If modern buildings are designed well then subsequent problems relating to maintenance can be reduced, saving money and greatly avoiding inconvenience to users. The contributors to this book show how to implement this general idea

Comprehensive, in-depth coverage from leading experts in thefield A historic building is a fragile resource that requires the finestcare. Maintenance and rehabilitation of walls and facades call fora thorough understanding of the forces that cause deterioration,knowledge of the properties of building materials, up-to-dateinspection tools and methods, and a solid command of renovation andrepair techniques. In this complete reference manual, recognizedexperts provide state-of-the-art information and methodologies forthe inspection, maintenance, and restoration of historic buildingsof virtually every period, style, and material. Each chapter opens with a general discussion of the facade materialand the ways in which structural and decorative elements arevulnerable to an array of environmental forces. After a detailedinvestigation of tools and techniques for inspection, the textexplores planning issues for the restoration or replacement offacade components. Special features include: * Separate chapters on each major type of building material--stonemasonry, brick masonry, terra-cotta masonry, cast stone, mortar,concrete, cast iron, sheet metal, and wood * An entire chapter on caulks and sealants * 35 original line drawings and 43 black and white photos that helpvisualize technical information * Selected success stories from preservation projects across theUnited States For architects, building contractors, and owners of historicbuildings, Historic Building Facades clarifies procedures, helpsidentify sources of deterioration, and offers solutions to even themost difficult maintenance and rehabilitation problems. It is alsoan excellent reference for building preservationists, architecturalhistorians, and students of building design and preservation.

An inventive examination of a crucial but neglected aspect of architecture, by an architect writing to architects. Maintenance plays a crucial role in the production and endurance of architecture, yet architects for the most part treat maintenance with indifference. The discipline of architecture values the image of the new over the lived-in, the photogenic empty and stark building over a messy and labored one. But the fact is: homes need to be cleaned and buildings and cities need to be maintained, and architecture no matter its form cannot escape from such realities. In Maintenance Architecture, Hilary Sample offers an inventive examination of the architectural significance of maintenance through a series of short texts and images about specific buildings, materials, and projects. Although architects have seldom choose to represent maintenance—imagining their work only from conception to realization—artists have long explored subjects of endurance and permanence in iconic architecture. Sample explores a range of art projects—by artists including Gordon Matta-Clark, Jeff Wall, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles—to recast the problem of maintenance for architecture. How might architectural design and discourse change as a building cycle expands to include “post-occupancy”? Sample looks particularly at the private home, exhibition pavilion, and high-rise urban building, giving special attention to buildings constructed with novel and developing materials, technologies, and precise detailing in relation to endurance. These include Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House (1929), the Lever House (1952), the U.S. Steel Building (1971), and the O-14 (2010). She considers the iconography of skyscrapers; maintenance workforces, both public and private; labor-saving technology and devices; and contemporary architectural projects and preservation techniques that encompass the afterlife of buildings. A selection of artworks make the usually invisible aspects of maintenance visible, from Martha Rosler's Cleaning the Drapes to Inigo Manglano-Ovalle's The Kiss.

Of the many processes used to “preserve” an historic building, maintenance is almost always the most effective and least destructive. Although most people recognize this fact, the vast majority of historic preservation efforts focus on saving buildings once they begin to fail, rather than preventing the failure from occurring in the first place. The purpose of this manual is to inform owners about techniques for maintaining existing historic buildings and alert them to common problems of typical building systems.