There are many ways to live sustainably, but not everyone can afford to live in a brand-new green-certified home or apartment building. So why not live in an old historic building instead? An evolving trend in sustainable housing is transforming older, unused structures into residences, a great way to offer more affordable housing while also treasuring the past.<\/p>\n
Across the country, cities have found ways to conserve development resources and answer housing demands, while still paying homage to their community\u2019s history. In fact, a study by RentCafe<\/a> revealed that nearly 2,000 old buildings in the U.S. had been converted into apartments since the 1950s \u2014 about 800 in the last decade alone. Chicago and Philadelphia top the list with the most repurposed apartment buildings, while New York City boasts the most apartments created as a result of adaptive reuse projects.<\/p>\n It is especially admirable to see this trend thriving in cities like Louisville, KY<\/a>, which has brought back to life quite a few old buildings relative to its size. Since the 1970s, 16 deteriorating large Louisville buildings have been revamped<\/strong>\u00a0into rental housing, sharing 17th<\/sup> place<\/strong> nationally with Boston<\/a> and Denver<\/a><\/strong>. The past five decades brought\u00a01,811 new apartments<\/strong> to renters who may want to get a taste of what it\u2019s like to live in an old school, a vintage hotel, or even a former warehouse. To learn what and where are these adaptive reuse apartment buildings in Louisville, we turned to data from Yardi Matrix.<\/p>\n