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What to do with a Big Box?

As retail trends shift throughout time, many communities across the USA find themselves with vacant "Big Box" store facilities. Whether the store built an even larger facility on the edge of town or left town altogether, the results are the same, a typically unsightly, large, barren building in the middle of your retail district. As Julia Christensen has found out, these buildings don't have to be a blight for your community. Christensen is a new media artist from Bardstown, KY. She is currently working on her research series "How Communities are Re-Using the Big Box." This project has taken her over 75,000 miles in the past 2 years. Read on to see some of the examples she's discovered for big box redevelopment.

  • In Austin, MN what was a Kmart sat vacant for several years before the Spam Museum occupied the space. Now, over 100,000 visitors come annually to tour the museum.
  • A comprehensive medical center is now housed in an old Wal-Mart building in Mt. Sterling, KY.
  • Several school districts around the country have renovated big boxes into schools, including Snowy Range Elementary in Laramie, WY and Head Start K-12 in Hastings, NE.
  • Princeton, NJ now boasts a fitness and wellness center in an abandoned big box.
  • The Granby St. Apartments in Norfolk, VA occupy a renovated Ames.
  • In Round Rock, TX what was once a Wal-Mart is now RPM Indoor Raceway.
  • And all over the country, churches and organizations are moving into vacant big box facilities.

Big boxes are appealing to businesses, churches and organizations because they are strategically located, with adequate infrastructure, including roads and parking. Do you have an abandoned big box in your community that could be utilized?

Christensen continues to travel around the country, visiting towns and giving lectures about the reuse of big box buildings in the United States. You can view her work at www.bigboxreuse.com.