Lucas Lindsey

Development Manager

Venue Projects

@urbnist | urbnist.com

Roadmap

1. Two Beliefs
2. Circle Ks as Case Study
3. Some Discussion

Q: What is adaptive reuse?

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A: The ongoing change of style, culture, and economics as expressed in buildings.

When structure outlives function, when markets shift values, when the roof leaks--these forces of man and nature threaten buildings.

Adaptive reuse is one answer to extending their lifespan. 

Two Beliefs

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A building is never finished.

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"The word building contains the double reality."

- Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn

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The Shearing Layers of Change

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"Commercial buildings have to adapt quickly, often radically, because of intense competitive pressure to perform... they are forever metamorphic."

-Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn

Rise Uptown Hotel

400 W. Camelback Rd. Phx, AZ - Uptown Phoenix & Medlock Place

Completed Fall 2020 | Co-Developer & Co-Owner | 79 Key Boutique Hotel with Don Woods, Lylo, Pop Stand, Cartel Coffee, Shaded Pool, and Event Lawn

Rise Uptown Hotel

400 W. Camelback Rd. Phx, AZ - Uptown Phoenix & Medlock Place

Completed Fall 2020 | Co-Developer & Co-Owner | 79 Key Boutique Hotel with Don Woods, Lylo, Pop Stand, Cartel Coffee, Shaded Pool, and Event Lawn

Rise Uptown Hotel

400 W. Camelback Rd. Phx, AZ - Uptown Phoenix & Medlock Place

Completed Fall 2020 | Co-Developer & Co-Owner | 79 Key Boutique Hotel with Don Woods, Lylo, Pop Stand, Cartel Coffee, Shaded Pool, and Event Lawn

A building is a business model.

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Vernaculars of Capital

"Current American architecture is not a matter of art, but of business... This is at once the curse and the glory of American architecture."

-Barr Ferrce, in 1893

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Vernaculars of Capital

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Vernaculars of Capital

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"The insistence on the linkage between profit and program is fundamental to commercial architecture, where... economic considerations govern design decisions."

-Carol Willis, 1995

Circle K: The Especially Adaptable Time Traveler

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Image Source: History Adventuring

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20th Ave & Bell: Expanding Ahead of Growth

Shown in 1969

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20th Ave & Bell: Growth Catching Up

Shown later in 1986

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1001 N. 16th St: Where It All Began

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1001 N. 16th St. in 1976

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1001 N. 16th St. Ten Years Later: A Changed Site (and Biz Model)

Bankruptcy by 1990 = 1,500 Stores Closed

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Mapping the "Invasion:" Paho Mann's Late 2000s Work

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Carrying the research torch forward

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Same buildings, (some) new businesses

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Circle Ks Today: By the Numbers

• 174 early-era Circle Ks cataloged

• 126 remain, 11 fewer than when Paho Mann did his research in the mid to late 2000s.

• Of the 126 survivors, 7 are vacant, 22 are still Circle Ks, and 97 have been adapted.

• Median age is 51, with some approaching 60 and nearly double that of a typical commercial building in the American SW

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Takeaways for Consideration

1. Preservation scales through adaptive reuse--Increase luck surface area and ask the right questions

2. Entrepreneurs are a natural ally to the preservation movement because business models sustain buildings

3. If we reduce the cost, time, and friction of reuse, we will see more buildings reused--the market consumes buildings, but it can be leveraged to save them, too

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Some Discussion