Building Reuse
Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse
The Center for Preservation and Adaptive Reuse (CPAR) is a research, education and advocacy center that recognizes the value of our existing historic and non-historic buildings. The Center produces innovative research, advances knowledge, and promotes educational initiatives addressing the reuse and preservation of the built environment at all scales. The Center recognizes that existing buildings provide cultural continuity of place, communicate stories of our past, and play a critical role in promoting environmental sustainability through reuse rather than demolition.
CPAR is based in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Kathryn Rogers Merlino
Kathryn Rogers Merlino is an Associate Professor of Architecture and an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape architecture. She teaches courses on architectural history, theories of preservation and building reuse, vernacular architecture as well as graduate and undergraduate design studios. Courses include Building REuse Seminar; Appreciation of Architecture, Public Spaces Public Life master studio with Gehl Architects (co-taught with Nancy Rottle in Landscape Architecture), Architecture in Rome (history, design studio) and design studios 400, 401 and 503.
Her current research argues that the reuse of existing buildings – both everyday ‘non- historic’ and ‘historic’ – is a critical part of our sustainable future. Informing her work are two research grants that study how building reuse and historic preservation can be sustainable both at the building and neighborhood scale. One project, funded by the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation is looking at ways to communicate how historic preservation rehabilitation projects can be high performing, sustainable and historic. Another project, funded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation Green Lab, is developing metrics for measuring urban grain of existing, older neighborhoods, and seeks to illustrate how older fabric can contribute to more vibrant city neighborhoods.
After receiving a B.A. in Architecture from the University of Washington, Kathryn practiced in the Seattle area for several years and worked with Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects (now Olson Kundig), where she received several awards for projects designed with the firm. She received both a Master of Architecture and a Master of Architectural History from the University of Virginia in 1999. She sits on the executive committee of the department and serves as the undergraduate program coordinator and the graduate faculty advisor. She is on the Board of Directors for the Vernacular Architecture Forum, and recently completed four years on the King County Landmarks Commission.