35 Renovated And Repurposed Buildings That Have Wonderful New Lives Now

Resurrected and more beautiful than ever.

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• April 2, 2022

If these walls could talk - that's what comes to our minds whenever we see or enter an old building. So much history in these walls.

But buildings get older and older and eventually get torn down. And pieces of history become lost.

But what if we could keep it alive? Restore, renovate, and repurpose these beautiful buildings?

While most of us think of renovation as buying a new Ikea rug, replacing a lightbulb that's been out for a year (or more), and keeping our plants alive, some people see it as an art form. Welcome to our fantastic selection of renovations that deserve their own place in history.

It only gets better from there, with an abandoned cathedral transformed into a skater's paradise and a derelict subway entrance brilliantly transformed into an actual entrance to the Subway diner. Each building has a story, and it should be kept alive.

There's nothing better than restoring a building to its past glory and breathing new life into it. Scroll down to see awesome remakes and reused structures; we know you are going to love them.

Maybe you will even find them inspirational, and we might be featuring your project in one of our future articles.

1. "Old Church Converted Into A Gym"

2. "Moved Here 4 Years Ago. Converted Victorian Church In England. Love This Room"

3. "A Smartphone Repair Office Inside A Telephone Box North Of Holborn Station"

4. "Regional Coffee Chain Buys Gas Station, Uses Car Wash As Drive Through"

5. "Gas Station Greenhouse"

6. "Dublin: An 11th Century Viking Well And Stone Under A Local Shop"

7. "My Girlfriend’s Office Used To Be A Bowling Alley. The Original Lanes Are Still There"

8. "A Former Grain Silo In Oslo, Now Converted To Student Housing"

9. "The Old Don Jail (1864) In Toronto Converted Into Offices For The Newly Built Hospital Beside It In 2013"

10. "The Building Used For The Swimming Events At The 2008 Summer Olympics In Beijing Was Transformed Into This Dope-Looking Waterpark"

11. "A Ship's Bridge That Has Been Removed And Converted Into A House"

12." This Hotel Is An Old Prison"

13. "Old Church Turned Into A 24/7 Pancake Restaurant"

14. "These Apartments Used To Be A YMCA"

15. "Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre: A Former Commodities Exchange With A 750-Seat Theatre 'Pod' Tucked Inside. The Theatre Opened In 1976"

16. "This Defunct Subway Entrance Is A Working Subway Entrance"

17. "The Grand Concourse Built In 1898. Once Train Station Is Now A Restaurant In Pittsburgh, PA"

18. "In Germany There Is Waterpark Called Tropical Islands. It's A Literal Tropical Island Built Inside An Old Blimp Hangar"

19. "This Hotel Is Built Out Of Train Cars"

20. "My Town’s Library Is Under Construction, So They’re Using An Old Grocery Store As The Temporary Library"

21. "Old Bank Was Transformed Into A Hotel, They Kept The Vault As A Meeting Room"

22. "This Abandoned Church Was Purchased By Skaters And Renovated Into A Dream Park"

23. "My Gym Used To Be Part Of An Asylum Complex. The Pool Used To Be A Church And The Confession Booths Are Now A Sauna"

24. "These Two UK Phone Booths Have Been Repurposed"

25. "Old Silo In Söderköping, Sweden, Repurposed As Housing"

26. "My New Apartment Still Has The Original Molding From When It Was A Hotel Ballroom In 1923"

20. "This McDonald's In New Zealand Has A Decommissioned Plane You Can Dine In"

28. "Vienna Gasometers: Gas Storage Tanks First Built In 1896 And Converted Into Mixed-Use Developments Between 1995 And 2001"

29. "In The UK, Redundant Telephone Boxes Are Being Repurposed As Public Defibrillators"

30. "McDonald's In The Art Deco Former "United Kingdom Hotel", Clifton Hill, Melbourne, Australia"

31. "Niccolò Paganini Auditorium, Parma, Italy, An Abandoned Sugar Factory Converted Into A Concert Hall By Renzo Piano In 1996"

32. "The Hospital I Work For Was Originally Designed To Be A Hotel"

33. "Stone Observatory Tower Converted To A Home"

34. "My House Turned 101 Today (Originally A 1920’s Corner Grocery)"

35. "Stamba Hotel, Tbilisi, Georgia, Designed In 2018 By Adjara Group And Located In An Old Printing House"

When we think of architecture, we imagine a long and complicated process that culminates in the creation of a structure from the ground up. Architects, on the other hand, frequently deal with what they're given, whether it's dead things or abandoned buildings, and they must work around them to give these ghosts new meaning and purpose.

Communities can be revitalized by repurposing buildings. It frequently occurs when industrial structures, such as old factories, are renovated into community centers—leisure destinations.

And that's what it's all about - revitalizing communities.

Damjan