A Town Converted An Abandoned Walmart Into One Gigantic Public Library

What would you do with an old abandoned Walmart? Creating a massive library probably isn't the first thing to come to mind, but that's what happened in the town of McAllen, Texas, reports Dave Pinter at PSFK.

2012-07-08T07:00:00Z

What would you do with an old abandoned Walmart?

Creating a massive library probably isn't the first thing to come to mind, but that's what happened in the town of McAllen, Texas, reports Dave Pinter at PSFK.

It inherited the location after Walmart closed the store and left for a larger local spot. So, McAllen got architecture firm Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle to come in design the interior of a new library. McAllen architects Boultinghouse Simpson designed the building's exterior.

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

It's a 124,000 square foot space — that's about 2-and-a-half football fields — which make it the biggest single-story library in the country.

Lara Swimmer of Swimmer Photo took some shots of the Walmart-turned-library, and gave us permission to run them here.

Here's what the space used to look like

MS&R

Now, it has a brand new entryway

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

Here's the main aisle — you can see how much space they have

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

This orange area has all the services

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

Another shot of the service area

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

There are also lounges for people to read

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

The sections are marked by big signs like this one

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

The whole place is colorful

Courtesy of Lara Swimmer

Here's the floor plan of the library

MS&R

Now take a look at a Starbucks concept store

Tom Ackerman, Starbucks

Check Out Starbucks' Fancy New Concept Store Made Out Of Shipping Containers >

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