The idea came from Hanson General Contracting, their experience in helping New Orleans prompted them to want to do similar work here in Philadelphia. In their words:
The idea for this project came after one of our members from Hanson General Contracting participated in an event to make sustainable improvements to historic houses in parts of New Orleans devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita; we realized that we don't have to travel to New Orleans to make historic houses more sustainable when we're surrounded by them here in Philadelphia. We teamed up with the Robeson House and West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance because their work to provide access to the arts for the citizens of West Philadelphia, market and support the development of local artists, and serve as an advocate for the power of the arts to promote social change and economic development is in concert with the goals of DVGBC's strategic plan.
Work for the day included some obvious sustainable initiatives, like replacing light bulbs and plumbing fixtures to reduce resource consumption, as well as some not-so-obvious ones, like installing an insulated roof hatch to permit easy repair of the roof in the future, reducing the number of leaks and the associated materials needed to repair them, an installing rain barrels for storage and landscaping use. All work was done in consultation with the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia to ensure that we made only historically appropriate repairs to this building where Paul Robeson, scholar, athlete, performer and human rights activist, lived in the final years of his life.
The DVGBC posted photos from the event on Facebook, I'm copying over a few here:
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