Recognizing this, the city of Phoenix, Arizona has instituted its award-winning Adaptive Reuse Program. One of the most comprehensive programs of its kind in the nation, it offers guidance, expedited timeframes and reduced costs to customers applying to reuse older buildings for new business uses. According to a Phoenix official, “Adaptive reuse preserves our history, helps small business owners be successful, creates unique restaurant and business settings for all of us to experience, and it is environmentally friendly.”
Adaptive re-use is also quite popular for new residential uses, especially in cities, where older warehouse and manufacturing properties are commonly re-used as “loft” style residences.
Following are some striking examples of adaptive reuse for all types of buildings around the world:
| a. Stable | b. Living Room |
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- The interior of a barn on a 19th century dairy farm was used to stable draft animals.
- The interior of the stable has been transformed into living, dining and kitchen space. Sleeping quarters are on the upper level, the former hayloft.
Courtesy Studio One-Off Architecture & Design
| Train Station | Musee D'Orsay - Art Museum |
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| Charles Street Jail | Boston Liberty Hotel |
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| Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection |
| Shipyard | Corporate Headquarters |
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| a. | b. |
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- Launching of the Battleship U.S.S. New Jersey at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, December 7, 1942. (Photo courtesy of ExplorePAhistory.com; donated by Corbis-Bettmann.)
- The monumental interior of Building 543 has been preserved--massive cranes now support delicate lanterns above bamboo gardens and koi ponds located in former pipe bending pits. The space now serves as a campus commons with support services and amenities such as a library and café, cafeteria, and fitness center. (Photo by Lara Swimmer.)
- The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was a major shipbuilding and repair facility from 1868 through 1996. Decommissioned, it’s 187 buildings were abandoned and left to decay. (Photo by MS&R)
- Urban Outfitters purchased five abandoned buildings to renovate for the first phase of their new corporate campus. Buildings 12, 543, and 15 now frame a new central courtyard. (Photo by Lara Swimmer.)
| Sugar Silos | Office Building |
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Courtesy Soeters Van Eldonk architecten