SEATTLE—March 17, 2003—Piece by piece, the public housing building at 3220 SW Lanham Way in the High Point neighborhood was carefully taken apart during the week of March 17. Piles of plywood and two by fours neatly surrounded the site. Aluminum frame windows leaned together against a fence. Straw was spread on paths to keep the site from getting too muddy in the early spring rains that fell steadily all week, as workers deconstructed the old building.

Their work is part of a special pilot project to explore whether it is worthwhile to deconstruct these buildings, instead of using traditional modern demolition methods. Deconstruction is the dismantling of a building in approximately the reverse order that it was assembled, so that components that have still economic value can be reused or sold. The information gained from taking apart this one duplex will be used to evaluate whether a more extensive deconstruction effort during the site clearing phase of High Point’s revitalization is feasible.

By the end of the week, only the concrete foundation of the building remained. While the building was being taken apart, workers made an inventory of the reusable materials they took out. SHA will now be able to estimate their market value. According to expert Jim Primdahl, the workers have already determined that the original two by fours are very high quality #1 grade fir, many of which are in re-usable condition.

According to SHA Development Project Coordinator Thomas Nielsen, "This may provide an opportunity to divert material from the construction demolition waste stream, put people to work and potentially save on demolition costs. The feasibility study will give us the data we need to evaluate the concept."

Seattle Housing Authority worked with several other organizations on this project. Jim Primdahl, from the Institute of Local Self-Reliance, worked with a trained crew from DeConstruction Services of Portland, Oregon. A local demolition contractor, J. Harper Contractor, also worked on the project.

Why is Seattle Housing Authority interested in deconstruction? It can be friendlier to the environment; plus, instead of creating demolition debris which is expensive to dispose of, the process creates reusable materials that can be sold. For the owner this can turn a project cost into an asset. SHA may be able to recycle or re-use from 60 to 80 percent of the materials.

Deconstruction techniques can be used together with more specialized forms of demolition. In fact, deconstruction is itself just a specialized form of demolition. In some ways, it reflects a return to methods used before track hoes or wrecking cranes. One factor that may make deconstruction feasible is the depletion of old growth timber. The small wood pieces that make up buildings as old as those at High Point suddenly have value. In the past, that wood was just seen as debris.

Deconstruction and machine demolition can coexist on a jobsite. The track hoes can follow the deconstruction and remove foundations and may also be useful in taking roofs off buildings and dealing with multi–story buildings where there are worker safety issues at the upper stories.