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Are there places where you see that kind of reinvestment happening?
Elefante: Toronto is an interesting place to look at despite having many problems like those in New York City. After World War II, Toronto built more than a thousand multi-story suburban apartment towers all around the city. Now those buildings are aging and in need of repair. In response, some architects in Toronto have begun a program to fix up these mid-century towers to keep them viable as affordable housing.
How can we make the case for reusing vernacular post-war structures that may not appear significant at first glance?
Elefante: This category of buildings still has value, including cultural value, even though many were not particularly great buildings even when first built. At Quinn Evans, we’ve converted some to residential use. Most often, these marginal mid-century buildings are stripped of their exterior cladding and gutted, keeping only the structural frame. In my book I defend even this radical approach to building reuse from a carbon standpoint as something that still has real climate benefits.
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