ASWD’s Social Mission
The Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit deconstructs buildings in Southeast Michigan to keep environmental resources out of the waste stream, and to make decent, affordable housing materials available to low- and moderate-income families. Providing jobs and job training in deconstruction and recycling. Which reduces landfill use and provides low cost building materials back to the community.
What They Do
Deconstruction is the planned and systematic disassembly of buildings, which allows component parts and pieces to be removed without damaging them, so that they may be reused.
Where deconstruction is not possible, skimming is the removal of materials such as doors, hardware, and light fixtures that are easy to remove. Materials gathered from deconstruction and skimming are made available for sale at our warehouse.
Salvage work is labor intensive, creating more jobs than demolition and most other economic activities. We provide training to prepare workers for salvage, but also for other work as well.
