- Former prisons offer unique architectural features ideal for adaptive reuse into coworking spaces.
- The conversion of Lorton Reformatory in Virginia highlights potential for turning prisons into community hubs.
- Repurposing prisons as coworking spaces could blend history with modern work culture.
Once defined by razor wire and regulation, some former prison sites are finding second lives in surprising ways.
As cities reckon with space constraints and developers look to the past for solutions, a new idea is gaining traction: transforming correctional facilities into centers for community, creativity, and commerce.
The reuse of buildings with complicated histories is nothing new. Old hotels now host digital nomads and remote workers. Mid-century office towers have become vertical neighborhoods. Some companies struggling to revitalize empty commercial real estate are even repurposing spaces into vertical farming.
But prison conversions introduce a distinct kind of tension between restriction and reinvention that’s beginning to appeal to a generation rethinking what “workspace” really means.
Lessons From Lorton
The Liberty Crest Apartments in Lorton, Virginia, offer one of the most striking examples of this approach. Originally built in 1910, the Lorton Reformatory was known not only for housing D.C. inmates, but also for its role in one of the most pivotal moments of American activism: the imprisonment and mistreatment of suffragists in 1917, a dark chapter now referred to as the “Night of Terror.”
After the prison shut down in 2001, the site (spanning more than 2,300 acres) was acquired by Fairfax County. What followed was a careful, multi-phase development. By 2017, the former penitentiary had become a thriving apartment complex with 165 units, a community pool, yoga studio, and even on-site retail, according to CNBC.
The bones of the old prison remain visible, but the use has been fundamentally reimagined. Original brickwork, arched windows, and sprawling green fields were incorporated into the new design.
Architectural Integrity Meets Modern Demand; Can It Translate to Coworking?
Prisons, especially reform-era facilities like Lorton, were built to last. Thick walls, high ceilings, and deliberate layouts mean they’re well suited to transformation. Unlike later-era institutions designed for isolation, many early 20th-century prisons were more open, with large windows and communal courtyards.
These attributes translate well to coworking environments that prioritize natural light, acoustic separation, and flexible common areas.
Reconfiguring such spaces for contemporary work culture certainly requires creativity. Individual cells can become focus rooms or micro-offices. Former cafeterias offer space for social interaction. Yard spaces can be redesigned as open-air event areas or quiet zones for phone calls and solo work.
The durability and density of these structures also make them appealing from an operational standpoint, offering energy efficiency and sound insulation most modern commercial buildings struggle to match.
The Emotional Weight of Place
Designing for utility is one thing. Designing around memory and meaning is something else entirely.
Prisons carry emotional residue; they are places where lives were restricted, where injustice often played out. Any repurposing of such a site has to navigate this legacy without sanitizing it.
In Lorton, the design team chose not to erase the prison’s past, but to integrate reminders of it into the present as a gesture of acknowledgment. The project demonstrates that adaptive reuse doesn’t have to mean disconnection from context. Instead, it can invite new stories while honoring older ones.
This depth of narrative is something many contemporary coworking environments lack. As the market moves beyond the standard white-box model, interest is growing in spaces with soul and places that create a visceral experience.
Potential for a New Kind of Work Hub
The elements that made Liberty Crest successful as a residential project could be applied just as easily to coworking. Privacy, structure, light, and history come together in a way that’s difficult to replicate from the ground up.
With urban land at a premium, and demand rising for flexible, community-driven workspaces, properties like Lorton offer an unorthodox but viable path forward.
While developers may not have tested this concept at scale in the coworking sector, interest is growing in spaces that carry a story. Not every disused prison is a candidate for conversion, as location, the architectural quality, community interest, and cost of redevelopment all play a role — but the blueprint is there.
A New Frontier in Workspace Design
Repurposing a prison demands bold vision and a high level of sensitivity. But for architects, developers, and entrepreneurs looking to push the boundaries of what workspaces can be, the opportunity is undeniable.
Where others see walls and wire, some are beginning to see structure, meaning, and potential. And in a work culture increasingly defined by autonomy and intentionality, that kind of transformation may be exactly what’s needed.