And the construction schedule was only 12 weeks.
If you repurposed just 10% of the abandoned mall space in the nation in this manner, it would provide housing for 700,000 people – and that’s the number of people nationwide who are homeless.
intercst
I’ve worked with a very small number of clients looking to repurpose office buildings into residential properties. The problem usually isn’t the space, it’s the plumbing.
The groups in the video are taking very large spaces, and putting in comparatively small numbers of residents. The absolute numbers are big, because even though malls are commercial spaces, when you have several hundred thousand square feet of space you do have a sizable plumbing stack. But it’s not enough to handle converting all that space to residential.
It’s a creative way to reuse some of the space as a temporary solution, but it’s got its limits.
Mall stores do not typically have their own bathrooms, and certainly not tubs or showers. Even the department stores have a few centralized bathrooms, so it’s not an easy conversion.
For trying this for “upward” from homeless, it’s also worth noting that mall stores do not typically have windows to the outside, so the only sunlight comes from above the courtyard, interior. Maybe that’s OK for some, but most people like to have a window to look out from.
Lots of parking, I will say that.
Uhh… Yes! Temporary is good.
Here in Texas we use porta potties where needed. I’ve seen porta potties in “long term” locations.
At some outdoor events, I’ve seen “potty trailers”. Kinda “modular”… Add more trailers, spread around the event to meet the needs.
These are always at “upscale, lux” type places.
With plastic hand washing stations.
The local churches provide “shower trailers” for the homeless (I donate to this “service”).
WTAWTAW.
ralph
Here’s a “women owned business” -
Shower trailers.
Not only can WTAWTAW provide a solution, WTAWTAW is also used to block solutions/ progress.
Yes, though that actually makes it a little easier for a conversion. The department stores are often two stories (sometimes three), so you’ll have a pretty sizable plumbing utility core coming into that one spot. That gives you enough volume to replumb the bathrooms to put in showers and put more toilets/sinks where the people are and assemble a serviceable community bathroom that can support the ~100 or so folks that are doing communal living like a homeless shelter. If there’s a food court or move, there’s probably a big enough plumbing core there, too.
The rest of the mall probably doesn’t have enough plumbing capacity running to a single place to make that feasible. There will likely be smaller bathroom locations, spread throughout the rest of the center, but they won’t have enough capacity to handle showers for larger numbers of people.
It’s not just a window for light, but for an emergency fire escape. It is probably against code to not have a window where someone sleeps. It wouldn’t be unheard of for some to accidentally start a fire while cooking in the mall bedroom. They would need to provide more smoke alarms, and fire exit lighting
Mike