Tonight is the last class of the summer session. We discussed adaptive reuse, redevelopment, transportation, Transit Oriented Developments, Architecture, and Facilities Management.

The first discussion was about adaptive reuse. There are pluses and minuses to reusing an old building. Simply using less construction materials is green in and of itself, and LEED recognizes and rewards the value of adaptive reuse. However, there are also often remediation issues or costs that can be unknown until reconstruction begins. Furthermore, an article for this evening points out that reconstruction can often never be as energy efficient or green as entirely new construction, due to the inability to install completely integrated modern systems.

There was a brief discussion about the potential for additional telecommuting benefiting smaller or rural communities. Could high speed internet access and better communications technology provide some benefit to these communities in terms of allowing more people to live and work in places that might be remote from traditional urban employment centers? Some of these small towns, born as service centers for the agricultural economy, have little reason to exist given the economic changes that have occurred since WWII. Small towns will need to be visionary in order to market themselves. Perhaps technology, high speed internet access, and telecommuting from a rural environment could be a good marketing hook.

We finished by citing the top trends identified throughout the course. These included Government sponsored projects, sustainability/green building/LEED, re-urbanization/mixed use/density, regulatory changes, and financial troubles.