Adaptive Reuse: Turning Commercial Buildings Into Homes

Sometimes the best preservationist intentions are thwarted by decay. When an original structure proves unusable, however, the building that rises in its footprint can replicate the best qualities of its predecessor, while improving upon its shortcomings. In 1989, This Old House TV viewers watched as Lynn and Barbara Wickwire’s 150-year-old shabby barn in Concord, Massachusetts was removed and then reincarnated into a grand, new post-and-beam home. The new "barn" was built on the foundations of the original building, which had succumbed to extensive dry rot.