Issue Focus: Building Rehab Interview with Historic Preservationist

On a recent trip to St. Louis, my tour guides included Michael Allen, the detective, advocate, and blogger behind Ecology of Absence, a board member of Preservation Action, and the Director of the newly-formed Preservation Research Office.  Michael’s knowledge of the built environment of St. Louis is nothing less of encyclopedic–though unlike an encyclopedia, he takes immense and obvious pleasure in the small and large human dramas whose histories are told in buildings.

Michael seemed to point out a surprising number of communities in STL that have really been brought back to life by historic preservation efforts.  A big part of the reason is that Missouri has an extremely progressive historic preservation tax credit.  While the federal tax credit applies only to restoration efforts of buildings that are income-producing, the Missouri credit can be applied to non-income-producing buildings, i.e., homes.  This makes it possible for many middle-class homeowners to preserve

Listen to my interview with Michael HERE, for our conversation about the benefits of preservation as tied to a number of other urban challenges (e.g., can restored housing be high quality affordable housing?), the Missouri tax credit and its effects, and some new possibilities on the federal level for expanded tax credits that would help us all to preserve our urban fabric.

This post is a part of our November series on historic preservation, building rehab, and the triple bottom line.  Last week we provided an overview of the argument for historic preservation, and next week we’re taking the preservation conversation to Detroit. 

Photo, courtesy of Michael, shows him guiding a tour of the St. Louis Place neighborhood during Historic Preservation Week, May 2008.