A (Second) Home Sweet Home

An increasingly popular service makes it easy for companies to give landfill-bound materials a chance at a second life.

Material reuse: What is it?

It involves removing usable materials — everything from office furniture, lighting and flooring to countertops, equipment and artwork — from spaces undergoing renovation and reusing them in projects that incorporate reclaimed materials.

How are reclaimed materials used in projects?

For Burns & McDonnell, a close-to-home example is its new 310,000-square-foot building recently completed on its Kansas City world headquarters campus. Constructed on the site of a former synagogue, the office building repurposed marble panels, which once lined the synagogue's walls, as countertops in executive conference rooms.

“Reclaimed materials tell a story,” says Clint Blew, associate architect at Burns & McDonnell. “In our disposable society, I think everyone appreciates it when we can capture a piece of another project’s history by respectfully using its materials to tell our own story.”