B.D. Wortham-Galvin Assistant Professor, Portland State University
Adaptive reuse is not merely about stewarding changes in the physical fabrics of extant structures, but more broadly (and significantly) it involves the politics of who makes places and who gets to occupy them. This talk proposes that design, development and preservation could benefit from rethinking what might be adaptively reused, as well as how, by whom and for whom. Because adaptive reuse is rarely discussed relative to its ability to extend narratives of power and control, this talk will describe the investigations of two architecture thesis students in order to raise questions about the role of culture in sustainable design and preservation practices.
B.D. Wortham-Galvin, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture and a Faculty Fellow for both the Center for Public Interest Design and Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University. Her work focuses on those people and places left out of conventional design and development decisions in the stewardship of the built environment. She has been published in journals such as: Footprint, Architecture and Culture, Places, JAE, Powerlines, GAM, and fishwrap. She is also the lead editor of the forthcoming book series, Sustainable Solutions (Greenleaf 2016). The Daily Journal of Commerce named her one of Oregon's Women of Vision for 2015. Wortham-Galvin holds degrees in American Civilization, Anthropology, Historic Preservation, and Architecture from Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Maryland, and MIT.