40 Buildings That Got Repurposed For Something Their Architects Probably Didn’t Even Dream Of
It’s not a secret that humans are creative animals. They always find new ways to reuse old stuff, come up with clever solutions to live comfortably in tiny places, or decide to use their unique DIY powers and save the world altogether.
This time we are stepping into the old spaces that look nothing like their previous selves after having had an inventive makeover, from a grocery store which used to be a hockey stadium to a Brooklyn apartment built in an old church. Call it an architectural wonderland because there’s nothing impossible for these incredible minds. We invite all the fellow Pandas to share your ideas for repurposing old spaces in the comments!
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Old Clock Tower Transformed Into A Penthouse
This Former Theatre In Buenos Aires Transformed Into A Bookstore
i would spend hour there, perfect combination of books and architecture
Hotel I Stayed At Was Formerly A Train Station And Had An Actual Train Inside It, With Rooms Inside Each Car
My Friend’s Living Room In Brooklyn, NY. The Apartment Is Built Inside An Old Church
The Building Used For The Swimming Events At The 2008 Summer Olympics In Beijing Was Transformed Into This Dope-Looking Waterpark
Architect Turns Old WWII Era Cement Factory Into His Home
The outside give it more of a castle feel than a factory, looks very open inside. I really like an open floor plan and natural lighting.
Church Repurposed Into Dominicanen Bookstore In Maastricht, Netherlands Is Now In The Top 10 Most Beautiful Bookstores Worldwide
The Liberty Hotel In Boston Which Was Formerly The Charles St Jail
I would book a night there just to experience how it looks and feels.
A 100-Year-Old Church In Spain Converted Into A Skatepark
Waterpark "Tropical Islands" In A Former Airship Hangar In Krausnick, Germany
Old Rusty Ship Turned Into Stunning Building With Trees And Plants
The Walgreens In My Neighborhood Used To Be A Bank And They Used Its Vault As Their Vitamin Section
Some Lucky Bastard Gets To Live In This Church
The Tallest Indoor Climbing Wall Is Inside Of A Repurposed Grain Silo
My College Used To Be A Shopping Mall
My Apartment Building Used To Be A School
Revitalized One Of The Last Remaining Art Nouveau Brewhouses As A Bar, In The Middle Of Fürth Südstadt
It's located in southern Germany. It has a very unique ambiance and it's not only a bar but a first class restaurant.
What Used To Be An Abandoned Church Is Now One Of The Most Powerful Supercomputing Centers In The World
My House Used To Be A Police Station And My Bathroom Is An Old Jail Cell, The Original Window Is Still In Place
Former Power Station Converted Into An Industrial Cafe And Restaurant With Exposed Brickwork And Abundant Planting In Melbourne, Australia
Swimming Pool In Old Church: Netherne, Surrey
Perfect for mass christenings...if the church wants his building back :-)
This Hotel Used To Be A Brewery
My Hotel In Oxford, England Is A Former Prison
Jail Turned Into Events Space In Melbourne, Australia
Court Room That’s Now A Cafe. Cells Are The Toilets. St. Albans, England
FBI Former NYC Headquarters Is Now A Target But They Kept This Safe
This Starbucks Drive-Thru In An Old Car Wash
My House Is A 20,000 Sq Ft 1926 Former Freemason Temple That We Have Been Renovating By Ourselves While Living Inside For The Past 2.5 Years
Church Turned Into A Trampoline Park. The Hague, Netherlands
Much better use than a church lol. Never too old to trampoline.
Ottawa's Jail Hostel, Each Cell Converted To A Two-Person Hostel Room
There was one in Switzerland but seems to be closed now. Pity I think it's an interesting idea
You can come to Stockholm Sweden and stay at Långholmen Hostel that used to be a prison on a little island close to the south part of Stockholm city. The prison was built around 1840 and closed 1975 as a prison!
There are single rooms and dorm style rooms too I live in Ottawa and have toured it, the back entrance is right under the old gallows (which are still there, unused obv). It is reportedly very haunted. It's a very cool place!
Came here with my school! Went on the ghost tours and everything! We got to walk through the holding cells, the death row, the gallows area, etc, and we got to stand underneath the gallows where the blood would drip down and all which is crazy. During the tour our guide said one person always gets a nose bleed while walking over the gallows stone, and sure enough the kid behind me got one lmao
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could commit yourself, to a life imprisonment!!
I've stayed here before. It's supposedly haunted and my friends and I barely slept because of it!
From a life-safety standpoint, these old jails are deathtraps. Egress in case of an emergency is very difficult. They're almost impossible to install fire sprinklers in and emergency services would have huge problems accessing any of the rooms. This level is likely accessed by a metal spiral staircase. Could you imagine reaching someone with a gurney or medical equipment? And that's before you factor in the 20 inch wide doorway.
Make do and mend......Send all the little kids from school and let them try out being in Jail
My School’s Library Used To Be A Bank
My Hotel Room Used To Be A Chapel
My Apartment Is An Old Police Station And Still Has The Original But Painted Cell Doors
Former Chruch, Now Home To The Dutch Brewer, Jopen
This Old Pool Converted Into Apartments
If they had some way to leave the pool still usable it might have been even cooler 😎
This Thrift Store Used To Be A Bowling Alley
A friend of mine used our bowling alleys floors when the bowling alley remodeled. His hallway is a bowling lane. I think he bought them.
