Change in historic buildings

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1992.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-75).Change in historic buildings is inevitable. If these changes are not well-managed, the cityscape will be threatened because a city is composed of buildings. A good city should combine both growth and preservation. Controlling change in historic buildings is one way to get this balance. Because a city can not simply preserve all buildings nor demolish all of them, there should be a methodology to decide what buildings should be preserved and which should be demolished. Furthermore, which building should be preserved as a museum, and which should be allowed rehabilitation could also be decided by this same method. Since the concept of combining history into people's daily lives is prevalent, historic buildings can be changed according to contemporary needs. Change in historic buildings should be recommended in different degrees. The degree is decided according to the significance of the building. This thesis studies building category systems that have been used in downtown surveys in Boston and San Francisco. In order to develop an objective evaluation system, the system used in The Canadian Inventory of Historic Building will also be examined. A framework for criteria and an evaluation system will be developed. Buildings can thus be categorized into groups. Suggestions for changes will be based on these groups. For example, a building of high significance in history or in architecture should be preserved at all cost. Change in such a building should be invisible because retaining its original status and keeping its authenticity is the priority. For a building without particular significance, demolition is recommend. Its demolition provides space for city growth. Between the two extremes of preservation and demolition, there is buffer room for blending the new and the old in a single building. The value of such building is usually contextual, without individual architectural or historic significance but of integral importance within an environment. For this kind of contextual building, change is recommended, but the new elements should be clearly distinguishable. Such as building can be rehabilitated with a contemporary design. A new addition is also allowed, as long as the new is compatible with the old. The compatibility between new and old will be examined through cases of buildings recently completed in Boston. The cases raise many issues: How does a city solve the controversy regarding preservation and development? How can the new be properly integrated into the old? How does the city control design qUality? The answers will be provided after the examination of case studies. Finally, principles and recommendations for controlling change in historic buildings will be provided.by Chien-Ni Yin.M.S