Deconstruction & Salvage:
Reusing the past to build tomorrow
By: Gabriel Despradel, GPL Intern Fall 2025
INTRODUCTION:
Over 16,500 Structures are demolished every day in the US. That's over 34 structures per hour, or about one house every two minutes, producing a whopping average of 3,560 tons (7,120,000 pounds) of waste. This is equivalent to nearly 100 fully loaded 18 wheelers driving straight into a landfill, every minute.
Graphic 1: Every Minute, over 100 fully loaded 18 wheelers worth of C&D (Construction & Demolition) waste is produced
WHAT IS DECONSTRUCTION AND SALVAGE?
Deconstruction, as defined by the deconstruction nonprofit Second Chance, is the practice of "Carefully removing architectural and structural elements before a building is demolished.” Salvage is the process of saving and reusing those materials, which can be done in several ways. Salvaged materials can be sold for reuse for their original purpose - think steel beams from one building reused in another building. Or, materials can be used for secondary purposes, like upcycling beadboard siding into decorative items or making furniture from reclaimed barn wood. Basically, deconstruction and salvage is the act of intentionally taking a building apart to reuse its pieces: recycling at its largest scale.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Currently in the US, when a building is removed, mechanical demolition is the go-to methodology. However, it wasn't always this way. As Allison Iris Arlotta explains in the article Demolition in New York City ca.1900: Taking Down What Goes Up, The United States at the turn of the 20th century had a booming deconstruction industry, partially fueled by rapid development of the urban environment as well as the cultural influence of temporary large events such as the World's Fair. Arlotta writes, "At the turn of the 20th century, the second-hand building trade was almost synonymous with wrecking because the expectation that material would be resold was so common".
After WWII, there was a monumental shift in consumer culture. With the major developments of the automobile leading to the rise in suburbs, the passing of the Federal Highway Act and the creation of a network of highways, and the initiation of the Federal Housing Act and the need for quick and cheap development of single-family units across America to house soldiers eager to take advantage of GI Bill home loans, demolition cleared the way for progress. Developers preferred to bulldoze buildings and haul away the debris as quickly and cheaply as possible. In European cities ravaged by war, the bulldozer symbolized rebirth and the future of architectural style. That mentality made headway in the US as well, along with a desire to abandon the wartime necessity of saving and scraping materials to support the cause. Even decades later, despite efforts to promote the reuse of bags and bottles, disposability is still a popular product feature. The concepts of reuse are just beginning to be reapplied to buildings in a meaningful way.
Graphic 2: Deconstruction to Demolition timeline
DECONSTRUCTION OF THE BENEFITS
The process of deconstruction and salvage has economic and sustainability benefits, at the local, state, and federal levels. Let's break this down by looking into a hypothetical example.
Event: Portland, Maine adopts San Antonio's Deconstruction Mandate and requires that every house built before 1945 must be deconstructed. In conjunction with this mandate, the city has purchased an unused warehouse to store all salvaged materials for private/public deconstruction services.
Local Effect: This new ordinance now encourages new business development within the construction sector. This new development provides local, specialized jobs that not only provide a livable wage for their workers but also entice young Mainers interested in the construction trades to stay in Maine. Secondary effects of this change include:
Easier access to historic materials: This eases the burden often seen in historical restoration and creates a new marketplace, driving economic growth.
Reduced project cost: Case studies have shown that deconstruction net cost is significantly less than mechanical demolition in many residential and commercial projects due to avoided disposal costs and tax benefits of donating materials to reuse nonprofits. (EPA, 2025) and (Zahir & Syal, 2015)
Increased property value: This new process encourages more development or redevelopment in the region using quality materials. Market observations suggest that using recycled materials actually raises the project’s value. These new developments raise property values of surrounding areas, providing more property taxes for the municipality.
Reduced environmental impact: No matter how energy efficient a new building is, the impact of demolition and disposal of all the components of an existing building, plus the manufacture, shipping and installation of new materials, outweighs any potential energy savings. Deconstruction and salvage reduces the amount of materials that are disposed and not reused.
State Effect: Due to the increase in quality, high paying trades jobs, the state now has an increase in income tax. In addition to this, the resale of these recycled materials provides additional sales tax. These increases add to the state's revenue. Secondary effects of this change include:
Less Stress on state-owned landfills: Currently, construction & demolition waste account for more than 50% of all waste located in state owned landfills. This mandate would significantly decrease the amount of raw construction and demolition material being thrown into these landfills. The use of new materials also creates a large amount of waste from packaging materials and shipping; reusing local, existing materials would result in less waste and pollution.
Reduced state CO2 emissions: This reduction of construction and demolition waste from landfills significantly reduces the amount of CO2 produced during decomposition. This practice aligns with the state's Maine Won't Wait 2050 climate action plan by reducing greenhouse emissions and waste while creating new jobs.
Reduced in-state lumber & resource consumption: With an overall increase in stock of valuable structural materials, such as hardwood or stone, salvaged from older and existing buildings, there is a decrease in demand for in-state consumption of resources, helping preserve the natural environment. Also, many older buildings have old-growth wood which is stronger than today’s wood, and particularly viable for reuse projects.
Federal Effect: Similar to the state's benefits, due to the increase in higher paying jobs there is an increase in income tax. In addition to this, the country's overall consumption of virgin materials will have decreased, working towards the US's goal of Climate Neutrality by 2050. While this effect would be marginal, the overall contributions are not negligible, especially in the establishment of regional reuse infrastructures that make local policies more successful.
Considering the value of deconstruction and salvage from a humanist lens, it can be seen that its benefits go beyond economical value, but also preserve the humanity in many of these salvaged. In some former moment, a craftsman dedicated their skills to hand carving wood or stone into mantels and trim, applying generations of knowledge and melding tradition with styles and preferences of their time. Each piece contains stories and connects us to those who used these spaces and touched these materials before us.
Additionally, preserving historic fixtures and materials gives the community an opportunity to continue maintaining its historic culture by repurposing these materials for new projects. One such example is the MacDonald-Cartier Airport located in Ottawa, Canada, where a new extension was created using recycled wood from a historic World War II aircraft hanger previously on site.
CONCLUSION
Deconstruction and salvage recycles building materials and fixtures for future projects. This method was standard practice in the US up until the mid-20th century. With the need for fast and cheap housing, rapid urban renewal, as well as advancements in demolition technology, the practice of deconstruction quickly faded. With its popularity slowly coming back into the mainstream in the early 2000s, due to both its economic & sustainability benefits. Many large municipalities such as Portland, Oregon & San Antonio, Texas have enacted mandates for structures that meet specific age requirements, to be deconstructed instead of demolished. Practical benefits seen from this renewed practice include boosting job opportunities in the construction sector, stimulating local and state economies, increased accessibility to historic and quality materials, decreased net construction costs, and most importantly, decreasing CO2 emissions in the production and end of life stages of building material manufacturing. Like the practice itself, deconstruction and salvage has the opportunity to get a second life in the American construction industry.
EDUCATION RESOURCES
Circular Construction Lab | Catherine Commons Deconstruction Project | AAP Labs
How it Works ⋆ Second Chance
