Chapter 8 struck me as the oddest of all — converting a Walmart into a chapel in Pinellas Park, Florida. Now, admittedly, it’s a Calvary Chapel plus a whole bunch of other things, not your traditional wayside chapel of Catholicism, for example. Yet, when you realize that the parishioners are not “local neighbourhood” residents, but cross the county, it isn’t surprising that they would choose a building with built-in parking and a virtually unlimited size meeting space (i.e. auditorium). How big a congregation? Services for 700-1000 at a time are for slow days, normal hits at about 1500, and potentially 3300 are part of the congregation.

When Walmart was looking to vacate their space, the Calvary Chapel was already in a smaller old Winn-Dixie store. They bid on the new space, and Walmart agreed. The part I find a bit confusing in the story is that the author seems a bit puzzled about Walmart’s decision, even though there were potentially higher bidders. The Chapel credits divine intervention; the authors wonders if it was PR, or that the Chapel had a good business reputation for reuse, etc. Yet the author already spoke of the most likely reasons way back in the earliest chapters — when Walmart vacates, they want to know that whoever takes over the space is not going to compete with them for business. And they often have huge lease and/or sale restrictions to prevent it. With the Chapel? No such concerns.

The renovation is extensive, of course. Even the roof has been modified to have a huge patio. Inside, they have sports areas (courts for basketball, dodgeball, etc.), recreation areas (pool tables on a second floor), some small theatres, lots of offices, some educational spaces for schooling, etc. And of course, a temporary auditorium for 1500.

I can’t help but feel there is some irony between products for the masses and a commercial approach to religion, but that is my own upbringing showing through I suppose. But the renovation of the exterior wasn’t a big concern for the church, they are all about the congregation and having a tool to help serve them, not the extensive aesthetics.

Chapter 6 looks at repurposing a Kmart building in Austin, Minnesota into a combination museum and corporate headquarters/office space. Unlike previous examples in the book, this one was done as a design competition between four architectural firms with relatively open-ended paramaters.

In the end, there has been extensive renovation of the exterior lands and surfaces. Interestingly, however, the lack of exterior light made the interior designs for the museum actually work better — they had total control over the look and feel of the exhibits, including lighting. For the office area though, large windows were cut, and skylights added. And, everything in the office space is movable. Walls, furniture, everything. Giving them a healthy amount of dynamism.

Overall, though, the most interesting part was that while they kept the “building” structure, the resulting look and feel makes it look like anything BUT a big box store. Different roofs with slopes, bricks added to the exterior, etc., all hide the original look and feel. Yet the building is relatively the same place, at least structurally.

Chapter 4 starts a second section of the book dealing with networks, particularly with the idea that the location is not just the “store shell” so much as the building, a parking lot, and beyond…the whole background.

This Chapter did a quick overview of three Charter schools in Buffalo (NY), Charlotte (NC), and Laramie (WY), most of which want to fly under the radar — two of the spoke only on the question of anonymity, although they were happy to give tours, etc. What I found particularly interesting with these examples was that they started with a relatively new entity — the fledgling school — looking for a site to lease. They didn’t have the money to buy, couldn’t build, etc. and basically didn’t have the full capital to take on the whole project at once. As a startup, they could commit to a lease, and then grow the business and organization towards later purchase.

Some of the aspects that were not immediately obvious:

1. Repurposing an old vacant school was often an obvious and alternate choice, but with challenges for renovations to bring them up to code for electricity, plumbing, etc.;
2. The Walmart or Kmart sites were immediately fully accessible for persons with disabilities, with options for everything on a single floor, wide hallways, etc.;
3. Lighting was often an issue for interior rooms, so design often defaulted to hollow squares where the centre could be a gym or cafeteria, leaving the classrooms around exterior walls where windows could be cut out; and,
4. While the big box stores were up to code, often the plumbing for washrooms were limited to a couple of areas and the plumbing was buried in concrete, so extra trenches have to be dug early to reach the extra requirements for a school.

I also found the idea of community not an obvious element, not so much of the Big Box, but of the nature of a Charter school. Since they are not limited to geographic catch-basins (like neighbourhoods for typical schools) but rather open to the entire city to attend, transport often becomes incredibly important. Meaning the extra parking spots for drop-off and pick-up make things much easier. Equally, because so many of the kids need transport-by-parents, the Schools need to offer extensive before- and after-school care, way more than normal schools. Which means they need spaces for that to function. However, contrasting that, many “blended” families or non-cohesive families (divorced parents with shared custody for example, living in different areas of the city) find the option great, since they don’t all live in a single “local” neighbourhood.

Overall, though, I think it was the “initial lease” and the ability to build as they grow which made it so interesting. In some cases, walls around the interior school belied the fact that behind was just empty “open” warehouse-like space…ready for the next round of school rooms to be built or a gym or a special area for technology, automotive, or creative arts, all of which can be built and worked on without disrupting the rest of the school — the school can be open while other renovations are going on. Our son’s school has just gone through massive renovations within an existing space, and it really disrupted life around them. But once they reached a certain critical mass, the last areas were empty spaces that could be worked on separately. Unfortunately, that required moving some kids to portables, something that doesn’t need to happen in a Big Box that can just build, build, build inside. Plus they are doing it inside, even when weather is bad. Certainly a totally different project than trying to renovate an old abandoned public school.