Developing a Heritage Reinvestment Assessment Model
FAIN: PG-271734-20
Heurich House Museum (Washington, DC 20036-1531)
Allison Anne LaCroix (Project Director: January 2020 to January 2023)
The development of a model for a Heritage Building Reinvestment Assessment, using an established planning and accounting method for commercial buildings known as an Asset Lifecycle Model for Total Cost of Ownership Management. The project would enable an architect or building engineer to estimate the long-term cost needed to keep a cultural heritage building in an acceptable state. This approach to preserving historic sites adds a critical financial planning tool to more traditional building assessments, and the applicant would share its results with the public. The collection of the Heurich House Museum, one of the most intact historic homes in Washington, DC, contains 2,000 artifacts: furniture, nearly 30 Oriental and Persian rugs, numerous sculptures and vases, 200 textiles, and more than 1,000 objects related to the owner’s historic brewery. The archives hold more than 600 items that include letters, journals and diaries, expense ledgers, and more than 1,000 photographs.
The Heurich House Museum requests a $2,625 Preservation Assistance Grant, which it will use together with $2,700 in cost sharing from a National Trust for Historic Preservation grant award, to hire architect/engineer Michael Henry to develop a “model” for undertaking a Heritage Building Reinvestment Assessment. The model, which will serve as a blueprint for an architect or building engineer to perform a lifecycle cost analysis on a historic property, will provide the methodology, scope of work, and prototype templates. The Museum will provide the completed model to an architect or engineer so it can serve as their template to undertake an Assessment of our historic buildings and grounds. We will also disseminate the model to scholars and other historic sites that may want to undertake an Assessment.