Creative Reuse

Just saw in the Sunday paper a great article about the creative reuse of space for housing. We all are a lttle crazzy now and then but most of us never seriously considered voluntarily moving into an "insane asylum"....until now. Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts is currently being turned into condominiums. The old State Hospital will join Dammasch State Hospital in Wilsonville, Oregon and one in Traverse City Michigan as condominiums geared to living units that provide short commutes, parking and charm. Another development has been built at the former New York City Lunatic Asylum on Manhattan's Roosevelt Island.
As developers become more concious and land becomes more scarce, they begin to do what they should have been doing all along....converting existing structures to a different use. Schools, old mills and wharehouses are finally being used for offices and housing rather than destroyed to put up a completely new structure. I recently saw a listing for a commercial building now used as a local health club that began it's life as a school. Buildings have a much longer useful life than anything else we use on a daily basis. We are well served to learn to use them better for longer.