I only wish that adaptive reuse was practiced more than 50 years ago, because we've lost too many sound historic buildings over those years, for no other reason than lack of imagination, and lack of appreciation for those buildings at the time. After those buildings are gone most folks miss them. Old school buildings are a case in point.

I am currently working on turning an old neighborhood grocery store into my home. It's large open main floor room with high ceilings is something desirable and tough to find in an old home. The structure was originally built with an apartment above making for an easy conversion. Most of the original building will be saved and appreciated for what it is.

Great feature piece on adaptive reuse. We need more content like this highlighting the potential of renovated buildings to break the glorification of pristine glossy new construction. Right on.

In 2014, when I worked in construction, we turned an old dairy processing facility into modern apartments with a few businesses and a fitness center. It originally opened in 1930 as the Fairmont Creamery in Cleveland, Ohio. Much of the existing interior, such as columns, ceilings, tan colored glazed bricks and select areas of flooring were left exposed while the partition walls, doors, lighting and mechanicals were newly constructed. For energy efficiency, new windows were installed, but they closely resembled the existing ones. I was amazed at the transformation during the 5 months I worked there. And there's great satisfaction in knowing I helped to restore a historical building for an adaptive reuse project.

Love the continuity of the creative thread that runs through this building. It's so much better to preserve such a valuable site.

The smoke-room bathrooms might be my favorite detail of this entire project. There’s so much in this video that I found inspirational and joyful. Thank you

We have an old Levi's factory that was converted into a multi use space in our small town in mid Missouri. It's my favorite building in the city. It does a lot of similar things as The Plant.

It nice to see an adaptive reuse of a building but the extra costs due to abatement and bringing the building up to code often exceeds the profitability or the ability of the reuse of the building. I also see this happen in historical towns where buildings go unused or not repaired due to strict rules about what can be used to make the repairs. It’s a tricky balancing act.

I’ve wanted to turn one of the old factories we have here (Birmingham uk) into a shop/ something interesting, I work in the vintage industry so it fits well and some of these buildings have amazing brickwork

Fascinating, and great to see! I love how low the carbon footprint of the "new" building would be, with so much reuse. Is there a way architects can design for reuse? Should local jurisdictions mandate design principles for reuse, I wonder, because capital will rarely want to pay for them?

I love this. There are so many mills in New England, where I live, that have been re-converted into residential and/or commercial spaces.

This has a similar vibe to bakery square in Pittsburgh. When I was working on that project we had fun trying to inject a new function into a building purpose built for something entirely different.

ive never known there was a name for it but i live in columbus, georgia and ive always thought about living in the abandoned warehouses that are scattered across the city. This adaptive reuse coupled with earthship traits is a dream of mine i hope i can make in my lifetime

I'm really fond of the adaptive reuse aspect of architecture. Growing up I've always thought the older buildings in my city were beautiful and I felt really bad about how some of them were crumbling away and being replaced by newer ones (mostly utilitarian builds with no soul, just plain, unlit storage rooms). Thinking about reusing what's already built for something else or bringing them back to their glory days is part of what made me get into architecture.

Love it, stockyard was such an important part of Chicago’s history and it’s great to see this adaptive reuse. Nice to see more Chicago creators on KZfaq.

My favourite topics yet were this and the previous video. Wasting a whole building is such a loss. I'm glad this got funded.

Good to show that reuse of buildings is visually and environmentally a vise idea

Absolutely love this video! It's great to see the passion & energy that went into not only refurbishing this building, but playing to its strengths and getting the most out of it. Stellar job with the research and interview !!

I work at a pork processor. I love the reuse of this building as we prepare to move to a new facility.

Beyond the ecological, which is important, I love seeing the past of a building reflected in its future.

A really excellent video Stewart. I really thought Mr. Edel did an excellent job. As with most materials made through chemical processes, there is often a lot of energy ultimately stored in the materials when they are made; energy that will be difficult to get back out. Reusing it makes the most sense ecologically.

I'm in Pawtucket, RI and I see a lot of stuff like this around in the old factories and mills

I have always loved these repurposing of big buildings. The first one I experienced was Ponce City Market here in Atlanta! They always have a rich character as you can see many styles come together and adapt to reuse.

