Approaches and Associated Costs for the Removal of Abandoned Buildings

摘要

The life cycle of the built environment consists of new construction, then rehabilitation and, finally, removal. This concept has taken on a unique importance with the widespread property abandonment in certain urban areas such as Detroit, Michigan. Large concentrations of abandoned properties cause blight and lead to social decline which threatens the public health and community welfare. With increases in the amount of structural abandonment comes issues of government intervention, funding of removal operations, and the large-volume of waste stream generated from removal of these structures. A new area of focus, known as "Domicology" is emerging in response to this abandonment crisis. It examines the life-cycle continuum of building and infrastructure abandonment, and studies the policies, practices, and consequences of human structural abandonment with the goal of finding approaches to reduce the negative environmental, social, and economic impacts of such unsustainable abandonment. The objectives of the research include an overview of various approaches and associated costs for demolition and deconstruction, and development of a comparison matrix for demolition and deconstruction. In addition, it discusses parameters related to urban blight removal in Detroit, Michigan. It is hoped that this discussion will help promote environmentally responsible options in the removal of urban abandoned structures.