Yes, it’s a story we talk about daily.

The American barn is disappearing from the landscape. It may not evoke the nostalgia of a one-room schoolhouse or covered bridge. But for more than two centuries, it has stood as a symbol of hard work and a rural way of life.

Here it is hitting the mainstream with an article at USA Today.

John H. Myers
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The windows on many historic buildings are an important aspect of the architectural character of those buildings. Their design, craftsmanship, or other qualities may make them worthy of preservation.

This is self-evident for ornamental windows, but it can be equally true for warehouses or factories where the windows may be the most dominant visual element of an otherwise plain building.

Evaluating the significance of these windows and planning for their repair or replacement can be a complex process involving both objective and subjective considerations. The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and the accompanying guidelines, call for respecting the significance of original materials and features, repairing and retaining them wherever possible, and when necessary, replacing them …

Inventive imitators can match the panache of stone without the overhead.

Slate shingles, traditionally split from natural stone, are known to perform for decades—even a century or more with good installation and regular maintenance. Since the 1890s, however, roofing manufacturers have been combining other materials to produce man-made shingles that aimed to last longer, look better, or cost less. Have any of these products ever lived up to their promise? Sometimes, yes.

Many a building roofed with asbestos cement shingles in the 1930s or ’40s is still sound and dry today—a testament to the durability of one of the oldest types of “slate pretenders.” When asbestos was eliminated in building products in the 1970s, though, it opened this specialized corner of the …