I love this video. I never go to the south side but I will be visiting this building now. I love your content. Please continue local videos.

Kansas City Union Station is my favorite example of adaptive reuse. When built, it had capacity surpassed only by Grand Central and Penn in NYC. That capacity was only tested during WWII. By the time Amtrak opened, KCUS had only 6 trains a day, and Amtrak opened an Amshack next door to get out of the astronomical HVAC costs of Jarvis Hunt's monumental masterpiece. The building languished for more than a decade before bistate legislation was approved by Kansas and Missouri voters to return the stone pile from the brink. Now, the station hosts a railroad museum, science museum, restaurants, retail, and Amtrak facilities. The gorgeous plaster ceilings were restored to their former glory by the same contractor who restored the ceilings at Windsor Castle. The dirty, grey facade was pressure washed to reveal a warm, beige sandstone under all the sooty grime. And the leaky roof was fixed properly for the first time ever.

Incredible building and really creative uses!

Been enjoying all your videos. I'm an artist, not an architect, but I appreciate old and new buildings, and your informative lectures.

I love Adaptive Reuse. Giving an Existing building New Life is great. My favorite types of buildings to work on.

I loved seeing this highlighted work close to home in southwest Chicago, I'll have to visit. It doesn't have the same eclectic character, but Bridgeport Art Center is another Chicago reuse project that's a joy to explore when they do open house.

I live in Denver near a renovated ejection seat factory called Stanley Marketplace. Because of it's former use the layout is very unintuitive to navigate but it makes for a great lesson in navigation and way finding .

We have an area in Toronto that was a distillery called Goderham and Worts. We used to film in this area when it was completely abandoned over a decade ago (it was always a shoot out or a horror film LOL, you know post apocalyptic stuff) but they've completely rejuvenated the area and added modern buildings. It's very popular as the core area is beautiful but it's also cut off to traffic. Check it out Stewart. I think it's a great study of how to do thing right. Then the surrounding area has been redeveloped with a special park that also acts like a flood plain for the Don River.

Stewart, great videos! Thank you so much!

The utilizing and the adaptation of ex industrial building is a practical goal in the institution of my Uni in Rome, based in an ex industrial area! Our departement of architecture is located in an ex-slaughterhouse, the engeneering and economics buildings are ex-shipyard (i.e. classes in the naval tanks) and so on with an Alfaromeo car factory and others! In the staughterhouse we endure some stuff like cobblestones (crytical for your ankles or your model!) or the extreme heat in the summer because the couldn't interfere with the site regulation. But! inside is so cool in the summer thanks to the 1 mt wide walls and the marble lining, and the rail trail used to trasport the meat is very useful to hang exibition to! In general I must say that if inerested in the topic, a visit in the Ostiense area in Rome is a must, there's olso an ex gas central, an ex general market and an ex soap and chemical factory , with beautiful 1800' structures that are almost all adapted, and even the abandoned ones are so well done and pleasant to watch and study!

I love this building. Sundays in the summer they host a vegan market out back. I usually enjoy a Le Tub in the Whiner taproom afterwards. Awesome space, I never even knew about the museum! Thanks for another great video.

Thank you for great content, Stewart!

Thanks for your high quality content!

reuse buildings are always interesting to see how they designed and laid out floorplans. Being an architecture grad student, I absolutely love your videos! I actually have a fellow student doing research within the ecology realm. Some current ways of design actually look into designing second and third lives of building materials, so instead of designing for this single construction, designing for the deconstruction to reuse and recycle in future buildings, which I find REALLY interesting!

Very thought-provoking; thank you for the excellent content!

Love this Stewart!

I love all your videos! I'm currenly a third year student starting my semester next month and your videos always made me rethink and inspired me so much I can't wait to start! You do sound like my professors with the topic you discussed 🤣but I'm glad to say I always learn something new and fresh from your videos!

For adaptive reuse see the Quincy Marketplace in Boston or the Rose Kennedy Greenway that runs by it.

