Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Adaptive Reuse Of Former Catholic Churches As A Community Asset, Linnea Cara Duckworth

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

The Catholic Church has experienced changes in the past half-century that have resulted in the restructuring of many dioceses, especially in the Midwest and Northeast, which, due to the consolidation of parishes, has left many church buildings in disuse. Because the architecture and design of many of these buildings are unique to the use of a church, adaptive reuse strategies are challenging to implement but, due to their place in the vernacular of their respective neighborhoods and their ties to cultural heritage, the loss of the building is generally deemed tragic. Trends in the adaptive reuse of church buildings have …