Some of these changes are not new. We’ve all seen converted churches become apartments. Throughout New Haven and Fairfield counties, these structures are often located in prime locations and are superbly constructed. But a generation of declining attendance has closed many places of worship – that’s nothing new to their neighbors or the church hierarchy.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Catholic Council for Culturesaid in 2010 that “many churches, which were needed a few years ago, are no longer sodue to a lack of faithful and clergy. Now that the pandemic has offered virtual services where no one needs to be in a place of worship to be with God, the need for buildings for religious use has been further reduced. preservation group, Conservation Connecticutrecently hailed architect and furniture maker Andrew Peklo III who recently completed the adaptive reuse of the former Church of the Nativity in BethlehemConn.

It is more than obvious to say that the advent of the internet has radically changed everything. But nothing has been more affected by this massive overhaul of our lives than the way we buy and sell things: retail. This long-term change has been accelerated by the COVID decline in on-site shopping, rendering millions and millions of stores unusable, while the space needed for retail distribution explodes.

The Westfield Trumbull Mall has built 260 apartments on its site. The Meriden Shopping Center converts part of its space to medical use. Since 2016, Amazon has converted 25 retail spaces into fulfillment centers, according to Coresight Research. According to Matthew Rothstein of Bisnow Philadelphia, eight million square feet of big-box stores are being turned into distribution centers. According to a CBRE report (Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis)nearly 14 million square feet of US big-box retail space has been converted to industrial space.

But the pandemic and the internet haven’t just affected retail and worship, the way we entertain ourselves may also require fewer structures. Many multiplex cinemas are empty. Before COVID, Netflix, Disney and streaming were making the cost and hassle of going to the movies less enjoyable for more and more consumers. Regal Cinemas alone closed 7,000 screens in Washington, DC, as well as its complex in Branford. The AMC Classic Bloomfield 8 closed this spring. John Fithianhead of the National Association of Theater Owners said “probably about 70% of our medium and small members will either face bankruptcy reorganization or the likelihood of going out of business altogether”.

It’s not just a matter of functional fit. Europe has a long tradition of renovation history found in old buildings with complementary redesign. Putting new wine into old vessels is a fundamentally different design challenge from America’s history of clear-cutting our built landscape to build new ones, as when Urban Renewal attempted to reimagine changing cities.

Architects are at the forefront of new technologies, both in the design and construction of our buildings, but America is awash in a sea of ​​existing structures, with new value in a world that is so undone by excess carbon that everything we restore is less dangerous for our future than anything new we build. Our churches, malls, movie multiplexes and commercial spaces are becoming eerily quiet all around us. Are architects able to step in to see the possibilities in so many dead and mundane structures?

Architecture never guides us, but our designs catalyze the time, resources and perspectives that create opportunity in all cultures. It’s time to think creatively about the buildings we have and no longer use.

Duo Dickinson is a Madison-based architect.