Throughout North America and Europe there are many examples of houses of worship being adapted to another use in order to save the building; these efforts have met with varying degrees of success. For example, in New Orleans, the former St. Alphonsus Catholic Church has been taken over by a nonprofit corporation and made into a cultural center in memory of the former Irish immigrants who founded the parish.1 In Sandwich, Massachusetts, Corpus Christi Catholic Church has become an upscale bed and breakfast and gourmet restaurant. In Prague, the Czech Republic, the Klausen Synagogue has become the State Jewish Museum and the Pinkas Synagogue has become a memorial to Czech Jews who died in concentration camps during World War II.

Several synagogues in the United States also have been saved by reuse. In San Francisco, the Bush Street Synagogue was taken over by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and sold to private investors to provide a home for the Holocaust Center. The investors attempted to raise six million dollars for the project, but as of mid-2000 have not yet succeeded.2 In Los Angeles, the Breed Street Shul closed in 1993. Various groups have attempted to restore it to a Jewish Historical Museum, so far without success.3 In Bloomington, Indiana the former Moses Montifiore Synagogue housed three Christian congregations after the Jewish congregation left. A private citizen has now bought it and uses the basement as his private residence. The former sanctuary space is being converted to a small concert and meeting hall.4 In Boston, the Vilna Shul on Beacon Hill was saved in the late 1980s from becoming a site for a parking garage. In 1995, a nonprofit organization took over the building to establish the Vilna Center for Jewish Heritage. With help from Historic Boston, it has now reopened as a cultural center.5

In Cleveland, Ohio, there are many examples of new congregations taking over temples and churches when the original congregations relocated. There also are other examples such as the former Christian Science church on Euclid Avenue that became the home, for a time, of the Cleveland Playhouse.

There are few examples of such a project as complex as the Civic. One project with many similarities is the former Monastere du Bon-Pasteur (Good Shepherd Convent) in Montreal, Quebec. The building was rehabilitated as a joint project of Societe Immobiliere du Patrimoine Architectural de Montreal (SIMPA), a joint Montreal-Province of Quebec enterprise and the Societe d'Habitation du Quebec (SHQ) (the Quebec government-housing agency). The project includes low-income elderly housing (the former vocational school), middle-income cooperative housing, shared spaces such as a public hall (the former chapel), a daycare center (the former rectory), and 22 luxury condominiums in the former stables. The project was almost totally government financed, with the sale of the condominiums providing a large part of the payback. The authors of an article about this project note that "the project demonstrates how the difficult technical, architectural, financial, legal, and social problems of reusing historic buildings can be overcome through innovation and partnership."6

The Bon-Pasteur rehabilitation was completed in 1986. The above quote became prophetic as the board of The Civic, unaware of this project and its complexities, began its 20-year journey without the help of millions of dollars of city and provincial funds, and without a breath-taking location overlooking the St. Lawrence River.