In the 2004 report, “Downtown Voices: Creating a Sustainable Downtown,” adaptive reuse is recommended as a way to help maintain a diverse, lively urban center. Today, with “sustainability” all the rage and with GreenBuild coming to town, adaptive reuse should be touted even more as a tool for land conservation and reducing urban sprawl. For those who prescribe to the “smart growth” concept, it is more efficient and environmentally responsible to reuse historic and vintage buildings closer to urban cores than it is to build new construction out on the fringes.
Note that several of the “opportunities” in the above slideshow may already be functioning businesses, especially those in downtown Phoenix’s Warehouse District. Because of the fragility of the Warehouse District due to development pressures, those buildings are grouped together to help show why historic and vintage buildings are so necessary to maintain some degree of authenticity to a “district.” What’s a Warehouse District without warehouses? Huh, novel concept.
Feel free to comment if you have suggestions for other possible adaptive reuse projects.
Downtown Voices Coalition 