Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Perkins Eastman Publishes Findings on the Benefits of Converting Commercial Spaces to Educational Environments

  • 05/31/18

New York – Perkins Eastman has recently published a new white paper, “Commercial Conversion: Adaptive Reuse, A Catalyst for Educational Innovation.” The paper’s authors examine the unique opportunities that former commercial, industrial, and even retail properties can offer school districts, education providers, and their communities—as demand for convenient, safe, and healthy environments that also support the latest in educational technology, pedagogy, and achievement standards outpace traditional supply or means in many communities across the country.

The goal of the study was to examine whether the adaptive reuse and conversion of commercial properties for educational use provide a solution that educators need and ignite a broader remedy for the rapid obsolescence and creeping blight of the separated-use commercial landscape.

While adaptive reuse of commercial buildings is far from novel, the strategy is becoming a more established option for educational program space. As the number of underperforming commercial properties increases, so, too, do Americans’ acceptance of differentiated instruction, recognition of the success of unconventional pedagogies, and comfort with educational innovation. As a result, the authors posit, there is greater diversity in the scholastic environment and an expanding realm of possibilities.

Citing shifting community and economic conditions, the authors demonstrate through a series of case studies that adaptive reuse of commercial properties in particular is a viable strategy to achieve state-of-the-art educational facilities that are cost-effective, responsive to changing pedagogies, environmentally responsible, and also reflect shifting lifestyle preferences of young families.

Culled from Perkins Eastman’s recent K-12 portfolio, the case studies represent urban and suburban, high density and low density, and former commercial spaces, including a landmarked warehouse, call centers, corporate headquarters, and floors in an office tower. The projects are located in Dallas, Texas; Fremont, California; McLean, Virginia; New York, New York; and Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Together, the case studies demonstrate the rich possibility embodied within these existing assets and suggest that commercial reuse is not a compromised solution but rather a beneficial, and potentially transformational, development scenario that can positively impact local development. 

“Commercial Conversion: Adaptive Reuse, A Catalyst for Educational Innovation” is available for download at perkinseastman.com/white_papers.

Featured

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • FGCU Breaks Ground on New Health Sciences Building

    Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) has launched construction on a major new academic facility that leaders say will reshape healthcare education in Southwest Florida for decades to come, according to university news.

  • Dallas ISD Voters Approve $6.2B Bond Package

    Dallas ISD voters have approved a record-setting $6.2-billion bond package that district leaders say will modernize aging campuses, eliminate portable classrooms and reshape learning environments across one of the nation’s largest school systems.

  • Deferred Maintenance Issues Growing at Universities, Gordian Reports

    U.S. colleges and universities are falling increasingly behind on facilities maintenance and repair, according to Gordian’s 13th annual State of Facilities in Higher Education report. The deferred capital renewal burden has reached $156 per gross square foot, an 8% increase over the previous year.