posted on March 09, 2010 10:35
Editor's Note: This week we're very fortunate to have a guest blogger this week. Nancy Finegood is the Executive Director of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network. Nancy is a good friend and partner of the Michigan Main Street Center @ MSHDA as she serves on our Advisory Committee. In addition to being our guest blogger, today (March 9) also happens to be Nancy's birthday. Happy Birthday Nancy!
By Nancy Finegood
Executive Director
Michigan Historic Preservation Network
The National Trust for Historic Preservation wants you to love your older and historic windows!
“Original windows not only help define the architectural style of homes and buildings that matter, they are an integral part of the character of the neighborhoods and downtowns that we all love. Take a moment today to share some window love with the world, be it for your house, a gem down the block, or a find on your favorite Main Street.”
So, what is all the recent buzz (and actual controversy) about historic windows? It has been said, many times over that “Like the eyes of your best friend, windows give you a view into the soul of a building.” Are they simply more attractive to the passerby? Is it the perfect placement (sometimes looking “out of whack” to the untrained eye) of the windows that allows the sun to light up a room (and your soul) and provide comfort in summer and winter alike? Do the style, shape, and placement tell a story of the past?
This all matters to the lover and owner of historic buildings, to the preservationist, and to the local historian. But there is much more to the historic windows issue.
· Energy efficiency and weatherization. A well-maintained 100-year-old wood window with a wood framed storm over it can often out-perform a new replacement window with double glass. And that 100-year-old window, if rehabbed correctly, will last another 80 years, while the replacement vinyl window may last 10 to 12 years.
· Sustainability. Reusing historic windows reduces environmental costs by eliminating the dumping of these windows in the local landfill (and of course, the vinyl replacement windows after just 10 years, and 10 years after that, etc. etc.)
· Economics. Buy Local! Restoration projects are nearly twice as labor intensive as new construction, meaning more dollars spent go to people and not materials. Most often, that labor is local and the dollars stay in your community. The materials are usually purchased locally, instead of from a large company that has no impact on your local economy.
· JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
Prompted by Michigan's high employment rate, as well as the demonstrated need for trained window rehab craftspeople, Michigan Historic Preservation Network (MHPN) and their partners (Michigan State Historic Preservation Office and the City of Kalamazoo) created a two-week intensive program that trains under-employed and unemployed people for jobs that increase personal income while benefiting their local economies. The free windows rehabilitation program, entirely funded by a certified local government grant, has now trained two classes (a total of 22 students from around the state) and will be conducting another class in April. They are still accepting applications.
As Donovan Rypkema writes on his
PLACEECONOMICSBLOG:
“Between 1999 and 2009, the Save America's Treasures program allocated around $220 million for the restoration of nearly 900 historic structures, many of them National Historic Landmarks. This investment by the SAT program generated in excess of $330 million from other sources. This work meant 16,012 jobs (a job being one full time equivalent job for one year...the same way they are counting jobs for the Stimulus Program). The cost per job created? $13,780.
This compares with the White House announcement that the Stimulus Package is creating one job for every $248,000. Whose program is helping the economy?”
Yes, MHPN’s training is creating real jobs, in your own neighborhoods and downtowns, while rehabilitating your communities’ historic treasures. Even if you add the cost of training each student at approximately $2,500 to the cost per job created of $13,780, the cost is a pittance and the benefits are huge!
Eureka! The training program has been simply successful--Michigan’s own stimulus package at just over 6 percent of the White House’s cost per job. From last summer’s first class of students, half are using their new skills working for other employers, and half opened their own businesses--one has even hired two other underemployed contractors to train and do the work.
Past MHPN President, Pamela Hall O’Connor says it best: “There are lots of "winners" in this collaboration, our planet and our work force being two -- but right now, we think the biggest winner is Michigan.”