Re: [UC] Still clinging tenaciously... ?

[MLamond]

In a message dated 11/16/04 8:31:34 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

Still clinging tenaciously to the belief that historic designation isn't gonna cost you and your neighbors money? Here's some genuine empirical evidence (you know, the kind of facts�the anointed don't believe in) that suggests otherwise. It's from today's Inquirer.

They don't actually give any rehab vs. build new cost calculations for these Mt. Airy buildings, and I don't think any were done.  The real problem for the buyer church was that they wouldn't be likely to be able to tear down the buildings and start from scratch, as they wanted to, whether the cost was more, less, or whatever.  Saying they "had to look at the cost" was just a face-saving way to make an exit. 

Is higher cost for rehab a given?  Don't be so sure!  At the reopening of the Walnut West Library at 40th St., we were all just reminded that the Free Library system found that building a new building would have been more expensive than rehabbing the old one.  However, that was only after they did a "preliminary study" saying that a new building would be cheaper, and then the Friends group did a second study which concluded that a new building would be more expensive, and then the Free Library did a third study to try to make their point again, but the third study concluded that...a new building would be more expensive!  So the Free Library finally went with two out of three:  renovation of the historic building was cheaper!  Luckily for the neighborhood, which now has a beautiful, sunny, solid old library with exciting multi-story spaces - features they'd never have been able to afford if they'd built that more expensive new building.

Melani Lamond
Preservationist