There's a great feature in the current issue of Arbus Magazine (pg 50-52) about various examples of adaptive reuse in Springfield.
Very cool.
Check it out:
http://www.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=153472&p=50
Excellent article. Paul Shockey's Market Street Lofts are another great example of this type of re-use, too. The warehouse district has unlimited potential for this type of re-use, we'll see if anyone does a residential project there. The amazing and huge structure at 2300 block of Market Street (Market and 11th I believe) recently sold, I think it is Pine Street/RPS LLC the folks who have helped put CORK on the map, so something interesting should be happening there really soon. With a downtown full of incredible historic building stock you would think more of this type of activity would be a Jacksonville hallmark. Maybe someday it will.
Adaptive re-use is why most of the housing stock remains in an urban area like Springfield. It is what saves large houses when no one can afford to live in them let alone keep them up. I do admitt though that even I perfer the current and very cool version of adaptive reuse over the ones in the past.
Having been inside all these, they are all very impressive and top notch.
Very impressive projects indeed!
I always wondered what the church building was. There are other buildings that could easily go this way too if the property owners are sane. Theres a brick building at Market and 4th that has had a bunch of little failed mom and pops partly because the property owner doesnt take care of it. Its just rotting away but the owner is not keen on selling. Isnt that the story in Springfield now? Petra and Kevin gay own a bunch of property on Main street but they just sit on it. Smaller property owners on Main street just sit on it instead of trying to get them rented and improve their properties. The people that did these homes featured did a great job from the photos. That is what the neighborhood needs. More of them and less of the do nothings.
When they built the parish hall in St. Mary's, they used the old railroad ties from Main Street. I know that the church is on the tour, I hope the parish hall will be as well. It is a great story.