Adaptive Reuse of Commercial to Community Spaces: Literature Review

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods Name: Emily Fitzsimmons Research question: How can empty commercial buildings be adapted and reused to meet other community needs?

Background Stretching across many towns and cities in the United States, big-box retail buildings and their required parking lots consume huge swathes of space and resources in a time with rapidly disappearing land availability, energy sources, and raw materials. Even worse, many of these indoor and outdoor spaces function at low capacities during most of the year or are closed completely. As the global economy increasingly moves online, the malls, big-box retail, and department stores that were once well-used and loved are being abandoned by both customers and corporate leaders, leaving behind persistently vacant structures. Likewise, intense monopolization has driven many small businesses out of the game and out of their buildings. In 2012, commercial buildings consumed 4,241 trillion Btu of electricity, yet some of these buildings sit empty with their lights and air conditioning still running for months or even years in between owners and lessees (US Energy Information Administration, 2016). Rather than wasting space and energy until someone who finds value in an empty Zaxby’s restaurant or Toys “R” Us store comes along, vacant commercial spaces should instead be dedicated to unmet community services.

Currently, there is a large amount of literature on adaptive reuse of post-industrial sites, commercial to commercial reuse, and general information about the practice, but little literature has been written about adaptive reuse of commercial spaces to community services. Likewise, I found many cases took place in Asia. Although it is important to learn from other cultures’ advancements, I chose to limit my geographical scope to the United States in order to keep my

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods assertions as applicable as possible to domestic cities. In my search, I found about fifteen informative pieces of literature about the topic, with only a few dedicated to each community service adaptation: community spaces, healthcare, education, housing, and food production.

Community Spaces As the economy constantly changes, vacant commercial buildings will consistently be a part of the real estate stock, so, rather than sitting empty, they should be put to use as community spaces. In various pieces of literature, I found cases of proposed and completed projects that turned a bank into an art museum, movie theaters into public meeting spaces, and Wal-Marts into libraries and civic centers. In each article, the authors utilized these past projects to discuss various challenges and benefits to this form of adaptive reuse (Dysar, 2006; Lesneski, 2011; Morales, 2019; Reiss, 2001). For instance, the components that make a place ideal for a WalMart store – location, size, and budget – align well with the needs of library expansion. In particular, the open floorspace of big-box stores like Wal-Marts provide flexibility in renovation and programming, but other aspects of these stores’ structures present difficulties with natural light, security, and aesthetic fit (Dysar, 2006; Lesneski, 2011).

By contrast, older, more unique commercial buildings provide less flexibility but compensate with different advantages. For example, they often already fit into the community look and provide historic value: One mid-century bank sat vacant for years, so much of its original features were preserved, which made the building itself a piece of art in its current museum use (Morales, 2019). Likewise, vacant movie theaters left over from the 1990s surge of construction are already built for media technology, making them viable candidates for community uses like performing art centers and public meeting places (Reiss, 2001). In the current COVID-19 pandemic, theaters’ lecture hall-style rooms would also be useful in catering

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods to the desperate need for more classrooms that accommodate socially distanced learning.

Healthcare Many people in the US lack geographically and fiscally accessible healthcare, but adaptive reuse can help hospitals and nonprofits expand their reach. In particular, neighborhoods of marginalized communities often have both deficient healthcare resources as well as high numbers of vacant commercial spaces, which makes adaptive reuse of commercial buildings to healthcare uses a reasonable choice. Over twenty cases of adaptive reuse of such spaces into healthcare centers illustrate the benefits these projects can have (Elrod & Fortenberry, 2017a, 2017b; Morales, 2019).

For one, renovating an existing building rather than constructing one from scratch helps conserve resources and reduce expenses so that hospitals and nonprofits can redirect funds to improve the quality of services, expand to new locations, or make treatment more affordable.

Additionally, adaptive reuse increases access to competitive locations, especially in dense areas, which increases healthcare accessibility to higher numbers of people. More importantly, the monetary savings from renovating older buildings rather than constructing new facilities has allowed healthcare to expand services to historically excluded neighborhoods (Elrod & Fortenberry, 2017a, 2017b; Morales, 2019). Similarly, adaptive reuse helps the healthcare industry to locate in marginalized communities while mitigating disruption from construction and preserving the neighborhood.

