BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

NEW USES FOR EMPTY SCHOOLS
73. In view of new economic and demographic constraints it might be said
that the time of the large purpose-built community/school in the United
States is over. The school building tasks of this decade will be renovation,
re-use and rebuilding of existing schools, additions and a few new
buildings. The differences in the co-ordination of educational and
community facilities in the 60's and the 70's are marked: ,
- the starting point of all purpose-built community/school centers in
the 60's was the lack of educational facilities and other social
services; the starting point for developing community uses in
existing schools today is a surplus of space;
- while there was a strong emphasis on the co-ordinated planning and
programming with agencies, experts, and users for the purpose-built
community/school center, the re-use of existing facilities depends
largely on the organisational ability of the principal, community
co-ordinator, or facility manager to attract new uses.
74. The first approach was characterised by a search for the right combination
of uses beforehand. The second relies on finding new uses afterwards.
In the 60's "comprehensive and long-range plans" dominated in educational
planning. But although it was known for a number of years that enrolments
would decline in the 70 8 s, there was no effective long-range plan to deal
with the problem of empty schools. While there were sizeable grants for
planning in the 60 ! s and millions of dollars for the implementation of
new co-ordinated facilities, economic resources today have decreased to such
an extent that there often is a lack of funding for even the most moderate
structural changes or renovation of existing facilities. The most necessary
first step to achieve co-ordination in the 60's seemed to be the new
integrated facility; today the only necessary expense, in most of the cases
studied, seems to be the salary of one person to co-ordinate volunteer
efforts and new groups using the school.
75. In 1974, Educational Facilities Laboratories (EFL) in New York
published a report called "Fewer Pupils Surplus Space". It consisted of
demographic projections indicating clearly that the time of quantitative
expansion and growth in the field of school building in the United States
was over. It also suggested a few ways in which to handle the problems
of declining school populations and empty schools. Two years later
EFL is preparing to issue a new report called "Fewer Pupils, Surplus
Space, New Uses". It deals with the reactions of the 14 500 school
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