Providing a Link to Our Past — New Adaptive Reuse Guide
Posted October 15, 2024
One way to keep Chester County's historic integrity is by repurposing its historic buildings. You've likely seen them before — think World of Beer in Exton, Hotel Warner in West Chester, The Foundry in Phoenixville — these buildings are adaptively reused to retain our historic structures while serving a new purpose!
Adaptive reuse can open the door to new opportunities for a community while maintaining links to our past. As Andrea Campisi, East Bradford Township's Assistant Manager notes, "historic structures have a character that you just don't see in new construction." However, adaptive reuse is a strategy that can also be utilized on modern structures.
As with anything, the process for adaptive reuse first requires some knowledge and planning. To help with this, the Chester County Planning Commission put together an Adaptive Reuse Guide to assist individuals and communities on getting started with adaptive reuse, including project initiation, feasibility, and implementation.
Additionally, the guide includes strategies for overcoming potential challenges when working within a municipality's policies and ordinances. It also provides examples, with a map locator, for adaptively reused structures throughout the county.
We encourage municipalities to check out the guide to better understand adaptive reuse as well as the benefits it can provide to a community.