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Empty auto showrooms find new life in US
In Lane County, Oregon, Joe Softich from Catholic Community Services helps erect shelves and unload boxes for a new food bank warehouse inside a former auto showroom.
In Lane County, Oregon, Joe Softich from Catholic Community Services helps erect shelves and unload boxes for a new food bank warehouse inside a former auto showroom.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, teenagers skateboard in what was once a showroom's auto service centre.
With hard times in the auto industry and car dealerships closing around the country, the gleaming showrooms that once featured next year's models are becoming this year's store, restaurant, school, day-care centre or yoga studio.
Architects and historians say the shock that American automakers could go bankrupt has combined with depressed real estate values and enthusiasm for green energy to bring a unique level of interest to reusing showrooms.
"If you look historically at the times when we've had these big shifts in (building) use, they've coincided with societal shifts," said Erin Rae Hoffer, an architect.
Many showrooms are still being torn down, but developers are not so quick to bulldoze the finer buildings before exploring other uses.
Built to sustain tonnes of moving weight, the showrooms are especially sturdy, naturally lit and often ideally located in high-traffic areas.
"There's more likelihood that they're going to be kept now than there was 10 or 15 years ago," said Andrew Wolfram, an architect.
Len Love, who owned a small, independent auto dealership, was staring down desolation. As he watched the steady decline of car sales at Love's Auto, he had a build-it-and-they-will-come moment.
"I was sitting in the office every day and literally no money was coming in the door. Nothing. Not a dime," he said. "That day I was standing in the showroom and said, ‘Well, it feels like a nice little bar in here’.”
Love rented a catering unit, taught himself to cook and started the Artifacts restaurant. The dimes are rolling in now.
