Always A Hard Choice: Deep Retrofit Or Teardown

The real-world implications of arguments about home and building energy efficiency were brought home to me recently after a visit to the Hamline Midway Library in St Paul. While walking down the street, I noticed a sign yard sign, urging preservation of the existing library. After bounding the steps, I read another sign that said that the library was closed and to use other branches. Since my car was being fixed, and I had just gone over there to kill time, this didn't seem like a plausible solution.

So, I walked over to a coffee shop nearby. Among the noise and bustle, there was a four-piece blue grass band. I went to the counter to order a coffee and asked if they knew what was going on with the library. A middle aged woman with an apron on looked in that direction, then at a little boy running past, and waved her arm back towards the window.

"Yes, there is something going on," she said, but didn't seem to offer more, which only, of course, piqued my curiosity.

When I got home, I went straight to the library's website. There was an announcement: “There is a new building coming in 2025.” New building?

I clicked the link for more information under the title: “An update on Hamline Midway Library…January 30, 2024”. It read:

“The lawsuit challenging the building’s preservation continues to delay construction of the new Hamline Midway Library. At this time, we anticipate the trial for this lawsuit to begin in April, after which the judge will have 90 days to consider the matter. Once the trial court’s decision is delivered, we will have a clearer picture of next steps.”

Renovate 1558

A citizen’s group was formed to advance the case for retrofitting the old library as opposed to tearing it down for a new one. They have opted for court action and their case is supported by the fact that the library, built in 1930, has recently been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, this designation may not prevent its demolition.

This news was news to me and certainly outside my home energy bubble, but it did intersect.

How? I found the architects' initial report for the existing library building online. They presented two options. Upgrade the existing building or build a new one. They also detailed the public input process. There was a chart with the results to a survey, where the architectural firm collected nearly 600 responses.

What did the respondents want? The top four responses each gaining around 50% or more were accessibility (by a wide margin), programing space, energy efficient/sustainable design and finally, preserving the old structure.

The city and library system and consultants set to work based on that but developed reservations regarding the space of the current building, foundation problems, past repair costs, moisture and perhaps most of all, accessibility. They felt the issues could be best remedied only with a new structure, one that would offer 90% energy savings over the old building.

This did not sit well with a group of concerned citizens who’ve banded together and created a website to guide their efforts at Renovate 1558. They make a convincing argument for renovation. One quote the group makes use of time and again is from Carl Elefante, FAIA, 2018 AIA President: “The greenest building is … one that is already built.”

This makes sense because of the embodied carbon of new building materials often out weights the carbon saving benefits of new construction. Further, with modern technologies and data modeling, any building can be made into a green one.

However, caution is advised: while retrofitting can sometimes save significant expenses, costs too can sometimes escalate quickly, as illustrated by a Wall Street Journal article detailing an $800,000 attempt to turn a Frank Lloyd Wright home into a net-zero energy property. After spending the funds, the project still fell short of that goal.

This debate—balancing preservation, energy efficiency, financial investment and carbon emissions—is one every community should be actively engaging in. The future of our planet depends on it.