SPNN will broadcast three segments of Historic St. Paul’s Green Retrofit series several times from March 25 through April 3. All programs will air on Comcast Channel 19.

Schedule details:

Thu., 3/25

• 9:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks of Neighborhood Energy Connection

Fri, 3/26

• 9:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams, MN Greenstar – Green Building Standards

Sat., 3/27

• 12:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 1:30 p.m. guest Mike Williams

• 3:00 p.m. guest panel discussion (including Alliance Field Representative Erin Hanafin Berg)

Sun., 3/28

• 12:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

• 1:30 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 3:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

Mon., 3/29

• 12:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 1:30 p.m. guest panel discussion

Tue., 3/30

• 12:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

Weds., 3/31

• 12:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

• 9:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

Thurs., 4/1

• 12:00 p.m. guest Jimmy Sparks

• 9:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

Fri., 4/2

• 12:00 p.m. guest Mike Williams

• 9:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

Sat., 4/3

• 12:00 p.m. guest panel discussion

How did preservation projects fare in the bonding bill that was trimmed, and then signed, by Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Sunday? Some wins, some losses. Here’s the rundown, as far as my non-political mind can discern.

Vetoed Projects:

$2 million request for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (not preservation, per se, but we had encouraged support of the project)

$2.2 million request for the Potter Center for the Arts in Chatfield

$840,000 request for the Minnesota African-American museum, which is going to be housed in the historic Coe Mansion in Minneapolis

$5 million request for the Asian-Pacific Cultural Center, which is to be housed in the former Hamm’s Brewery in St. Paul

$9.357 million request for the Oliver Kelly Farm, a Minnesota Historical Society site in Elk River

$8.5 million from the state required to match a Federal grant for the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority to use towards the renovation of Union Depot in St. Paul

Funded Projects:

$23 million for the renovation of Folwell Hall, on the U of M East Bank campus, Minneapolis

$1.2 million for ongoing stabilization of the buildings on the Fort Snelling upper bluff, which has been both a PAM 10 Most Endangered and a National Trust for Historic Preservation 11 Most Endangered site

$75,000 to predesign renovation of the Governor’s Mansion, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places

$2 million to renovate the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge in Bloomington as a bike and pedestrian bridge

$1 million to develop the Rock Island Swing Bridge park and trail in Inver Grove Heights, and to link them to the historic bridge, which was a 10 Most Endangered site in 2009

$2 million for work to Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis, a 10 Most Endangered site in 2008

$3.4 million for historic sites owned by the Minnesota Historical Society

$1 million to fund the Capital Grants-in-Aid program at the State Historic Preservation Office

$150,000 to renovate the 1941 Navy Hangar at Fleming Field in South St. Paul, Gov. Pawlenty’s home town

Over the weekend, I set up a booth for the Preservation Alliance at the Twin Cities Sustainable Communities Conference. Hosted by a non-profit organization called the Alliance for Sustainability, the two-day conference was held at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis (whose volunteers wore aprons that read “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle . . . Rejoice”—cute!). Day 1 featured speakers and sessions geared towards local government officials. Day 2 was intended for private citizens and neighborhood groups. There was a great crowd both days, and a whole new audience to reach out to with the message that “the greenest building is the one that’s already built.”

This is the second or third time I’ve rolled out my “Historic Preservation: The Ultimate Recycling” banner. Slick, it ain’t—but we think it resonates with the grass-roots message of preservation (and was made out of a discarded banner from our 2008 home tour). And while this is not a new message for the Preservation Alliance, or for the preservation movement in general, I find that we still need to willfully assert our position in the sustainability conversation. Preservation would seem to be a no-brainer at an event advertised as a “sustainable communities conference” (and many thousand thanks to Sean Gosiewski, the program director who invited our participation). But I was a little taken aback at having to explain, again and again, why the Preservation Alliance was present.

Surely, nobody wondered why the organic farm people where there, or the solar products folks, or the bike advocates. All of those efforts will certainly make some kind of impact on the sustainability of our communities, to varying degrees. But look around you (when you’re outside, that is)—what do you see? Trees, and (soon enough) grass, and rivers and lakes, and roads and sidewalks—but also, buildings. Lots and lots of existing buildings. Ensuring that those buildings are continually used and made to be as efficient as possible can be a key strategy to combating the environmental changes of the coming decades. Provided that they are relatively energy efficient, reusing those buildings will conserve precious natural, manufactured, and economic resources, as well as decades of investment in infrastructure, transportation systems, and—oh yeah, almost forgot—our collective history.

Prioritizing reuse over new construction should be one of the primary goals of every local governmental agency, but most of the local government attendees at the Friday sessions talked about LEED-certified new construction, alternative energy sources, and reductions in air and water pollution. Certainly the local goverments that are tackling these issues, including Burnsville and its mayor, Elizabeth Kautz, who presented Friday’s keynote address, deserve praise. Many of the communities who are taking the initiative on issues like these have very little “historic” fabric to work with. Burnsville, which was one of the first communities to develop in Dakota County, according to the mayor, has only one building listed in the National Register of Historic Places—but still, reusing and maintaining existing buildings is a key component of its sustainability plan.

Until it is our society’s default position for businesses, governments, and individuals to look first for an old or historic building that will fit their needs (or that can be adapted to do so), I think the Preservation Alliance will need to claim a spot at the sustainability table. And I’ll be bringing my banner.

The Minnesota Historical Society’s Visual Resourse Database has a great collection of historic photographs from throughout the state. You can browse thumbnails very easily—great for researching or just whiling away the time. A new finding aid pulls together the historic images from Norton & Peel, a commercial photography studio that was based in Minneapolis from 1886-1969. As you can guess, the photos range from horse-and-buggy street scenes to growing suburbia. The collection is sorted by decade, so explore your favorite historical period in the Twin Cities via historic photographs. Read more about this great new tool here.