News

The fall 2025 Sciame lecture series, rePURPOSE, centers on the practice of adaptive reuse in the built environment. Repurposing, the practice of adaptive reuse, embedded in historical patterns of city building, and for the most part discarded in the modern movement, is undergoing a remarkable renaissance. In the Fall 2025 rePURPOSE lecture series, architects, planners, developers, advocates, and engineers will present the technologies, designs, economic incentives, and policy changes that are needed to advance a substantively renewed and at-scale program of repurposing in New York and other global cities. The reuse of old structures is not a new idea. (After the fall of the Roman empire, for example, the Colosseum was repurposed for housing and workshops during the medieval period). Although reuse is understood as a convention that both requires and imposes minimal impact, rePURPOSE shines light on how the methodology might not be entirely benign, how it might in fact have impact, and the ways in which it challenges and would necessarily disrupt the very conventions with which we typically assume it is aligned. Of special, although not exclusive, interest is unpacking the relationship of repurposing to the climate crisis. Might historic preservation sit at the center of technical innovation? Are all older buildings valuable as climate mitigation assets? What rules, laws, and incentives are needed to sustain innovative approaches to meaningful reuse?

Do preservation rules and laws need to be amended to allow for modification to protected historic fabric?
Will financing tax credit incentive programs need to be created to enable ROI and economic impact?
Measuring the environmental impact of reuse and whether it promotes or offsets economic development in emerging economies.
Will new uses, such as data storage in old buildings, undermine the LCA embodied carbon savings achieved?
To what extent will conversions such as office to residential require new zoning frameworks and complete reform of regulatory, density, and FAR considerations?
Could conversions enable innovation in ventilation systems and even off-site transfer of geothermal energy systems energy and if maximized could represent significant impact?

All lectures are in-person, free, and held at 5:30 pm at the Spitzer School of Architecture (Sciame Auditorium) unless otherwise noted. For live captioning, ASL interpretation, or access requests, please contact ssadean@ccny.cuny.edu.

We look forward to seeing you in person!

Thursday, 09/11/2025 
Asphalt, Rails, and Rights-of-Way: Repurposing Underused Spaces for Nature and Recreation
Tamar Renaud

Thursday, 09/25/2025 
Adaptive Reuse and the Restoration of the American Urban Core
Adi Shamir-Baron

Saturday, 09/27/2025 (offsite at 12 PM at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn) 
Building on the Built: Project Insights and Tour of Powerhouse Arts
Philip Schmerbeck

Thursday, 10/09/2025
Rome’s Spolia Churches: Reinventing Recycling
Philip Kennicott

Thursday, 10/16/2025
Creating Home and Community at 25 Water Street: The Nation’s Largest Residential Conversion
Nancy Ruddy and John Cetra

Thursday, 10/30/2025
Palimpsest | Repurposing a Sugar Refinery
Ruchika Modi

Thursday, 11/06/2025
Upcycling: Toward a Pedagogy of Material and Cultural Conservation
Nandini Bagchee, Fabian Llonch, and Shawn Rickenbacker

This Sciame lecture series is made possible by the Spitzer Architecture Fund and the generous support of Frank Sciame ’74,
CEO of Sciame Construction.

(Photograph ©Paul Raphaelson)