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I've noticed all my life, that governement and community buildings are very strange - all purpose-built. A courthouse; a post office. Laid out to be just that o
by JoeAltmaier 6y ago
I've noticed all my life, that governement and community buildings are very strange - all purpose-built. A courthouse; a post office. Laid out to be just that one thing.
What it means is over the years as communities grow, they get to be too small to manage the increased traffic. So another one gets built. Then another one. Each purpose-built again. My town has 3 old post offices. Two old libraries. Old newspaper offices. Old courthouse. Old jail.
And since they were purpose-built, the old building is not good for much. It gets used as a makeshift office space or gutted and split into badly lit low-rent apartments.
Why not build community buildings to be general-purpose? Why not just use a regular commercial building and lay out the offices and cubicles and storerooms like any other business would?
Just one of the odd human things, that's bothered me all my life.
- giarc 6y agoLikely has to do with the fact that if you want to build a community centre that has the capacity to serve your community in 30 years, you also need the budget of that community 30 years in the future. You can only build what you can reasonably afford, and unfortunately that isn't a building that you can grow into.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoOr, as suggested, just use an ordinary building that can be sold and repurposed when grown out of. Instead of the marble built-in counters and elaborate state offices etc.