The resulting holes in the fabric of the community are not only a loss of structures, but of the stories and the embedded possibilities that the buildings represent.

In Preserving with Purpose: Reimagining Buildings for Community Benefit, architect Amy Hetletvedt unfolds a revolutionary-but-simple vision for re-thinking building conservation in vulnerable communities. It begins with the question: what can be done now—in circumstances or communities when restoration is not wholly fundable, not possible, or potentially not even desirable?

Hetletvedt explores contextual approaches to existing buildings in disinvested communities as an alternative to demolition, explains why these buildings matter, and what communities and professionals can make of them, together.

Preserving With Purpose features profiles and case studies from around the world. Four profiles focus on places facing the challenges of vacancy and abandonment which have, over time, reimagined buildings using the approaches described in the book. The profiles include Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas; The Dorchester Projects and Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, Illinois; Menokin in Warsaw, Virginia and the Granby Four Streets in Liverpool, England. Fifteen case studies cover a broader geographic range and are organized into three purposeful interventions: priority, practical and poetic.

Professionals and community members are encouraged to approach historic buildings creatively and collaboratively; to invest in strategic mending that not only addresses buildings but benefits communities. Preserving with Purpose is a compelling invitation into the beautiful and fruitful middle-ground between ruin and restoration.