I came across a very interesting article on adaptive reuse of industrial sites in our clippings service at work: a description of the revitalization of the old mill town of North Adams, Mass. as a modern arts center.

There is much food for thought here, including some good ideas about the importance of surveying regional assets and markets in coming up with an adaptive reuse concept; the importance of having an incremaent rather than a "big-bang" plan; and the wisdom of starting with local fundraising as a means of leveraging public investment later on, instead of starting with large dollops of public money and then being left high and dry.

http://www.ctnow.com/entertainment/stag ... ep14.story

The Art of Renewal-Hartford Courant
eledbetter@rypn.org

Just back from the ARM convention in St. Louis. (Thanks Molly and every one else at MOT for hosting ARM!)

Union Station is by far the largest scale adaptive reuse of former railroad infrastructure I've seen. Are there other RR related reuse projects in the country that approach the scale of St. Louis Union Station?

n2xjk@yahoo.com

Are there other RR
> related reuse projects in the country that
> approach the scale of St. Louis Union
> Station?

Indianapolis Union also included a headhouse and entire trainshed, though not quite as big; it failed and is now mostly shuttered, except for the hotel part.

Cincinnati Union is now a multi-museum science complex. Kansas City Union is a museum complex.

None of these are quite as big as St. Louis but they are in the same ballpark.


eledbetter@rypn.org

The convention center in Philly is using the headhouse and the old Reading Railroad train shed. Can't compare that to St. Louis Untion station as I've never been to it.

> Just back from the ARM convention in St.
> Louis. (Thanks Molly and every one else at
> MOT for hosting ARM!)

> Union Station is by far the largest scale
> adaptive reuse of former railroad
> infrastructure I've seen. Are there other RR
> related reuse projects in the country that
> approach the scale of St. Louis Union
> Station?


acp19809@yahoo.com

Are there other RR
> related reuse projects in the country that
> approach the scale of St. Louis Union
> Station?

Yes. The Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and Resort Complex occupies the former Southern Terminal Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee. That complex utilizes the head house, baggage/express building, platforms for commercial and hotel operations. The terminal tower is used as office space at the rear of the property. One track is used for the trolley ride, but is also connected to the Norfolk Southern Railway and occasionally utilized for special train movements by NS or the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's passenger operations. The redevelopment of Southern Terminal Station was carried out in 1973, making the Chattanooga Choo Choo one of the first large stations in the U.S. to be redeveloped. It is also the only large railroad station to hold an architectual world record, its design incorporating the largest dome of its type in the world in the former waiting room.

Other large stations that have been redeveloped include Nashville Union Station (redeveloped as a hotel in the early 1980s) and Cincinnati Union Terminal.

awalker2002@comcast.net