Salvaging the Good Stuff

Janszen is the director of Building Value, one of more than a dozen nonprofit organizations that salvage building materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Much of what is removed—raised-panel pocket doors, custom-crafted kitchen cabinets, bronze light fixtures, entire staircases—is then sold in retail stores, typically, for less than it would cost to buy new materials. The money raised at Building Value's store funds job training for disadvantaged and disabled adults in the Cincinnati area.

Here, deconstruction crew member Anthony Morris carefully removes wood trim beneath a wrought-iron staircase railing.