Adaptive Reuse

Does the appropriateness of a building for a contemplated use reside solely in its volume, area, and systems adequacy? Or does that thinking negate nearly every aspect of culture and placemaking? Should we instead consider the best features of an exiting building, and how we can accentuate those features in an adaptive reuse of the space? Ben de Rubertis, principal at Flad Architects, offers a different way to think about adaptive reuse.

Sutter Health will establish a 12-acre medical campus in Emeryville as part of a $1 billion investment to enhance the delivery of integrated care throughout the East Bay region. The 1.3 million-sf project includes the adaptive reuse of BioMed Realty’s Emery Yards development to create a 530,000-sf outpatient complex spanning two existing structures.

Denison University broke ground in February of 2025 on the Center for Data Reasoning & Visualization in Granville, Ohio. Designed by The Collaborative, the $35 million project will rejuvenate the 21,250-sf Doane Hall and create a 17,700-sf addition. This dynamic new home for the departments of computer science and data analytics will position Denison to be the first liberal arts college with a state-of-the-art campus hub devoted to integrating data across the curriculum. 

Northeastern University is constructing a permanent campus for the Roux Institute in Portland, Maine. Designed by CambridgeSeven, the $500 million project will feature the 245,000-sf Alfond Center, a vibrant hub for learning, research, and collaboration. The six-story facility will accommodate programs in artificial intelligence, computer and data sciences, digital engineering, life sciences, and medicine.

Imperial College London is planning to construct the pioneering Fleming Centre to accelerate groundbreaking research into antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Envisioned as a global beacon for healthcare change, the highly flexible building will bring leading investigators, clinicians, and behavioral experts together with pharmaceutical partners and domestic and international policymakers.

HITT Contracting broke ground in January of 2025 on the company's new headquarters in Falls Church, Va. Designed by Gensler, the 270,000-sf facility is envisioned as a nationally recognized innovation hub for the advancement of building practices that will shape the future of the industry. The project involves the transformation of an existing office structure, previously a satellite campus operated by Virginia Tech, into a collaborative educational center for the built environment.

Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed), home to North America’s largest baboon population dedicated to research, has opened a new primate research facility focused on animal welfare, human safety, and operational efficiency as guiding principles. The new Animal Care Complex (ACC) includes three modular breeding and holding facilities, each with a capacity of up to 300 animals of multiple species. The spacious facility has five indoor rooms which range from 400 to 800 sf, and outdoor yards as big as 5,500 sf. 

A campus-wide classroom study—conducted in response to a projected enrollment increase, shifts in funding criteria, and a huge backlog of deferred maintenance—is providing planners at the University of North Carolina Charlotte with powerful new perspectives to support novel teaching and learning paradigms. A dynamic, updatable planning tool created from the study data incorporates dashboards that streamline scenario planning, empowering the university to allocate funding more precisely to meet projected facility needs and achieve current and future educational goals.

Mount Sinai Health System opened the $100 million Hamilton and Amabel James Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Health in November of 2024 in New York. Designed by HOK, the project involved the transformation of a former nursing residence into a 65,000-sf research hub for computational discovery. The 12-story structure will initially house approximately 40 principal investigators, alongside 250 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, computer scientists, and staff.

Construction began in November of 2024 on the Atlantic Science Enterprise Centre (ASEC) in Moncton, New Brunswick. Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects in association with EXP, the adaptive reuse project will transform the existing Gulf Fisheries Centre into a four-story complex equipped with leading-edge laboratories and technologies.

The Kraft Group is planning to construct a stadium in the greater Boston area for the New England Revolution, a professional Major League Soccer club. Located in Everett, the project will transform a 43-acre brownfield site with a shuttered power plant into a vibrant destination for Revs fans and the entire community. The iconic structure will feature a cantilevered roof that overhangs the pedestrian streetscape, complemented by a four-acre public park with a waterfront promenade.

The University of Rochester Medical Center has repurposed a suburban retail center as the Saunders Orthopaedics & Physical Performance Center in Henrietta, New York. Designed by Perkins&Will and SLAM, the adaptive reuse project transformed the Marketplace Mall into a 372,400-sf healthcare destination. The renovation of 227,000 sf of existing space involved significant upgrades to building systems, minimizing vibration impacts to diagnostic imaging equipment and robotic-assisted surgical procedures.

How do you know if an existing building has what it takes to house a new specialty laboratory? The planning effort has to go beyond the typical process for a conventional lab renovation of defining program needs and investigating existing conditions. It must instead drill down into the unique aspects of the specialized environment, including illuminating the key attributes of the already-occupied and operational facility. 

A $139 million project to expand the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (UVA) will provide cutting-edge business education well into the future by offering students the best technological resources, on-site and remote learning environments, and a variety of spaces to collaborate and socialize. The construction of a new 80,000-sf structure and renovation of a historic building, both slated for completion in March 2025, will grow McIntire beyond the 156,000 sf of space it has called home since 2008. The hub of buildings addresses a space deficit and creates a growing commerce complex, providing a link between the university, its students, and nearby business districts.

The General Services Administration (GSA) completed construction on Building 53 at the Denver Federal Center in September of 2024. Designed by Gensler, the complex project involved the transformation of almost 200,000 sf in a 1940s-era structure into a modern and collaborative office environment. The sustainable facility collocates five federal agencies: