PeterTroast

The fallacy of this article is the suggestion that historic preservation and deep retrofits are incompatible. To set up these two goals in opposition is to condemn both unnecessarily, and threatens to make historic homes obsolete and undesirable. Energy retrofits in existing buildings are by their nature more complicated than the construction of new, more efficient buildings, but as Ms. Zimmerman notes, older homes must be a part of any viable energy strategy. This includes historic buildings. We have plenty of reason to believe that the architects and building performance professionals we have encountered are up to the task.

My full response to this, on the EnergyCircle blog, is here: http://www.energycircle.com/blog/2009/06/16/historic-preservation-and-deep-energy-retrofits-not-really-at-odds/