Photo by Taylor Bennett
BY KATELYN CAMPBELL, APC VISTA, THE HUB
Are abandoned buildings affecting your community? The Hub and its partners want to know!
The Hub and the WVU BAD Buildings Program have teamed up to learn more about abandoned properties in West Virginia and how they are being addressed around the state. Whether you’re a community member, a city or county employee, or an elected official, we need to hear from you!
Take our brief survey to help us learn more about the role abandoned properties play in your community by March 21. We’ll use the results from this survey to triangulate where our work on this issue goes next.
If you think your community could use support with abandoned properties, or if you’d like to be involved in a team actively addressing dilapidated properties in your community, reach out to the Hub’s Policy Coordinator, Taylor Bennett at T.Bennett@wvhub.org.
This work is being done through the Property Rescue Initiative, a program of the West Virginia Housing Development Fund.
Abandoned buildings in WV are often a community’s largest cultural asset (real value), and are far too often overlooked and misunderstood. In many cases, the rehabilitation of an abandoned building has a net positive impact on its community, over its demolition and replacement by new construction. In simple words, many historic buildings, were built to last centuries (100+ years) – most of today’s modern buildings are constructed with much shorter life spans (25-50 years). For those of us that live and work in historic districts, these buildings, in use or abandoned, form our identity, just as our parents, grandparents, and extended family form our identity. And just like members of our own family, these buildings deserve to be preserved and honored at every opportunity. Most of the historic architecture in WV was built during a “boom” economy, when large sums of cash were flowing through our cities and towns, as a result of natural resource extraction. WV will not likely ever see another “boom” to that magnitude, and thus these historic buildings are a testament to that unique economic and social context. They define West Virginia.
A competent assessment of an abandoned building, including structural integrity, historic significance, and building code compliance, is the first step to determining a buildings’ best reuse strategy. Don’t just give up on these buildings and opt for demolition! They are our past, AND can be our future.