And an award-winning one at that:
McALLEN, Tex. — The hulking husk of a vacant Walmart here in the Rio Grande Valley is enjoying an unlikely second act. When the big-box retailer moved to a larger location down the street, the building might have been destined to house yet another large chain or to fall into disrepair. But rather than let it become an eyesore, the city scooped it up and spent $24 million transforming the drab structure into a 123,000-square-foot public library that serves as a vibrant space for residents here.
The library, which the McAllen Public Library system says “may very well be the largest single-floor public library in the nation,” has a modern, cheery feel. Twenty-foot ceilings, combined with new skylights and windows, create a bright, airy interior. Large three-dimensional signs that mark the sections hang from the ceilings, creating cozy nooks below.
The building includes a computer lab, a cafe, meeting rooms with videoconferencing capabilities and a 180-seat auditorium. It is a major upgrade from the city’s old 40,000-square-foot main library, which had cramped shelves and limited seating.
Library administrators here embrace technology and anticipate a time when printed books are no longer the focal point. “Libraries over the past two decades have been changing — the old stereotype was of a hushed, dark building and a librarian with a bun and sweater set hushing everyone,” said Kate P. Horan, the library director. “They have evolved to be more of a community space.”
The makeover impressed judges from the American Library Association and the International Interior Design Association, who named the McAllen library the overall winner of their 2012 Library Interior Design Awards. ...
Big-box stores are being abandoned at a rapid clip, as retailers expand into larger spaces or go out of business. More than 130 former Walmarts are available for sale or lease around the country, and adaptive reuse of such spaces is only going to become more common in coming years, says Julia Christensen, an assistant professor in Oberlin College’s studio art department who has been studying the issue since 2002 and wrote the book “Big Box Reuse.”
