Typical problems with reusing mineral springs buildings and how they are overcome

Abstract

Mineral springs were a popular aspect of American culture prior to World War II. In conjunction with the rest of the United States, Texas offered visitors numerous locations for people to “take the waters.” Unfortunately, for various reasons, the springs fell out of favor and the buildings associated with them were largely abandoned. I briefly discuss the history of the springs through the ages and then move onto a discussion of the different styles of architecture associated with the springs in the United States and how these styles differed in Texas. Due to the loss of architecture associated with the mineral springs in Texas, this paper uses Heath, Oc, and Tiesdell’s five forms of obsolescence to analyze the reasons for failures in adaptive reuse, discusses the successes, and presents some extant buildings where futures are undetermined. In order to answer these questions, I gathered a collection of case studies, focusing on locations in Texas, but including several from the United States and Europe. I analyzed these case studies and gathered information from the result of the studies to deduce why the forms of obsolescence could not be overcome, and how some sites differed and successfully surmounted these difficulties.