Architect Alan Pullman talks about how adaptive reuse and green architecture can be used to revitalize urban neighborhoods and springboard economic growth, using a recent project to demonstrate.
Tara Sturm, writing for Buildipedia.com, investigates how a blighted Long Beach warehouse-turned-sustainable office space catalyzed urban transformation:
"This chain-like effect has just as much to do with economics as it has to do with the bolstering of creative energy. Pullman explains, 'What we find with adaptive reuse is that you can do them fairly economically. They are not super luxurious buildings. They are adapted that way. It's kind of raw, actually. What that does, though, is allows development at a level that can bring independent stores – and these are all independent stores. Creative tenants just can't afford to pay really high rent, downtown prices. I think in a lot of ways it is part of economic development to have adaptive reuse and create a place for more interesting, independent, and locally focused tenants to incubate and grow.'"
Thanks to Tara D. Sturm
FULL STORY: Adaptive Reuse: Green Space as a Tool for Neighborhood Revitalization
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research