Julia Christensen began investigating how Communities are Re-Using the Big Box in January of 2004. Throughout the spring and summer of 2004, she spent most of her time traveling around the country in her car, visiting the sites and meeting the people who are making these transformations possible. She has been collecting a growing collection of photographs, interviews, stories, and documents relating to the renovations, and has been giving presentations in these communities about how other towns are dealing with this common situation. Julia is interested in not just how the communities transform the buildings, but also how the buildings are transforming our towns, the economic and civic centers, and even the structure of roads and surrounding architecture.

She is currently working on a book about the project, and is also working with hours of video and audio recordings made during her 2004 travels, as she has been discovering how communities are reusing the big box. More of her research can be found at http://www.bigboxreuse.com/