The adaptive reuse of old structures is part of the history of any town that still has intact historic neighborhoods. Even when the original purpose of a building is long gone, a well-designed structure in a desirable location can be put to new uses completely
unanticipated by the builder.

Gas stations were once ubiquitous in downtown Ann Arbor, and they have been reused in more ways than I can keep track of. Since they often occupied spots with a lot of traffic, it's common to see them reused as restaurants.

At Hill and Packard, three of the four corners are former gas stations that are now restaurants; at Washtenaw and Stadium, the historic Tuomy Hills station vends high-octane coffee. The art studio at Huron and Fourth Avenue was once a Gulf station, and a hair salon takes the place of a station on Miller.

Former schools often live new lives that incorporate some kind of new educational mission. The playground of the old Bader Elementary in Ann Arbor Hills is now Bader Park, and the school itself houses the Ann Arbor Hills Child Development Center. The former Clinton Elementary School is now the home of the Jewish Community Center
and the Hebrew Day School, and Newport School became the Rudolph Steiner School. The elementary school architecture of the 1950s does not inspire lofty thoughts, but the low-slung buildings are readily adaptable from public school to private school use.

Dry cleaners pose a challenge to building reuse, since they often contaminate the site enough that it qualifies for brownfield treatment. A former dry cleaners at the Georgetown Mall contributes to the complications of reworking that site. A former dry cleaners at the foot of the Broadway hill on the Broadway Village site added to the effort and expense and planning for that location, which is still in development limbo.

Unlike
gas stations, for which the process of decontaminating a site with a leaky tank seems almost routine, the site remediation for former dry cleaning locations is complicated and expensive.

Car dealerships in the area have seen some of the most creative reuse. The Hua Xing Asia Market in Ypsilanti Township is on the site of a former Toyota dealership, and the wide bays and solid floors of the building give the location a solid foundation.

Dealerships in less densely populated parts of town have seen wholesale site clearing as the best strategy, as in the development at Washtenaw and Huron Parkway that currently houses a Whole Foods and a Barnes and Noble on the spot formerly occupied by a Buick dealership. The dealership across the street on Washtenaw is now a large empty patch of asphalt, awaiting a rebound in the real estate market to have the ambitious plans for development on that site to get funding.

Reuse of buildings in historic districts is harder, since the option to plow everything down and start over from scratch is rarely an easy option. When those historic areas were first built, there was a lot more freedom to adapt to the changing needs of the community.

Grocer Rocco Disderide moved a house off of a street corner into the
back of his lot on Detroit Street to make room for a brand new brick grocery in 1902. Rocco's decision to keep the house rather than tear it down was pragmatic, since he was living there.

It has, however, complicated the plans of subsequent grocers on that site; this house, now painted orange, is behind Zingerman's Deli. It's been there long enough that even though Rocco didn't think it was practical to use it for a grocery business in 1902, the historic process in 2010 contemplates renovating it for that use now.

Edward Vielmetti writes about neighborhoods for AnnArbor.com.