Facadism is a critical concept for evaluating projects that rehabilitate, renovate, or redevelop historic structures—but it's often considered too esoteric for conversation. It's time we all got on the same page.
John King tackles a difficult but important concept of central importance for adaptive reuse projects and more: What, exactly, is facadism?
To frame the conversation, King asks the question a different way: "How subjective is facadism?" King answers the question by classifying four categories of facadism, as exemplified by specific buildings (or what's left of them, anyway) in San Francisco:
- The camouflage (a pragmatic "sleight of hand," writes King).
- The scrap (a laudable idea, but maybe not very effective).
- The setback ("the compromise favored by preservationists").
- The top-off (the "strangest act of facadism").
Planetizen readers are invited to share more examples from their cities in the comments below or on Twitter.
FULL STORY: Examples of facadism in SF
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
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HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research