When I joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation a little more than a year ago, I set out to immerse myself in the full breadth of the organization’s work—from stewarding historic sites to advocating for the historic tax credit to revitalizing communities through the adaptive reuse of historic buildings. Many people think historic preservation is about resisting change—that it’s about saying “no” or keeping a place frozen in time. My conversations quickly confirmed how wrong they are. Preservation is a catalyst for transformation. Preservation creates.
The transformative power of historic preservation is most obviously apparent in large-scale adaptive reuse projects like the ones supported through the National Trust Community Investment Corporation (NTCIC). For 25 years, NTCIC has been using tax credits as an impact investment tool to help revitalize abandoned or underutilized historic buildings throughout the United States. In this issue, we celebrate NTCIC’s milestone anniversary by demonstrating the catalytic impact made by projects at 4340 Duncan in St. Louis, the KIPP Philadelphia Preparatory Academy in Philadelphia, and Nine Orchard in New York City. These projects protect architecturally distinctive structures as they create tangible benefits that enrich the communities they serve.
4340 Duncan, for instance, transformed a long-vacant brick industrial building into a thriving hub for St. Louis’s growing bioscience industry.
Once home to a pioneering printing plant, the building now houses modern labs and offices that drive innovation and economic growth. In Philadelphia, the former John Greenleaf Whittier School is now a state-of-the-art learning environment for KIPP Philadelphia Public Schools, providing new educational opportunities for children. And in New York City, the long-dormant Jarmulowsky Bank Building has been reborn as Nine Orchard, a luxury hotel that supports local artists, creates jobs, and strengthens the economic and cultural fabric of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Each of these projects underscores the indisputable truth that historic preservation doesn’t stifle progress—it fuels it. By reinvesting in historic places, we unlock their potential to foster economic development, sustain local character, and enhance people’s lives in both immediate and lasting ways. That’s the work of preservation today, and that’s the vision that will carry us forward into the future.
