2019 Amy W. MacDonell - Randall T. Shepard Historic Preservation Lecture 
Presented by Preservation Alliance of Evansville

JAMES RUSSIELLO

PRESERVATION THROUGH TRANSFORMATION
the Adaptive Reuse of Redundant Religious Structures

This lecture examines the problems affecting historic church buildings and other religious structures and examines sympathetic adaptive reuses for redundant religious structures appropriate to their architectural and community significance. The history of continued useand adaptive reuse of redundant religious properties will be examined through the spectrum of redundancies, levels of support, and approaches to reuse present in the United States and abroad.

Sustainable reuse options depend on proactively addressing present or future church redundancies and potential community needs appropriately sympathetic to the church’s evaluated significance. Such evaluation requires an understanding of churches’ architectural, socio-economic, theological, and denominational differences. Reuse aims to maintain the building’s presence in the community while enabling its viable sustainability. Sympathetic achievement of these goals confers a balance between the needs of the new program with the conservation principles of conserve as found, minimum intervention, like-for-like repairs, and reversibility.

James Russiello is a historic preservation professional working at the City of New York Landmarks Preservation Commission. The LPC is responsible for protecting architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites in the city. Since the Landmarks Law was enacted in 1965, LPC has granted landmark status to more than 36,000 buildings and sites, including 1,415 individual landmarks, 120 interior landmarks, 11 scenic landmarks, and 144 historic districts and extensions. James previously worked for surveys as a researcher and field recorder in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England, and for the Victorian Society in America Summer Schools program in London, Newport, RI, and Chicago, IL.