Chapter 9 is a somewhat starker chapter, as it looks at Chalmette, Louisiana, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. And it isn’t like the other chapters, as it is not really about reuse of an abandoned building.

Instead, it is the use of the Walmart parking lot — the only local place large enough to hold a small medical centre made up of a series of large double-wide trailers all connected together. Supported by non-profits, for-profits, religious groups, FEMA and Walmart, it got going in the aftermath of Katrina, and at the time of writing (3 years afterwards), it was still running, while the Walmart remained closed. Walmart even let them open a small pharmacy onsite to meet local needs.

However, what I find interesting and for which I wish there was more coverage in the book (admittedly, it is beyond her scope), is the description of how Walmart used its existing large distribution network to help relief efforts. Not unlike nationalization of some industries back in WWI and WWII, from the descriptions.

Yet in the end, the main reason for their use of the parking lot? Location, location, location — it has good transport networks leading to it, everyone can get to it, and it’s easy to find. The same reasons any user would choose the same location.

Chapter 7 looks at an old KMart building, now repurposed as a county library in Lebanon, Missouri. The building is shared with a museum and a cafe. What I love about this example is a quote on page 146:

But the fact is, basically everyone in the community of Lebanon really was involved in the renovation and design of this site. Public school students designed and painted the murals, local electricians designed systems and wired light fixtures, local artisans laid carpet and even designed mosaic tile floors for the hallways. The community here came out for the cause, donating time, money and services to the development of its new county library.

Is that unusual? No, of course not. Lots of towns have done the same thing with recreation centres, or libraries, or museums. What I find compelling is that reusing a box building rarely attracts the creative types, unless the option is to raze it and start over. Yet in this case, the building had some really key selling points — way more space than the library needed, way cheaper than building from scratch, and the previous owner was a school board who could transfer title to them easily (they donated it, after receiving it as a gift themselves). And initially, the reaction would be what you would expect. Everyone wanted a beautiful beacon, a shiny new library, and what they had was an empty KMart. Not much to inspire the community, right?

But a core planning group built street buzz, the local newspaper and radio got on board, and the project focused on having a quick, early win — making sure the facade didn’t look like Kmart. In this case, they used metal in red, blue and yellow to give it a wholly modern look. They gave early tours, when it was still chalk outlines. They designed and merged the concepts for a museum and cafe, tied to learning, tied to local history. They have free meeting rooms for community groups.

Or as the author claims, it went from a community institution to a community centre. One that doesn’t look like Kmart.

Chapter 5 looks at a Head Start program in Hastings, Nebraska. The initial catalyst was unusual — the original location (an old hardware store) was wiped out by a tornado and the local community was growing rapidly through immigration, outstripping the original need. The program needed a new location, and an empty Kmart building was available.

Part of what I found interesting in this chapter were the complicated real estate deals in place…a commercial company owned the building, Kmart owned the lease, and a local man owned the land. So, Kmart would rent the space and pay the company, who would then pay the local man. A tri-partite “ownership” of sorts for the property, making it more complicated if someone wanted to buy. Who is selling to them? All three or just one or two? In the end, it was all three. A local company bought all three components (essentially land, building and tenancy), and then “flipped” it to someone else. In this case, the Head Start program.

The other part that I found interesting was the importance of the location. Just as Kmart wanted a busy intersection, easily accessible, so too does a program that serves the city and county. Like the previous chapter, they want a good location to serve lots of people for ease of access.

And finally, they can rent out extra space to groups that are efficient or effective, or just plain synergistic, for their own mandate — other educational services — while still giving them lots of flexibility in design.