Education As with the healthcare industry, adaptive reuse of commercial spaces can be a great fit for many school systems. Using evidence from diverse projects around the country, research asserts that not only can schools receive the usual benefits of adaptive reuse – monetary savings,

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods environmental sustainability, a quicker construction timeline, and community improvement – but that most school districts have the means to meet the typical political and regulatory difficulties of such projects. In general, research illustrates that these projects provide excellent solutions to challenges such as unavailable greenfields, commercial blight, tight budgets, and student overcrowding. Commercial conversion to schools often required committed residents, flexibility of store space, and positive media coverage of the school district leaders’ fiscally and environmentally responsible growth management in order in order to be realized (Bernhard, 2008; Spector, 2003).

However, not every project will be entirely successful; the location, budget, and building are totally unique in each case and will decide how well a store can act as a space for learning.

For instance, one such remodel was beneficial in many ways but entirely unwalkable because of its placement along a busy commercial corridor (Bernhard, 2008). Another case involved the establishment of a charter school in the Oklahoma City Plaza Mayor Mall, once Crossroads Mall.

After being rebranded in 2013, developers promised a Latinx mixed-use community center, including stores, entertainment, small business incubator spaces, a Spanish-speaking Integris healthcare branch, and the school. Yet the mall failed to attract larger tenants and closed after two years with the exception of the Santa Fe South charter school. The remaining school, however, may help the mall redevelop over time (Eastes, 2017).

Notably, adaptive reuse should not be reserved for overpopulation or fiscal emergencies but regularly practiced in school expansions because it is overall an excellent method with many benefits (Spector, 2003). However, as the national education budget continues to shrink, adaptive reuse will become a useful tool for all school systems (Bernhard, 2008). In particular, many schools suffer from a disproportionate lack of funds, so adaptive reuse could help low-income

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods schools specifically save money and divert resources to the students and teachers.

Housing As the global population rapidly increases each day, urbanization is also rising quickly, making dense, livable, and affordable housing a necessary provision for all cities in the coming years. In general, adaptive reuse contributes to sustainability, affordability, and community preservation, so adaptive reuse of commercial spaces into housing is decidedly pragmatic in expanding environmentally sustainable housing. The existing literature on this topic explores the conversion of shopping malls and parking garages specifically into mixed-use apartment buildings. Armed with evidence surrounding the history of housing – affordable and public housing, in particular – as well as urban sustainability, previous research proposes adaptive reuse as an essential tool for a multifaceted approach toward achieving environmentally and socially sustainable housing (Brown, 2011; Schweitzer, 2019).

Notably, there is no academic literature on adaptive reuse of commercial buildings into homeless shelters. Rather, I found a 2016 newspaper article about a downtown building in Portland whose first floor acted as a temporary homeless shelter while the rest of the structure underwent renovations. A nonprofit called Transition Projects ran the shelter, which housed about 100 people during the winter months (Tenney, 2016). Housing is a basic human right that is widely neglected because homelessness is viewed as an individual failure instead of a societal shortcoming. Though there are no specific cases of adaptive reuse alleviating homelessness in academic literature, the research of commercial to housing reuse illustrates that similar adaptive reuse possesses strong potential in providing shelter and transitional housing.

Food Production As cities become more sustainable, the sector of food production must be addressed. The

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods current agricultural system is harmful in many ways from chemical use, loss of biodiversity, poor distribution, fuel-intensive transportation, and economic monopolization, yet urban residents depend on this scheme to obtain food. More cities are encouraging community gardens and local farms, but land availability, proximity, and affordability present even more challenges. However, based on the little literature I found about the conversion of commercial spaces to places for food production, adaptive reuse offers a solution to those difficulties (Jones & Franck, 2019).

As stated above, commercial real estate is consistently available and actively placed near potential users (Jones & Franck, 2019). Adapting a building to host indoor farming and rooftop gardens may be more expensive than demolishing a building; however, it would increase the bed capacity and allow for food production during the winter months, offsetting the initial costs. In particular, this would be a good strategy for food deserts. Minority and low-income neighborhoods with little access to nutritional food also tend to have very little green space.

Utilizing vacant commercial buildings would not only provide access to year-round, locally grown food but also preserve recreational land and revitalize a structure.

Critique of Existing Literature While investigating the literature, I found that the most prevalent flaw was the narrow approach to community needs; most of the articles each focus on a single type of reuse. Only one of the articles explored a variety of possible community outcomes in adaptive reuse, and it was not even a case study of an existing project but a design proposal. Although this would be helpful for those delving into adaptive reuse of commercial to healthcare spaces or commercial buildings to schools and similar niches, my research seeks a holistic picture of options that communities can use to adapt their vacant commercial buildings to meet their particular needs.

