The concept of adaptive reuse is what initially drew me to pursue my Masters in Urban Planning. While one aspect of it may draw people to the architectural field, I am more interested in the concept of using adaptive reuse methods as a tool for community and economic development and sustainability. For my first semester in my Masters program, I had to do a focus study on an aspect of urban planning that interested me. This study would need to include articles, advocacy, policies, and journal articles regarding the topic. Each student then needed to put together an entire portfolio of all of these readings, present a synopsis poster on the topic, and write a reflection/literary review paper. Instead of doing a portfolio, I requested the ability to put together a website. For me a website made more sense as it would easier to search and find as well as offer more flexibility for organization than a binder.

After the course was complete, I decided that I had a lot of material that lent itself to a more complete, open website. So I developed AdaptiveReuse.info. The site focuses on case studies of successful adaptive reuse projects. It also is a portal to news, advocacy, policies, and criticisms/issues regarding the field. I’ve also put together a “book club” of literary on the topic.

The site uses WordPress for content management and is adapted from the Full Screen design template by Graph Paper Press.


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