What do you do with an empty building? These students want to give vacant spaces new life.

A crew of engineering and landscape architecture students in last fall’s Sustainable Buildings Design course had a unique final project: designing new futures for disused school buildings. These adaptive re-use projects focused on retired elementary schools in Tennille (Washington County) and Bowman (Elbert County) and how they could be updated for community benefits.

Adaptive re-use is a sustainable design approach that aims to restructure existing buildings to host new uses that are different from what they originally built for. This approach is especially important for historic buildings, as it provides opportunities to preserve architectural and historical features while creating a more sustainable and useful space.

Each group had an opportunity to explore their sites: Bowman Elementary with Bowman, GA Mayor Scott Harpold, and Crawford Elementary with Tennille, GA Mayor Eartha Cummings.

Over the course of the fall semester, the students looked at two schools: Bowman Elementary in Elbert County and Crawford Elementary in Washington County, GA. In groups of four or five students, the class worked with each location on ideas for how the vacant buildings could be reused.

The two elementary schools were built several decades ago and both retired in the early 2010s. Crawford Elementary was previously repurposed as an assisted living facility, but by 2025 both buildings were entirely disused. The students met with the mayors of Bowman and Crawford to learn more about the needs of the community, formulating proposals that emphasized sustainability, cost-efficiency and community revitalization.

The majority of the student groups envisioned a similar concept: buildings like these offer opportunities for community connections. By turning the properties into multi-use centers with housing, food, shopping, entertainment, outdoor spaces and more, the various proposals point to a desire for highly functional spaces that serve many purposes. Many of the proposals also included space for early childhood education, continuing the original purpose of the historic buildings.

“A frustrating yet exciting aspect of the sustainable building design class is the element of surprise,” said instructor Lynn Abdouni, an Associate Research Scientist with the UGA College of Engineering. “We never know what building we are going to get, and how the community sees its future until we go to the site and talk to our stakeholders. On the other hand, we do incorporate tried and true approaches in reducing energy requirements, sourcing of local material, and maximizing efficient land use but we also move beyond that to try something new–another surprise that unfolds as the design process proceeds.”

The graduate section of the class took on an additional project, transforming a decommissioned garage near downtown Sandersville, Washington County into a corner drive-through coffee shop. 

As the city experiences incremental growth over the next few years, including a hotel across the street, the proposed coffee shop would complement the hotel by providing a walk-up and dine-in option for coffee and pastries. These projects preserve the character of the original building as much as possible: in this case, the students leveraged the garage’s setup to facilitate drive-through service. This was a challenge, as the plot is small and the turning spaces are relatively tight. 

By turning a disused space into a business with public outdoor space and a convenient stop “perfectly situated to serve morning commutes,” the students proposed giving this empty corner lot a new life. The project highlighted sustainability in their proposal by including a stormwater management assessment, evaluations of the existing HVAC system for energy efficacy, and even designs for a patio canopy to host solar panels and provide shade for patrons.

Engineering and landscape design students worked in tandem to create a full project proposal that included both landscape architecture drawings and concept renderings, among a number of other visualization resources for the proposed coffee shop. (Proposal by Matthew Gauldin, Cela Kilmer, Ethan Santucci, Zhou Yu, Boyu Huang, Jack Witman, Tristen Durst, Alex Fouraker, Andrew Vlasenko, Mabrey Pearson, and Jackson Kirkland)  

“This setup pushes motivated students to re-arrange what they have learned in other classes  to deliver something exciting and useful,” Abdouni explained. “This also pushes me to curate an environment that leverages student knowledge but creates a space for trial and error to reimagine the mundane into dynamic places.”

To finish out the elementary school projects, students hosted presentations for community members from each town in class. These presentations were attended by local government officials and professionals from the University of Georgia Archway Partnership.

In Washington County, an Archway Community, and in Elbert County, part of Archway’s Connected Resilient Communities program, that embedded presence made all the difference.

Because of years of relationship-building, collaboration with local leadership and ongoing dialogue about community priorities, the opportunity to reimagine two retired school buildings was rooted in real, expressed local interest for adaptive reuse.

“What’s powerful about these projects is that they help communities see possibility,” said Heidi Grogger, a Connected Resilient Communities Archway Professional with the Archway Partnership. 

“When a building closes, it can feel like a loss: of history, identity, and momentum. In this case, local leaders shared their real challenges and aspirations, and students responded with thoughtful, technically grounded proposals rooted in those priorities. The result isn’t just a classroom exercise, it’s a set of tangible concepts that Tennille and Bowman can use to spark conversation, pursue funding, and shape their own long-term vision for these spaces.”

These proposals don’t just help communities reimagine disused spaces, but directly assist communities in Tennille and Bowman in seeking funding and developing their own visions for decommissioned building reuse projects.

Abdouni plans to continue providing opportunities for students to engage in real-world design projects with service-learning opportunities. UGA students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels that are interested in these topics can check out Sustainable Buildings Design (CVLE/MCHE/LAND 4660/6660) and Urban Infrastructure Systems (CVLE 4770).