Community revitalization is arguably more important now than ever, given the emphasis on green building – following the principle that the best use of resources is to conserve what is in place, if possible – and making the most of in-fill sites in order to minimize transportation costs, pollution, etc. While the business of creating new buildings is currently moribund, the excess capacity among architects, engineers, developers and builders could be put to beneficial use in a WPA-like program that could set up teams to undertake projects such as the following:
- Conduct audits for:
o Coordinated retrofitting of existing buildings and infrastructure for more efficient energy use, etc., including the application of economies of scale for pooled projects, for example.
o The potential for physically linking individual commercial properties or residential to commercial areas in order to facilitate circulation in general, encourage pedestrian and bicycle travel, etc., including incentives for property owners in the form of increased density, enabling kiosk-type or other special uses, and the like.
o Creating interfaces with the built environment so that business patrons could be encouraged to use mass transit and alternate travel modes.
- Develop guidelines by which the results of the audits described above could be cost-effectively and otherwise efficiently implemented.
- Prepare construction-related contract documents, as necessary.
- Coordinate with owners, tenants, etc. to construct retrofits – the timing of which would hopefully coincide with a return to reasonable states of fiscal/financial health.
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