San Antonio Hosts Deconstruction Think Tank

In February 2020,the City of San Antonio, TX hosted a Deconstruction Think Tank to identify opportunities for collaborative capacity building both in San Antonio and in their own cities in an effort to move towards a circular economy and a world without waste. Participants were specifically exploring areas of overlap between the historic preservation and deconstruction and salvage movements and explore these intersections further, which are rooted in the growing international climate heritage movement that aims to bring cultural heritage practitioners to the forefront of climate action. The group used the City of San Antonio's ongoing deconstruction and policy initiative as a case study, which, in addition to waste reduction, aims to advance affordable housing; equity in material access; retention of culturally significant materials in the communities from which they originated; and the rebuilding of a local pool of traditional tradespeople.

Think Tank participants included:

Audrey Zamora-Johnson (San Antonio); Brian Halverson (San Antonio); Cory Edwards (San Antonio); David Greenhill (Portland); Dirk Wassink (Seattle); Doug Melnick (San Antonio); Hans Eberl (San Antonio); Jenny Hay (San Antonio); Julia Murphy (San Antonio); Katie Kennedy (Seattle); Max Wechsler (San Francisco Bay Area); Michelle Wiseman (Atlanta); Mike Gable (Pittsburgh); Shannon Goodman (Atlanta); Shanon Miller (San Antonio); Shawn Wood (Portland); and Stephanie Phillips (San Antonio).