Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is a thread for stimulating creative solutions. Without getting sidetracked into debates on the merits of big box stores, for the purpose of this exercise let's accept that they are there and something must now be done with the buildings. Today's challenge is to come up with a creative idea for what to do with them after the original store has left.
I think this is a great mental exercise for people interested in urban planning. Let's say you have the following conditions:
1. You have a shopping plaza with two large, empty big box stores. The other stores seem to be doing fine. Thus you have a variety of businesses within walking distance of your project.
2. The shells of the big box stores have exceptional duct work, AC, and electrical systems, so it could be worthwhile to use these buildings and not simply tear them down.
3. They're probably 2 stories high (but you can add extra stories if you wish).
4. There is ample parking, and this site is close to commercial and residential neighborhoods.
1. They could be turned into apartments. You could probably put 20 units in one of those old Best Buys. I like the idea of an apartment building right in the center of a shopping plaza.
2. They could be converted into a 2-story grocery shopping plaza, with various food vendors on the first floor and dining tables on the second floor.
3. They could be converted into recereational facilities. Think what an amazing skateboard park one of those places could make. Or, even better, an indoor beach!
Big box stores have been turned into schools already. Old buildings typically find new uses, generally by people seeking lower rents. Some of these marginal uses are very important to a city's cultural life: theaters, coffee shops, bookstores, art galleries, all the things we associated with "urbanity" pretty much have to take place in older buildings where the rents are cheap. The problem is the parking lots: in order to be useful in car-centric cities, they are cut off from easy access by any other form of transportation.
The problem is the parking lots: in order to be useful in car-centric cities, they are cut off from easy access by any other form of transportation.
That's an interesting observation. Here in Northern Virginia they don't really have that problem. The shopping plazas tend to also be where all the bus stops are--but I think that may be because this is a newer area and the shopping plazas are where everybody wants to go. I can see how that would be a problem in older cities.
Maybe a transit center would be a good use for a former big box?
You could park buses in them. The large parking lots would be handy since they'd have spaces for at least a handful of commuters to leave their car and hop onto a bus into the city.
If you really needed to convert them into something else, I suppose they would make nice art galleries. But why bother? Wouldn't it be easier to simply court other big box tenants?
Where I live, The Circuit City became an HH Gregg. The Wal Mart became Wegmans. Linen's Etc. became a Gold's Gym. There always seems to be somebody new who's glad to have a big building already built for them.
Big box stores have been turned into schools already.
I like the school idea, although these must be fairly small schools. Still, I like the idea because big box stores are away from the street and have plenty of parking. It'd be much easier for parents to pick up their kids from a school in a shopping plaza (and they could get some shopping done while they wait for the kids, too.)
I like the school idea, although these must be fairly small schools. Still, I like the idea because big box stores are away from the street and have plenty of parking. It'd be much easier for parents to pick up their kids from a school in a shopping plaza (and they could get some shopping done while they wait for the kids, too.)
Because everything must always have plenty of parking, and hide far away from the street...of course. Making the streets safer just isn't an option, people might have to slow down!
Because everything must always have plenty of parking, and hide far away from the street...of course. Making the streets safer just isn't an option, people might have to slow down!
I wish there was a magic wand I could wave to get people to drive more safely around schools. I also wish we could teach little kids not to run out into traffic. Sadly, it seems like the only way people learn about those things is the hard way, after a child gets hit. So, for those reasons, I think it's good urban planning to put schools away from the road and have some sort of separate drive in front of the building where parents or buses can pick the kids up.
I'm not sure I think a shopping plaza is the best place for a school, but OTOH shopping plazas are often in new neighborhoods where schools are needed, and it's true that building a school can be very expensive, so using an old big box is a good temporary solution.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