Interesting to see things like industrial builings being reused for other purposes (and sometimes for housing). I feel like we may see more of a reuse scenario amongst many due to higher costs to developing a property on its own from the ground up or the fact owning such a place that existed prior is cheaper to retrofit. Also love how it follows this channel's theme for architecture :) You have come a long way Stewart, keep it up :)

I love the idea of reusing parts and pieces of older buildings. Personally, I have gotten very interested in buildings where only the historic facade was saved. I first saw it in Philadelphia, with the Penn Mutual Tower, but have since seen it many other places. A video on its merits, criticism, historic purpose, etc. would be, I believe, very cool.

I love your content, thank you for your work :)

If i ever go to chicago again i'll have to make time to go to The Plant!

I'm a huge fan of adaptive reuse, if you ever get a chance check out the old Ottawa Power Plant / new Accident Fund Headquarters building. It's my city's (Lansing, MI) best adaptive reuse project and one of the more interesting ones I've seen in general. They did some cool things with the interior, like leaving a large overhead crane in place over what became the cafeteria.

Haha, right by my gf's family home. Been to this place a number of times. Great pizza from the Whiner Brewery :D Adaptive reuse is one of my favorite types of redevelopment. Looking to move into an old peanut factory in a couple months

A bunch of the labor at The Plant is volunteer, or at least it was a few years ago. I remember when I did some shifts those smokehouse they turned into bathrooms were caked with baked on pig fat and boy it was nasty. Lookn good now tho.

Fascinating, I really like your videos out of the studio! Get this man a Patreon to fund more expeditions like these! :p

"All buildings have things that they're good at": DC need to make a Poison Ivy film here. The aesthetic is perfect.

ACTIONABLE TASK:. Get the museum 🖼️ into Google maps.. it's not searchable as of this time stamp... Get Chicago content Mr. Hicks.. keep it coming pal.

How would one get into the incubator industry to empower small businesses, particularly in food? There are many buildings that can be adapted for reuse here in Brooklyn, and many who come to New York to start something.

Years ago i worked in the Bursar's Office at MIT in a former chocolate factory.

I watched this and it made me think of the city of Detroit and how those buildings are just being left to decay. I have never been there but it seems like no one builds like that anymore and given how certain cities have become too successful I would have hoped that it would spill out and regenerate parts of the US that have been left to rot. You would think with the internet it would have given people more options to live away from LA, Frisco, Chicago and NYC.

'Never too small' is a channel which has content about small apartment conversions/re-use

In Germany an old swimming hall was almost torn down because they couldn't get an investor then an architect bought the property and was apple to restore the old GDR style architecture.

Is there a massive fingerprint mural on the road outside the building? It's seen just after nine minutes.

Clickbait, but i still enjoyed it. Thank you

It’s interesting that you made this video on the heels of the Gallery House video as these are two completely different mindsets. With Gallery House, the homeowners demolished not one, but two houses to build their new monstrosity and a huge side yard no one is ever in. With The Plant, they’ve kept seemingly everything, including their waste today. Adaptive reuse should be the norm, not the exception, but demolition costs are way too cheap and developers and city governments are way too lazy to repair and modernize than to just blow it up and start from scratch.

I was looking at the embedded CO2 in buildings the other day: maybe close to 50% in many commercial buildings. It's quite scary and under-reported. I grew up in a place where a big sector of the economy is in limestone especially for cement (where a lot of this embodied CO2 comes from), and also near a steel centre. I think it's a bit unfair that all the CO2 emitted is accounted to the borough, it's not like it's not like they're doing it for their own sake. But I guess that's a smaller reflection of the bigger issue in embodied energy / CO2 accounting.

A virtual model of a building to be reporpoused would help to go beyond architectural plans and include features present in the building not noticeable in the plans. The model should be created in an automated manner using 3D scanning tools. Using VR to work directly on the virtual building.

I was just wondering if house created by the architect could somehow haunt someone, like when I studied Bauhaus, regardless of the amazing architecture it has, I felt a lot of negative energy coming out of it. So is it possible that architecture can mentally break someone?????

I imagine new buildings will look at air flow a lot more because of the pandemic . That may be something you can see in the architectural history even a century from now. My family had a canvass company in the early 1900’s that had factories in phila. And chicago. At least the one in Philadelphia had all these huge windows to allow air and light in and some of their literature sold it as a plus for lower cost production. That one was knocked down in the 70’s probably because it was hard add climate control to such a building. That said I wonder if those buildings would make a lot more sense today with non mechanized airflow and light.

