Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit two deconstruction sites in San Antonio with my colleagues Evan Hotary and Caroline Kraska.
We got to chat with Katie from Re:Purpose Savannah, who was in town training local contractors to become "certified deconstruction contractors," which is required per city ordinance.
Photo (L/R): Dan, Evan, Caroline, Katie)
San Antonio is the largest city in the US with a deconstruction ordinance (FYI: SA is the 7th largest city in the US). 1-4 family homes must be deconstructed rather than mechanically demolished.
Why does that matter?
In a 2021 Report, making the case for deconstruction SA, it states: "Demolitions carried out in 2020 alone could have potentially salvaged structural framing for over six hundred 1,500 square foot houses". That is just one a MANY great examples. Read the full report here: Treasure in the Walls: Recovering Value Through Material Reuse in San Antonio (2021)
First Project Site
We got to see the organized method used to sort wood and hear about the safety precautions employed at various points in the project. Tip: click to enlarge images.
When Katie was asked a "sequence of events" question, the coolest thing happened... she pulled out a Sharpie and started writing on her executive easel... aka the side of the existing building being deconstructed:)
View from the street...
Lots of good wood dropped out the back door and neatly sorted in the yard (I did not get a photo of the neatly stacked lumber for this project - but there is a similar one, for the second project, below).
Second Project Site
Katie told us about another project nearby that was recently completed. We drove by and took a quick look...
Most of the recovered wood was on the other side of the wood fence, but there were a lot of great materials just beyond the backyard... pictured here.
Recommended reading...
I highly recommend this book by Felix Heisel and Dirk E. Hebel: Circular Construction and Circular Economy.
Random share... I took the photo of the book on my home desk, which is a door panel I recovered from a previous architecture firm's own remodel project:)
Fun stuff...
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