Preserving with Purpose

Reimagining Buildings for Community Benefit

Amy Hetletvedt

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English

Island Press
04 November 2025

Environmentally-friendly architecture & design; City & town planning - architectural aspects; Conservation of buildings & building materials

While prominent buildings like Notre Dame in Paris rise from the ashes, historic buildings in disinvested communities are lost at an alarming rate. The resulting holes in the fabric of the community are not only a loss of structures, but of the stories and the embedded possibilities that the buildings represent.

In Preserving with Purpose: Reimagining Buildings for Community Benefit, architect Amy Hetletvedt unfolds a revolutionary-but-simple vision for re-thinking building conservation in vulnerable communities. It begins with the

question: what can be done now-in circumstances or communities when restoration is not wholly fundable, not possible, or potentially not even desirable?

Hetletvedt explores contextual approaches to existing buildings in disinvested communities as an alternative to demolition, explains why these buildings matter, and what communities and professionals can make of them, together. Preserving With Purpose features profiles and case studies from around the world. Four profiles focus on places facing the challenges of vacancy and abandonment which have, over time, reimagined buildings using the approaches described in the book. The profiles include Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas; The Dorchester

Projects and Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, Illinois; Menokin in Warsaw, Virginia and the Granby Four Streets in Liverpool, England. Fifteen case studies cover a broader geographic range and are organized into three purposeful interventions: priority, practical and poetic.

Professionals and community members are encouraged to approach historic buildings creatively and collaboratively; to invest in strategic mending that not only addresses buildings but benefits communities. Preserving with Purpose is a compelling invitation into the beautiful and fruitful middle-ground between ruin and restoration.

By: Amy Hetletvedt
Imprint: Island Press
Country of Publication: United States
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781642833485
ISBN 10: 1642833487
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 04 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Amy Hetletvedt is a licensed architect, preservationist, and educator who has been supporting buildings, the people who love them, and the communities they serve for more than twenty years. She has lived and worked on four continents, collaborating on projects in a variety of scales and settings. Hetletvedt is a former Historic District Commissioner for the City of Detroit and has taught master's level design studios and architectural ethics. Her writing has appeared in ArchDaily, Slate, DOCOMOMO, and regional architectural media.

Reviews for Preserving with Purpose: Reimagining Buildings for Community Benefit

""At a time when demolition is still too often the default answer for vacant, abandoned, and distressed urban buildings, Amy Hetletvedt prods us to take more creative approaches to unlock the life-enhancing value in these structures.""--John Gallagher, author 'Rust Belt Reporter: A Memoir' ""Preserving with Purpose shows how incremental acts of caring and creativity can reverse seemingly irreversible decline in disinvested communities. Through beautifully composed pages that intertwine prose with imagery, the book invites readers to adopt a fresh, person-centered approach to reclaiming the vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated buildings that disfigure the landscapes of communities around the world. It issues a heartfelt call for engaging with those communities to improvise pathways--whether practical or poetic--for repairing their built infrastructure, while activating their individual and collective agency.""--Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Architecture, Parsons School of Design ""Powerful and practical! Preserving with Purpose encourages everyone to engage in historic preservation. Readers will appreciate the unconventional ideas about historical solutions and seeing the City of Detroit as a central character. Amy Hetletvedt explores neighborhood dynamics and community focus, highlighting the urgent need for a government policy framework that promotes community impact. She presents refreshing thoughts for potential new policies in the field of historic preservation.""--Saundra Little, Architect and Principal at Quinn Evans; Detroit and NOMA National President 2027-2028