Historic preservation defines four distinct approaches to working on historic buildings, and mixing them up can send your project in the wrong direction.

In this episode, Michael Riscica breaks down the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and explains what preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction each mean, what they allow, and how to tell them apart.

You'll learn why adaptive reuse falls under rehabilitation, how the 20% federal historic tax credit works, and why "renovation" is not one of the four approaches.

📝 Key topics covered:

Secretary of the Interior's Standards and the regulatory framework
Preservation: maintaining every layer of a building's history
Rehabilitation and adaptive reuse: compatible but differentiated additions
20% federal historic tax credit and contributing vs. non-contributing structures
Restoration: returning to a specific period of significance
Reconstruction: rebuilding what no longer exists

⏱️ Chapters:

(0:00) Four Words That Mean Different Things

(1:26) Free Study Notes

(2:01) Secretary of the Interior's Standards

(5:05) The Intervention Spectrum

(5:54) Preservation: Press Pause

(7:52) Rehabilitation: Adapt and Reuse

(13:43) Restoration: Turn Back the Clock

(16:50) Reconstruction: Build It Again

(18:56) Which Approach Applies?

(20:44) Study with Young Architect

📖 Read the full blog post

📝 Download the FREE Historic Preservation study notes

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