Graeme Shankland, first Honorary Secretary of the William Morris Society, may have said it best when he observed: “A country without a past has the emptiness of a barren continent; and a city without old buildings is like a man without a memory.”
In Lake Oswego, one of the most unlikely adaptive reuses of an old building is located on Lakewood Bay. It was built about 1912 to house the electric generators that powered the Southern Pacific’s Red Electric trains. In 1929, as the automobile gained prominence, that mass-transit system shut down. The building was reinvented as a facility for the Oswego Weavers’ tie factory. Their hand-loomed products were featured at the Meier and Frank department store and were popular nationwide. The labor shortage caused by World War II drained the workforce and the factory ceased operations in this facility. The war housing shortage prompted renovation of the building into apartments. These apartments were expanded and converted into condominiums in more recent times so the building is on its fourth reincarnation.
As shown by this example, as long as a building remains standing the possibilities for adapting it for a creative and productive new use are endless. Once a decision has been made to demolish a structure, it eliminates those possibilities now and for all who come after us. Is it necessary for the mantra: reduce/reuse/recycle, that’s printed on our curbside containers to be emblazoned on the sides of our buildings to remind us of this most critical aspect of sustainability?