Challenges managing large historic building renovations: Lessons learned from detroit, Michigan

Recently, the number of historic renovation and restoration projects in the US city of Detroit has been increasing to preserve the cultural heritage and to meet current needs. However, this type of project has distinct challenges from new construction projects. This paper reports the results of a qualitative study investigating challenges encountered during historic building renovations in Detroit. The objective is to fill a gap in the construction literature concerning practices for managing large domestic historic building renovation projects. Strong industry interest in the topic also motivated the completion of this study. The expert interview method was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with six expert practitioners concerning their experiences. Data concerning common challenges, pitfalls, and other issues were gathered, analyzed, and grouped into seven categories (code compliance, historic status, organizational, design, construction, budget/schedule, and technology). The results corroborate many findings and general themes from the prior literature on historic building renovation while reporting several novel findings absent in the reviewed literature. In addition, this paper provides recommendations to avoid and mitigate such challenges. Primary recommendations include developing strong collaborative working protocols between the parties; selecting key team members based on successful past working relationships, not price or cost of service; and, if feasible, conducting hazardous material abatement and selective demolition activities prior to completion of the design to derisk the project. Additionally, 23 secondary recommendations focused on numerous tactical, management, and technical matters are provided. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the quality and risk management research domain as well as the restoration and renovation construction domain. The practical contribution of this study is to allow industry practitioners to better understand this special type of construction project and strategize quality control and management plans by providing common challenges and recommendations.