Nelson Elementary: Multi-Family Residence Adaptive Reuse
Have you ever looked at a building and thought, “Wow, that’s cool! But it could use a little love.”?
At Cornerstone, our architects are constantly envisioning the potential that underutilized buildings could have. We love the sustainability of reusing existing buildings by giving them a new purpose in which communities can be strengthened. For example, Nelson Elementary School in Muskegon, Michigan in is one of those. It closed earlier this year and Cornerstone has studied its possible reuse by adapting it to area needs.
The original building was constructed in 1929 and has beautiful detail on all sides. The addition was built in 1957 and is very different from the original building but beautiful in its own simple and sleek qualities.
We have examined plans for bringing this building back to life in the form of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments along with a new addition of three-bedroom townhomes. This could become a new home to many of the community’s families. Check out the renderings to visualize how great this space could be as a residential building!
The existing photos are taken directly from Google Earth. The renderings were created by our team using SketchUp.
Also, for your viewing entertainment, check out an animation fly-through of how the site could be utilized with a little love and attention.
