Date of Award

5-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Legacy Department

Historic Preservation

Committee Member

Amalia Leifeste, Committee Chair

Committee Member

Richard Sidebottom

Committee Member

Jay White

Abstract

Rehabilitation is an effective way to preserve historic buildings. Rehabilitation gives new opportunity to a building through a new use, occupant and design. Therefore, the rehabilitation process inherently requires change, which can unfortunately lead to the alteration or loss of significant features and characteristics. Such features include finishes and fixtures, as well as the spatial configurations and relationships that contribute to the character of a building. The spatial organization of a building provides understanding and insight to the logic and meaning of a space, how it was designed, and how it was to be used and experienced. For this reason, it is important to maintain these types of relationships within a building, in order to understand and connect to the past through physical experience and engagement with the spatial character of a building. This thesis provides an analysis of six case study buildings before and after rehabilitation in order to understand how current rehabilitation practices preserve spatial character. This analysis will be used to determine what types of spatial characteristics are retained, altered or lost during the rehabilitation process and how this contributes to the building's overall spatial character. This information provides insight into how spatial characteristics are retained during the rehabilitation process. This study also provides recommendations that can be used to promote more awareness and consideration of spatial characteristics in design guidelines and standards which influence preservation treatments and practices.

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