Architecture Commons^™

Stores As Schools: An Adaptive Reuse Alternative For Communities Dealing With Underutilized Commercial Space And Overcrowded Schools, Jayne M. Bernhard

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Over the past two decades, underused shopping malls and big-box stores have become more prevalent in the landscape, even as newer ones are built. Shopping centers from the last half of the twentieth century may not have been designed to serve uses other than commercial, but that does not mean these buildings must or should only be thought of as single-use spaces. Projects from across the United States demonstrate that large, empty commercial structures can become municipal complexes, new town centers, mixed-use complexes, office buildings, churches, and gymnasiums. They also can be rehabilitated to fill the need for new schools …