About The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation
::REHAB YES/NO::
First, we want you to know that the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation pre-date the now widespread use of the Internet by almost two decades! In the mid-70s, there were no nationally consistent principles for preservation and rehabilitation that could be applied to historic buildings of all sizes, types, periods, materials, and uses. Moreover, many historic property owners did not have access to reliable, accurate information on appropriate preservation and rehabilitation techniques and products.
Consequently, historic buildings in communities across the country were being harmed by destructive approaches, such as improper cleaning, poor repointing, and incompatible replacement windows despite the best intentions of property owners and developers. The National Park Service saw a critical need for professional practice Standards and technical guidance to ensure that historic buildings would be preserved.
In the late 1970s, the Standards for Rehabilitation—ten common-sense
principles for rehabilitating historic buildings—were created by
the National Park Service to accompany a brand new Federal Tax Incentives
program to support preservation of our nation's historic buildings. Today,
the Standards for Rehabilitation have been used successfully for over
20 years by State Historic Preservation Offices, federal agencies, architects,
local architectural review boards and by citizens everywhere.
And every technical publication produced by Technical Preservation Services—in print and on-line—is based on the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. TPS guidance materials, such as the popular Preservation Briefs, are further intended to help property owners correctly interpret the Standards and, thus, enable them to receive tax credits for rehabilitating their historic buildings.
The stats are impressive. For example, because meeting the ten Standards for Rehabilitation is a requirement for obtaining the rehabilitation tax credits through the Federal Preservation Tax Incentives Program <http:// www2.cr.nps.gov/tps/tax/>, the Standards have guided over $27 billion in private investment to rehabilitate more than 30,000 historic properties nationwide.
Finally, as we enter 2003, the Standards have been adopted by many local review commissions nationwide and technical information based on the Standards is routinely referenced in architectural specifications. The dangers of abrasive cleaning are now widely known; the repair of historic windows is now recognized as a viable option; repointing is considered both for its appearance and long-term effect on the building envelope; and the importance of historic interiors is more widely appreciated.
But there is always more work to do to get others to understand that
buildings can be successfully rehabilitated for new uses in a way that
preserves their historic character for future generations. Please help
us by sharing your visit to this NPS web site with others!
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