Comments

@ Patricia:

We're working on this and allready have quite some plans. I live between Bamberg and Schweinfurt (closer to Schweinfurt) in Bavaria, Germany, and both cities have US Army bases which are about to be closed this summer.

The Schweinfurt base will surely became a new campus for our college (well... actually it's a Fachhochschule^^) and the Bamberg base will be turned into a new quarter of the city - Bamberg is a city that struggles with too few housing and skyrocketing housing costs, so I hope the new use of the army base will solve this problem.

Another thing that is currently happening in Bamberg is the reuse of the Schaeffler factory, located pretty much in downtown Bamberg. It used to be a huge factory area, built between 1890 and 1970 - at least I assume this, considering the different architectural styles. Instead of being torn down completely, they opened up the facade of the big 1960s-70s building for balconies, renovated also the older parts and turned it into a sub-borough of Bamberg consisting of loft appartments. (You can see it at www.schaeffler2-0.de)

Similar thing with the Ziegelbau (Brickstone Building), a huge 19th century tube factory that was turned into a hotel, event- and business-center (where I had my graduation ball). The interior is a mixture of 19th century industrial style and ultra-modern sleek design, very stylish.

Or nearby, in Zeil am Main, where the Erbelle Spinning Mill, which was built between 1890 and 1960, was turned into a shopping mall. No need to tear down the industrial structures for a shopping mall - just conversion.

There are several more examples for the conversion of unneeded historic factories in my town that have been converted into housing or commercial structures.