Abandoned Walmart becomes public library

It is not uncommon for a business to relocate or close all together, leaving a retail space empty.  In Minneapolis they were faced with a 124,500 square foot former Walmart space.  They decided to make the roughly  two-and-a-half football fields worth of space into a public library.  But that was a huge task.  

They sought a functional and affordable interior design.  The new library has become the largest single story library in the U.S. and won the 2012 Library Interior Design Competition.  The move paid off with increased new user registration.  Check it out in the photos, and notice the number of youth using the library.

 
Way to go Minneapolis!  Yeah.