Car showrooms get a new lease of life
Source: Agencies |
December 29, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WITH hard times in the auto industry and car dealerships closing around the United States, the gleaming showrooms that once featured next year's models are becoming this year's store, restaurant, school or yoga studio.
In Lane County, Oregon, Joe Softich from Catholic Community Services helps erect shelves and unload boxes for a new food bank warehouse inside a former auto showroom. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, teenagers at Northside Christian Church skateboard in what was once a showroom's auto service center.
Students on the campus of the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio can learn in a space where evidence of the auto industry's proud past is still visible in the exposed concrete pillars, sturdy tile floors and ascending spiral vehicle ramp.
Architects and historians say the shock that auto makers could go bankrupt has combined with depressed real estate values and enthusiasm for green energy to bring a unique level of interest to reusing showrooms.
People are reducing their reliance on cars to save money on gas and shrink their carbon footprint; they are renovating showrooms because relying on recycled water or solar energy makes it cheaper to renovate than to build.
The number of franchised new car dealerships in the US was already slipping before the auto company bankruptcies, but 1,900 dealerships have closed since January 2008. US auto sales fell to a 26-year low of about 10 million this year, compared with 17 million over most of the previous decade.
As part of its deep restructuring, General Motors has said it will cut 2,400 dealers from its 6,000-dealer network by next fall. Chrysler slashed 789 dealers in June. Responding to a backlash from dealership owners, Congress passed a bill this month to give dealers a stronger arbitration process to challenge the auto makers' decisions.
The transformation of the boxy, windowed space at Golden Bridge Yoga Studio in Los Angeles has been achieved with the smell of wafting incense, prayer flags draped from the walls and percussive Eastern rhythms. At NEO on Locust in St Louis, long white tablecloths, stylish backlighting and tinkling champagne glasses turn a similar square space into a classy wedding venue.
Steve Xiao, manager of the Hua Xing Asia Market in Ypsilanti, Michigan, said the former showroom that is now his grocery store had something else going for it: The price was right.
"The first year, the price was too high. When we finally bought it, it had been on the market almost two years."
In Lane County, Oregon, Joe Softich from Catholic Community Services helps erect shelves and unload boxes for a new food bank warehouse inside a former auto showroom. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, teenagers at Northside Christian Church skateboard in what was once a showroom's auto service center.
Students on the campus of the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio can learn in a space where evidence of the auto industry's proud past is still visible in the exposed concrete pillars, sturdy tile floors and ascending spiral vehicle ramp.
Architects and historians say the shock that auto makers could go bankrupt has combined with depressed real estate values and enthusiasm for green energy to bring a unique level of interest to reusing showrooms.
People are reducing their reliance on cars to save money on gas and shrink their carbon footprint; they are renovating showrooms because relying on recycled water or solar energy makes it cheaper to renovate than to build.
The number of franchised new car dealerships in the US was already slipping before the auto company bankruptcies, but 1,900 dealerships have closed since January 2008. US auto sales fell to a 26-year low of about 10 million this year, compared with 17 million over most of the previous decade.
As part of its deep restructuring, General Motors has said it will cut 2,400 dealers from its 6,000-dealer network by next fall. Chrysler slashed 789 dealers in June. Responding to a backlash from dealership owners, Congress passed a bill this month to give dealers a stronger arbitration process to challenge the auto makers' decisions.
The transformation of the boxy, windowed space at Golden Bridge Yoga Studio in Los Angeles has been achieved with the smell of wafting incense, prayer flags draped from the walls and percussive Eastern rhythms. At NEO on Locust in St Louis, long white tablecloths, stylish backlighting and tinkling champagne glasses turn a similar square space into a classy wedding venue.
Steve Xiao, manager of the Hua Xing Asia Market in Ypsilanti, Michigan, said the former showroom that is now his grocery store had something else going for it: The price was right.
"The first year, the price was too high. When we finally bought it, it had been on the market almost two years."
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