In this case, the focus is 45 elementary schools and four high schools in Philadelphia and surrounding counties, a diverse assemblage of aged buildings whose continued use in the fiscally and enrollment-challenged Catholic schools system is not sustainable, a blue-ribbon commission has found.
Not that their future use is an obvious proposition.
"This does not lend itself to a cookie-cutter solution," said prolific urban redeveloper Carl Dranoff. "Each site and each school has its unique characteristics."
In interviews over the last few days, designers and other participants in the region's building environment spoke of the easiest answer for any shuttered school: making it another school.
They also offered more challenging and creative repurposing ideas, including retirement housing, luxury condominiums, day-care centers, artist studios, business incubators, and offices for nonprofits. Some even suggested starting over - as in bulldozing what exists and building anew, depending on location, parcel size, and parking availability.
"From a real estate opportunity, it's a mixed bag," Bart Blatstein, the man behind the renaissance of Philadelphia's Northern Liberties neighborhood, said of the current portfolio of Catholic school properties at issue. But it's a bag he has deemed worth looking into.
"I have interest in some sites," Blatstein said, declining to name any because, he predicted, chuckling, "the price will go up."
'Very difficult'
