The Boston Children's Museum has a participatory exhibit called City Slice. Visitors experience a three-story exhibit of a house, street, and yard with cross-section views that reveal changing needs and design issues over the century from Victorian Boston to the present. (Author/MLF)

For over a quarter of a century architect Giancarlo de Carlo has been designing and carrying out a master plan to revitalize the historic city of Urbino (Italy) and the University of Urbino. A convent built in the 16th century was converted to a new law school. (MLF)

School of education facilities at the University of Urbino (Italy), originally an 18th-century convent and chapel, are organized around an open courtyard and a semicircular lecture-theatre hall. Open to the community are the theater, a cinema, and a cafe. (MLF)

Declining enrollments are leaving many districts with space they no longer need. The conversion of surplus school buildings to new uses can often provide communities with new vitality. Examples show unused schools converted for use as apartments, shops, and office space for public agencies. (Author/MLF)