Earlier this year, Circuit City announced it was going out of business, a move that'll leave behind hundreds of big box stores across the country, including that Sunset Blvd site. After reading this Infrastructurist Q & A with Julia Christensen, an Oberlin professor and author "Big Box Reuse," your roller derby/disco rink/cage wrestling dreams aren't so far off. Some takeaways from the interview:
---A Kmart in Austin, TX was turned into a Spam museum.
-- A Wal-Mart in Round Rock, TX was turned into a RPM Indoor Raceway (they were later tossed out)
---A Kmart in Lebanon, MI became a library.
---Even more amazing examples can be seen on the book's official site.
---Miles of parking lot are problematic: But in Pinellas Park, FL, a church moved into a box store and planted trees.
---No template: "When I began the project I hoped that I could go in and find a template. Instead, I found that it was very much case by case–even the real estate packages vary tremendously from place to place. Sometimes there’s ten real estate companies from all over the world involved in one site: a company from Germany owns the building and somebody from California owns the lease on the land. It can be crazy." Flickr image via Boutmet
· Big Box of Trouble: Dealing with the Coming Plague of Empty Superstores [The Infrastrucurist]
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