2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow cool is this? Abandoned Walmart Transformed into Public Library
The city of McAllen, Texas, has taken upcycling to a new level. When Walmart closed in their town, leaving a 124,500 sq. foot space abandoned, they made a visionary leap. Rather than find another big box retailer, they decided to turn the space into a public libary.
As per Beth Buczynski of Shareable.net, The cavernous space now houses an auditorium, computers lab, classrooms and meeting rooms, and adult and teen reading lounges not to mention hundreds of thousands of books earning it the title of the largest single-story library location in the U.S. The best part of this entire transformation story is that following the re-launch of the library, new user registration increased by 23 percent. That means a lot of people were talking, learning, sharing, and supporting their community instead of simply buying a giant box of laundry soap or cheap patio furniture made in China. And thats what I call upcycling for the win.
?fedaf9
http://www.ourcollectivegood.com/innovation/abandoned-walmart-transformed-into-public-library/
ohgeewhiz
(193 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Very, very nice!
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)FredStembottom
(2,928 posts)Never got to college (for various unfortunate reasons), so have lived my life in libraries. I am never bored. Hoping to retire early and spend even more time. I won't be rich..... But I am never bored!
ghurley
(205 posts)OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)emmadoggy
(2,142 posts)noel711
(2,185 posts)Get rid of all the 'big box' retailers...
use their 'space' for the public good!
Not only libraries, but recreation centers,
Senior Centers, day cares, preschools,
swimming pools, indoor tracks and ice rinks...
This could be the start...
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)I'm going to be sharing more and more types of these community cooperative projects (including official co-ops, member and worker-owned) via both Wishadoo.org, which I intend to be the first official member-owned social network co-op, and Our Collective Good over the next month.
I'm collaborating with the National Cooperative Business Association, via Wishadoo, to help raise the profile of such approaches and educate about the possibilities, as well as to use the tools at Wishadoo to act an incubator for various cooperative ideas.
Personally, I feel co-ops and collaboration, less competition, is the way forward.
BTW, Happy International Day of Cooperatives!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ncba-celebrates-economic-and-social-impact-of-co-ops-with-international-day-of-cooperatives-2012-07-06
ImNotFrench
(4 posts)I live in Texas...this particular Wal-Mart left for a larger facility. In fact, it is one of two Wal-Marts in McAllen. Frankly, I've never been in a Wal-Mart that wasn't packed. Mostly by working class. The OP leaves the impression that this Wal-Mart simply left town because the people rose up...come on now.
https://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&q=McAllen+TX+Walmart&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Walmart&hnear=0x866576324d9637df:0x2f1d39a9b52c0eb8,McAllen,+TX&ei=VE_6T5n8E4fm2AXS8_2_Bg&ved=0CKgBELYD&oi=local_group
ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)I live in Texas as well. Houston area. We've lost a couple of our local Walmarts, thankfully. There are way too many of them, and Target is the draw here. I don't know about McAllen, but Walmart got a bit too big for their britches here, and I'm glad financial difficulties (over the search for "larger facilities" is doing them in. Some here in Spring are so empty they echo.
Looking forward to getting to know you.
stockholmer
(3,751 posts)OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)Would you kindly move to GD?
So sorry.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)But I doubt your post will be locked since it has generated so much interest.
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)Good to know. Will be extra careful from now on.
Thanks, dixiegrrrl
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)a post can be locked, by the host of the group, for being "off topic" meaning it does not meet the "rules ( statement of purpose =SOP)
for the forum or group.
You can find the SOP by clicking on the blue "about this group" tab at right, top of each forum. It will tell you what can be posted.
Usually if a post is locked, you are free to re-post in a more appropriate gorum or group.
Alexander
(15,318 posts)underpants
(182,970 posts)rec'd
CanonRay
(14,125 posts)The palm trees they planted at the entrance will be beautiful. Great genealogy research area.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)Very cool!
Dustlawyer
(10,499 posts)We actually have a lot of Democrats in Texas, it's just we never recovered from the Tom Delay redistricting. The bug man needs to go back to jail!
Raven
(13,906 posts)They walk away and leave it. It is a blight and a magnet for crime. Often they will not do a thing about it and they won't rent to other big box retailers. I wonder if Walmart provided any financial assistance to the town...I wonder if the town was forced to buy the building.
ailsagirl
(22,901 posts)that greedily swallowed smaller businesses en masse. So not all of them are thriving? This former one certainly is! Perhaps it will give other towns with abandoned buildings a new and important function!
A giant recycling project--bravo!!
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Cool building!
I chucked when I saw that the cafe in there is called "The Hungry Scholar".
csziggy
(34,139 posts)And reminds me of how the Leon County Public Library finally got a decent space for their use.
Back when Andrew Carnegie was giving away libraries, the PTB in Leon County, Florida, the home of Tallahassee and the Capitol of Florida, TURNED DOWN a free public library. Their reason - Carnegie's gift required that all citizens had to be allowed access. The 'important' people of Leon County objected to having to share library space with the lower class white and black citizens so they refused the free gift.
Carnegie instead gave a library to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes (now Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University), the all black college in Tallahassee.
At the time Tallahassee had a private subscription library whose members not only had to pay a yearly fee but who had to be 'approved' by a board. There was also the Florida State Library, intended mostly for use by the Legislature but which was open to anyone living in Florida. Florida State College for Women had their library which was open to students and faculty.
Tallahassee and Leon County did not start a public library until the mid-1950s. By the time I moved to Tallahassee and got a job working there as a book shelver, the library was housed in an old Moose Lodge building. The Children's Department where I worked was in the basement. Every time it rained hard, the basement was flooded - sometimes as much as a foot deep in water.
The building was horrible - cut into small spaces and not engineered to hold up the weight of the books. The floors creaked and groaned and I worried about them collapsing. The downtown location was hard for many to reach since parking was nearly impossible. For the mobility limited, the building was completely inaccessible - stairs, many different levels, narrow doors, no elevators.
In the mid-1970s the Leon County Public Library finally moved into a larger location. - the downstairs of a failing shopping mall. I'm not sure what the location had been originally but it was great for the library. Lots of space for books, meeting rooms, displays. TONS of parking, easy access, no structural issues or flooding. The improvements caused the use of the library and support for their funding to explode. By the time their lease had run out, Leon County had funded for the first time the construction of a library building.
Now Leon County Public Library has numerous branches across the county, some in strip mall storefront locations but many in locations built as library buildings. Most of the branch libraries are larger than the original Moose Lodge building I remember as the first Leon County Public Library!
sweetapogee
(1,168 posts)here: http://www.mcallenlibrary.net/about/newmain.aspx
After purchasing this large building the city went to work. The city then closed it's circa 1950 facility.
Beacool
(30,253 posts)Great use of the space.