Coincidingly, there was an overall lack of literature for commercial to community

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods adaptive reuse. For each category of use, I found at most four contributing articles; in fact, I was only able to compile enough sources because my research question includes such a broad collection of community needs. Additionally, several community needs were barely mentioned or remain undiscussed in the academic literature, leaving gaps in the guides for communities’ adaptive reuse projects.

In my research, I found only a few academic articles dedicated to each category of community needs in commercial adaptive reuse, but I uncovered even less information about business incubators, homeless shelters, childcare, and vocational schools resulting from commercial adaptive reuse. Likewise, I encountered no literature of adaptive reuse into community food banks, transitional housing, tutoring centers, counseling services, or artistic and recreational spaces. Additionally, all the academic literature examined long-term adaptations; only one newspaper article reviewed a temporary community use of a building in between commercial uses (Tenney, 2016).

These shortcomings in approach and gaps in the literature leave my research question unanswered. Empty buildings have been historically prevalent because of consistent commercial vacancy, but this will continue to rise as even more businesses fail because of the COVID-19 pandemic or move entirely online. Already, there is a huge supply of commercial buildings left empty for months or years that should be serving beneficial uses for the community, especially since many of these needs are not being met. In order to achieve this, communities should know what options they have when fusing physical and social development. Rather than fragmented literature, there should be comprehensive pieces of research that explore many different paths that commercial adaptive reuse can take to serve the community; this would promote the scope of adaptive reuse, provide options for communities, and spur ideas for potential projects.

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods References Bernhard, J. M. (2008). Stores as schools: An adaptive reuse alternative for communities dealing with underutilized commercial space and overcrowded schools (Master’s Thesis).

Retrieved from ScholarWorks @UMassAmherst. 1911.

Brown, A. (2011). Alternate occupancy / increasing urban density through reuse of existing parking garages (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 1505182.

Dysar, H. A. (2006). One stop community center – Adaptive reuse of a vacant Wal-Mart (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

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Eastes, L. (2017, October 11). “Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads to close at the end of October.”

Oklahoma Gazette. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/plaza-mayor-at-the-crossroads-to-close-at-the-endof-october/Content?oid=2981385.

Elrod, J. K., & Fortenberry, J. L., Jr. (2017). Adaptive reuse in the healthcare industry: Repurposing abandoned buildings to serve medical missions. BMC Health Services Research, 17(1). DOI 10.1186/s12913-017-2339-4 –. (2017b). Advancing indigent healthcare services through adaptive reuse: Repurposing abandoned buildings as medical clinics for disadvantaged populations. BMC Health Services Research, 17(4). DOI 10.1186/s12913-017-2752-8 Jones, J. C., & Franck, K. A. (2019). A brewery in a foundry, a winery in a strip mall: Adaptive reuse by food enterprises. Urban Design International, 24(2), 108-117. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-019-00085-7

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods Lesneski, T. (2011). Big box libraries: beyond restocking the shelves with books, New Library World, 112(9/10), 395-405. DOI 10.1108/03074801111181996 Morales, S. (2019). Money in the bank: Three case studies in the adaptive reuse of midcentury bank branch buildings (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 27814988.

Reiss, D. A. (2001). Focus on reuse: Adaptive reuse: The movie. Real Estate Issues, 26(1), 6364. Retrieved September 10, 2020,from https://login.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/login?url=https://www-proquestcom.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/docview/214002230?accountid=12964.

Schweitzer, L. (2019). Abandoned shopping malls: An opportunity for affordable, supportive housing in suburbia (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 27534911.

Spector, S. (2003). Creating schools and strengthening communities through adaptive reuse.

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED479383.

Tenney, S. (2016, October 28). “Project will use turn downtown building into temporary homeless shelter.” Daily Journal of Commerce. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://login.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/login?url=https://www-proquestcom.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/docview/1835233860?accountid=12964 US Energy Information Administration. (2016, March 18). 2012 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey: Energy Usage Summary. https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/reports/2012/energyusage/index.php?src= %E2%80%B9%20Consumption%20%20%20Commercial%20Buildings%20Energy%20

RCPL 5113 995: Urban Planning Research Methods Consumption%20Survey%20(CBECS)-b3.