Restoration Standards for Historic Buildings

In Restoration Standards for Historic Buildings , you'll learn ...

• What’s involved in the restoration of historic buildings and how it differs from other treatments like Preservation and Rehabilitation
• Guidance on identifying, retaining, and preserving character-defining materials and features of the building
• The varying levels of intervention, starting with protection and ending with replacing an entire feature
• Guidance on restoring specific elements of a building, including the exterior, interior, site features, energy efficiency and accessibility

Overview

Credit: 4 PDH

Length: 44 pages

Rather than maintaining and preserving a building as it has evolved over time, the expressed goal of the Standards for Restoration and Guidelines for Restoring Historic Buildings is to make the building appear as it did at a particular—and most significant—time in its history.

As opposed to other treatments, the scope of work in Restoration can include removal of features from other periods. Missing features from the restoration period may be replaced based on documentary and physical evidence, using traditional materials or compatible substitute materials. The final guidance emphasizes that only those designs that can be documented, as having been built should be re-created in a restoration project.

The limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a restoration project.

Most buildings represent continuing occupancies and change over time, but in Restoration, the goal is to depict the building as it appeared at the most significant time in its history. Thus, work is included to remove or alter existing historic features that do not represent the restoration period. This could include features such as windows, entrances and doors, roof dormers, or landscape features. Prior to altering or removing materials, features, spaces, and finishes that characterize other historical periods, they should be documented to guide future research and treatment.

This course is based on the requirements of 36 CFR Part 68 covering the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. The Secretary of the Interior is responsible for establishing professional standards and providing advice on the preservation and protection of all cultural resources listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Standards are intended to be applied to a wide variety of resource types, including buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts. They address four treatments: Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Reconstruction. Note that the Standards are only regulatory for projects receiving federal grant-in-aid funds; otherwise, they are intended only as general guidance for work on any historic building.