Nantucket Reuse Exhibition: Deconstruction and Reuse in Boulder, San Antonio and Portland

Nantucket generates a minimum of 17,000 tons of construction and demolition debris each year, according to a salvage study by the Boston-based consulting firm EBP. It is easy to see that figure as a burden, but other communities see it as a shared resource.

A 10-panel exhibition presented by Remain at the Nantucket Reuse Speaker Series looks at three of them — and at what the island might do with its own material.

“Nantucket has a long and storied history of moving buildings and finding creative opportunities for adaptive reuse,” said Cecil Barron Jensen, executive director of Remain.

Boulder, Colorado took a former hospital apart piece by piece and diverted 94% of its materials from the landfill. Its ordinances now require major structural projects to salvage or recycle at least 75% of their materials.

San Antonio, Texas became the largest U.S. city to pass a comprehensive deconstruction ordinance in 2022, routing salvaged old-growth lumber back to the neighborhoods it came from at no cost to low-income homeowners.

Portland, Oregon was the first in the nation to guide the careful deconstruction of historic homes, treating its pre-1940 housing stock as a standing reserve of rare, tight-grained timber.

Nantucket, Massachusetts already has the craftsmanship and the dedication. The final panel makes the case for what reuse could look like here: treating existing structures as reserves of valuable material, finding value in framing lumber and modern fixtures alike rather than only in what is historic, and keeping those resources on-island, where they grow local trade economies and keep carbon locked away for decades longer.

Read the full exhibition below.

Downloads

• Think of What We Can Do — Nantucket (PDF)
• Reclaiming Its Heritage — Boulder, Colorado (PDF)
• Preserving the Neighborhood Within — San Antonio (PDF)
• The Art of Unbuilding — Portland, Oregon (PDF)

The exhibition is on view at the Thomas Macy Warehouse, second floor, 12 Straight Wharf, on Saturday, Sept. 19, alongside a free day of talks from four regional experts in adaptive reuse, waste diversion and habitat restoration.

About Remain

Remain engages in creative environmental and community work, elevates local industry, and encourages innovation and resilience. Remain Nantucket and Remain Ventures are funded by Wendy Schmidt and Eric Schmidt to support the island’s year-round economy, community, and environmental vitality.

For more information: info@remain.org