From Manchester, N.H. to Lowell, Mass. to Waterbury, New England cities confront the issue of how to manage the physical legacies of their industrial past.
The landscape of many of these urban areas remains dominated by bricks-and-mortar factory buildings dating from a century ago or more.
But are these “brownfield” properties eyesores to be razed, or architectural treasures to be rehabbed and repurposed, often as upscale housing for young professionals?
That subject was at the center of a panel discussion on “New Life for New England’s Industrial Past” held this week at Alexion Pharmaceuticals Auditorium at 100 College St. in downtown New Haven.
The session, one of the “Ideas” offerings of New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas, was produced by Connecticut Public Radio’s NEXT program as part of its Cities Project. About 250 attended the talk.
Why should anyone care about old factory buildings in places like Waterbury or Springfield or Worcester — or New Haven? For one thing, the buildings “that shaped the landscape of these communities in the 19th and 20th centuries continue to shape our lives into the 21st century,” said panel moderator John Dankosky, executive editor of the New England News Collaborative, a public-radio news consortium and host of the weekly NEXT program.
“We need to connect with these buildings,” said panelist Elihu Rubin, an architectural historian, documentary filmmaker and associate professor at the Yale School of Architecture. “They were so well constructed and so adaptable — we can never replace them” with structures of comparable merit and appeal.
However, remediating and repurposing such old and large structures requires not just vision, but major financial commitment as well. Prospective investor/developers want to be assured of a healthy return on investment. Host municipalities want to see properties not just restored to productive use — but to the tax rolls as well.
One example is Winchester Lofts, a residential repurposing of the former Winchester Repeating Arms factory in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood. Developers of the “artisanal” apartments sell “history, character and passion” flowing from the century-old brick walls and exposed-timber ceilings. That “passion” comes at a cost: $1,815-$3,755 monthly rent in a still-distressed urban neighborhood.
But the need of private developers to guarantee a healthy return on investment collides with “issues of equity and affordability,” said Rubin.
Not to mention environmental impact. Many of these urban brownfields sites were poisoned by decades of contamination — a “toxic heritage,” Rubin said — that can cost millions to remediate.
Is it worth it? It depends, of course.
“The ‘greenest’ building is the building that’s already there,” noted Rubin. By giving them a new life and new use, “old industrial buildings can redeem themselves in this way.”
