This month, I'm following up my discussion on LEED™ achievement by taking a look at large historical buildings. Over the past year, various individuals in the historical preservation side of the building industry have spoken with me about how these structures may not be good candidates for sustainable design and proactive preventive maintenance. Interestingly, each person pointed out that sustainability was the keystone to each of these structures when first built. Based on the age of these facilities, you could consider them our first LEED projects.
Putting aside the elegance, character, and craftsmanship of these buildings, the simplicity of the building systems can make it very difficult to score very many LEED credits when renovating one of these structures. Not much is designed to change when modernizing many historical buildings.