PRESERVATION OF THE PAST

Perkasie Architecture & Other Structures

ADAPTIVE USE- Adaptive use means modifying a building for a use different from that for which it was originally designed. Old houses, for example, are often adaptively used for profession offices.

CONSERVATION- Conservation means arresting the physical deterioration of building materials by some type of intervention or corrective measure.

MAINTENANCE- Maintenance means cleaning and repairing a building on an ongoing basis.

PRESERVATION- Preservation means keeping or maintaining a house, its yard, and history for future generations to enjoy.

RECONSTRUCTION- Reconstruction means rebuilding a destroyed building exactly how it was.

RELOCATION- Relocation means moving a building from its original site. Relocation is considered a last resort by preservation professionals because relocation removes the building from the historic setting. Relocation may be the only way for a building to avoid destruction. (see also South Perkasie Bridge in another section of this web site).

REMODELING- modernizing a building without attempting to retain or preserve its significant features.

RENOVATION- is similar to remodeling meaning to modernize a building without neccesarily attempting to retain or preserve its significant form.

RESTORATION- means returning a house to some particular date or period. Since living demands have become higher and more extravagant then they were years before, the word restoration has come to mean returning interior and exterior appearance to a home, putting modern technologies in it.

SALVAGE- Salvage means saving parts of a historic house from destruction by removing them prior to demolishing the building. Salvage is considered a last resort by preservation professionals.

Link to National Trust for Historic Preservation: http://www.nthp.org