My Apartment Used To Be A YMCA
This Satellite Lab Used To Be A McDonald's
My House Used To Be A Bank, So We Use The Old Safe/Vault As A Basement
This Grocery Store Used To Be A Hockey Stadium
Sorry for being morbid, but I really hope the grocery store keeps tabs on the stability of that sign thingy...it would be horrible if it fell
Note: this post originally had 48 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
We've had a former church turned into a Brewery and Restaurant. And a bank nearby us has been converted into an Island's Taco Bar.
There's an old stone church near me that was converted to a club for 10-20 years but recently was converted back to a church.
There were so many churches changed into something else. Well, my daughter's church used to be a legion hall, then a strip club. When they bought it for a church, the poles for pole dancing were still in the building. Now it's a open-style church, with a full kitchen in the basement, dining rooms, and side rooms that are used for college students to study, relax and have bible classes. Wish I had the photos, as they are quite interesting.
It's shocking about the number of "used to be churches, Temple or chapels"! Where do people go for church nowadays?
Around the world churches are closing for want of members. As a society we are getting less religious - but not less charitable, fortunately.
Load More Replies...Growing up we had a church move into a department store in our mall. The youth loved the still-operational movie theater And my current town has an Ace Hardware in the old skating rink--I like how they kept the original wooden skate floor.
These are incredible, however I would be nervous sitting at the table (with the humongous, heavy "spout" over it) in the converted cement factory.
I like how many jails and prisons have been repurposed. That means there aren't enough criminals to fill them.
Actually most were re-purposed because the old buildings could not be modified for modern security systems and other upgrades it is usually cheaper to build a new prison than spend the extra money retrofitting and partially gutting the old ones.
Load More Replies...It's really cool to see old buildings re-purposed instead of being torn down.
Here in Cape Town South Africa we have the Zeitz Mocca Art Museum which was re-purposed from grain silos. https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2017-09-15-in-pictures-inside-zeitz-mocaa-the-museum-everyones-talking-about/
Old Town Alexandria’s torpedo factory is an art league with studios and shops for artists.
I co-own an old church that we’ve turned in to a Circus School space.
The original post had 48 pic's.. Why not just show all 48 pics instead of 40? I understand taking a post with 100 pics down to top 50 but 48 to 40. Seems odd.
I have always loved the idea of repurposing old buildings. A lot of older architecture is beautiful, and it’s a shame to see it torn down (prime example is Trump tearing down the beautiful Bonwit Teller department store to build his tacky-a*s Trump Tower—-if he wasn’t so bourgeois, he might’ve instead seen value in converting the original building into really unique apartments). Done right, and with respect for the original, conversions can make the new business or living space inside incredibly unique and memorable—-and a vast improvement over the same old same old.
We've had a former church turned into a Brewery and Restaurant. And a bank nearby us has been converted into an Island's Taco Bar.
There's an old stone church near me that was converted to a club for 10-20 years but recently was converted back to a church.
There were so many churches changed into something else. Well, my daughter's church used to be a legion hall, then a strip club. When they bought it for a church, the poles for pole dancing were still in the building. Now it's a open-style church, with a full kitchen in the basement, dining rooms, and side rooms that are used for college students to study, relax and have bible classes. Wish I had the photos, as they are quite interesting.
It's shocking about the number of "used to be churches, Temple or chapels"! Where do people go for church nowadays?
Around the world churches are closing for want of members. As a society we are getting less religious - but not less charitable, fortunately.
Load More Replies...Growing up we had a church move into a department store in our mall. The youth loved the still-operational movie theater And my current town has an Ace Hardware in the old skating rink--I like how they kept the original wooden skate floor.
These are incredible, however I would be nervous sitting at the table (with the humongous, heavy "spout" over it) in the converted cement factory.
I like how many jails and prisons have been repurposed. That means there aren't enough criminals to fill them.
Actually most were re-purposed because the old buildings could not be modified for modern security systems and other upgrades it is usually cheaper to build a new prison than spend the extra money retrofitting and partially gutting the old ones.
Load More Replies...It's really cool to see old buildings re-purposed instead of being torn down.
Here in Cape Town South Africa we have the Zeitz Mocca Art Museum which was re-purposed from grain silos. https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2017-09-15-in-pictures-inside-zeitz-mocaa-the-museum-everyones-talking-about/
Old Town Alexandria’s torpedo factory is an art league with studios and shops for artists.
I co-own an old church that we’ve turned in to a Circus School space.
The original post had 48 pic's.. Why not just show all 48 pics instead of 40? I understand taking a post with 100 pics down to top 50 but 48 to 40. Seems odd.
I have always loved the idea of repurposing old buildings. A lot of older architecture is beautiful, and it’s a shame to see it torn down (prime example is Trump tearing down the beautiful Bonwit Teller department store to build his tacky-a*s Trump Tower—-if he wasn’t so bourgeois, he might’ve instead seen value in converting the original building into really unique apartments). Done right, and with respect for the original, conversions can make the new business or living space inside incredibly unique and memorable—-and a vast improvement over the same old same old.