Memphis School Reuse

As part of an interdisciplinary team led by Studio Gang Architects, and on behalf of the Pyramid Peak Foundation, JLP+D identified new market opportunities to repurpose vacated former school facilities. The team identified specific and practical ideas to adapt an 18-acre site with several underutilized community assets — including two former schools and an operational preschool, community center, seasonal public pool, and local branch library — into a new community campus for the Klondike and Smokey City neighborhoods. This new, actionable vision for the sites transforms the school buildings, their streetscapes, and related spaces into a new kind of neighborhood asset to meet the needs and wants of their local communities and contribute to regional economic growth — and serves as a replicable template for future, similar projects across Shelby County.

JLP+D’s identified feasible opportunities for tenants and investors that built on place-specific opportunities, such as support services for the Memphis Medical District and fabrication and small-batch manufacturing that leveraged existing school facilities. The firm also assessed demographic and economic indicators at local and regional scales, achievable sales and rental rates for sectors best suited for campus facilities, and recommendations for programming options, ownership and management models, partnership opportunities, and neighborhood stabilization strategies rooted in successful national case studies. These studies informed the team’s work to offer actionable design and implementation options for adaptive reuse across the site, suggest physical and operational changes to enable productive reuse, and produce a range of redevelopment scenarios.