Unfortunately, the people who get to make decisions (the people with the money) tend not to have the creativity and imagination required to see the potential of adaptive reuse.

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I watch some "Urbex" videos. Apparently, in the past, "reuse" meant adding dropped ceilings, cheap paneling and miles of florescent strip lighting. [ cringe ] Also, seems to me that dead malls (thanks Jeff) could be turned into pretty swell residential apartments with a little creativity.

if it's a pain to get outside, then why not put outdoor facilities on the flat roof?

Do you think that standardizing some interior aspects of buildings could help maximize reusability?

'I AIMED FOR THE PUBLIC'S HEART, AND. . .HIT IT IN THE STOMACH' - Upton Sinclair

Near me is an abandoned Hershey Chocolate factory that was turned into a large legal weed grow operation.

I live in denver and took that title differently than intended. Whole parts of town smell like weed now.

I wonder was this video created ij reaponse to the CCCAP competition for adaptive reuse for detroit? Haha

It's such a shame no good new use was found for the iconic Fisher body plant

I was hoping to see a little more of the the drug aspect of the building that the video entitled

Me drawing as-builts:

rooftop meadows for honeybees and grazing animals

Honestly this video is so frustrating because I know in my very small town that most of the down town was bulldozed for parking, and any buildings they actually wanted to keep they made historical museum (but when their is 5 different museums that do pretty much the exact same thing and nobody can even get to them unless the have the money to have a car then it's not a building for the community to adapt with, it's for people from the suburb who don't live in downtown to have some idea of the history of the place, but will only ever tell the history that makes people from the suburbs comfortable so it's a building that has been forced into stagnation and lies to make people feel that they didn't do anything wrong, but It doesn't make sense to give the people who forcefully destroyed the history to be the only ones to experience the history that was preserved even if it's not fully factual) so they could never adapt to our times needs. This isn't something new this is how city's have been evolving for thousands of years, if a building doesn't adapt then they would have to build new specialized buildings every time (like what we do now) but if you make building to change with users then you have a place that never feels stagnant alway evolving into what is best for the whole community, but architects like Le Corbusier who stoped thinking of strong walls to hold up a structure and changed it so that it could hold its self up without walls at all, one style if for everyone the other is for only one, and that's why he did so good because this was during a time that individualism and personal responsibility was seen as the most important thing in life to a lot of people, living in their own single family home on their own lot and that they had to use their own car to get to and from, isolationist and individualism to the extreme so much so that nobody would even think about the well being of their neighbor or community because they don't even know each other but is that suprising when you alone all the time or with those people who have the same opinions as them self never learning something new never adapting always staying stagnant stuck in their time. People/community build/demolish buildings, buildings make/break people/community.

"evolve to adapt"

wasn't The Jungle fiction?

4 companies control 90% of the beef meatpacking now. It's a bigger monopoly now than when the beef trust was broken up. That is why beef consumer prices are high and farmers are going broke.

Why that look like my school... wait a minute!

I know the building quite well, having hung out there in the early days of its conversion. (Hi, John!) It's a building with a few eccentricities, having been built in at least three phases. It has one purely aesthetic detail -- the pediment over the front door. I suspect that A. Epstein & Sons was involved in its design, because Epstein did industrial planning as well as architecture, and they were pretty much the "house" architects for the stockyards.

Americans talking about "old" buildings ^^ Still great vid 👍

You cut the ends off and moved them all around on the floors. There

The thing the pig silhouettes are hanging from are orientated the wrong way

1:09 “humane slaughterhouse” is an oxymoron.

Adaptive reuse is far more common in Europe. If American architects come to Europe, they'll have plenty to see.

It should be illegal to tear down perfectly good buildings while we have homeless people everywhere.

It always drives me insane when the only thing that people take from The Jungle is that meat factories are gross, rather than the lives of immigrants, them trying to fit in, the ways they are taken advantage of, and other hardships lol

It's so ugly tho it could really use a touch-up

Adaptive reuse as part of a green agenda cuts both ways. Many of these buildings will have appalling energy efficiency and in the long term it may be better to build something new than retain it.

I could take Stewart more seriously if he wasn't wearing one of those fake nose, mustache and glasses get ups

Good to show that reuse of buildings is visually and environmentally a vise idea