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Adaptive reuse of buildings, Arts and Craft Center?
January 12, 2013
8:02 pm
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Daryl
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I’m hoping some of you may know of a project where an old industrial project has been reused as an Arts and Craft Facility. I remember years ago surfing the web that there was a place in Oklahoma possibly, where some blacksmiths, and glass blowers reused an old brick warehouse as studio space, then rented the upper floors to other artists. Their project revamped a poor area of town and became quite a success.

I believe this is a story that has happened many times and wonder if any of you could give examples; a web link would be great. The one that I mention actually had quite a bit of information on how their project improved the area and may have included press clippings.

We have a vibrant arts community, and a booming economy, which is great, but leads to a large problem. The city is losing affordable space for artists. The city owns a large block of buildings that would be perfect for craft and artist studios, and practice space for musicians, dancers and theatre. There is also great office space; some of the buildings have significant heritage value as well. The cost for the adaptive reuse of the site is extremely low compared to the cost of demolition. If the city want to develop another project on the site there is a huge expense of site remediation.

If you can of any examples I would sure appreciate, the one thing I can say about our city is they look after their buildings, the building are in perfect shape. So far we have both Architects and developers telling us that this would be good for the city. Now we need to give something to the city so they get on board.

January 12, 2013
9:40 pm
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JNewman
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There is a building sort of like this 2 blocks away. I looked into renting space from it about 10 years ago. The building is the old Imperial cotton building, http://www.270sherman.ca/ If you watch Murdoch Mysteries, a lot of it is filmed at this building. An artist group put a bunch of work into it and some other buildings and I believe this is the organization they have morphed into http://cobaltconnects.ca/. I believe the building is owned by a private investor and the artist group was going to buy the building but I am not sure that ever happened.

Part of the reason I didn't rent there is it was just starting to be rented out that way and I was getting a bit of a run around as to pricing, ownership etc. The guys from the artist group were all keen and really selling the place. The owner at the times property manager was kind of a jerk. If you do set something like this up make sure that who ever is managing the property is as behind it as you guys are.

January 12, 2013
10:02 pm
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Daryl
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Thanks John

I just heading out the door, My hope is that the city would retain ownership. Maybe not the best landlord, but far better than other possibilities. What really interests me is the non art groups wanting the arts groups in the buildings.

More later

Daryl

January 13, 2013
2:50 am
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lauren osmolski
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Hi Daryl,
Since you are only using your first name I am not sure which Daryl you are. If this city would be in Washington, a good contact would be the organization "Artist Trust", headquartered in Seattle. They have picked up where the defunct (?) Washington State Arts Commission had left off. Find the contact information online at http://www.artisttrust.org. There may be some valuable insight available from a phone call or just from roaming around their website.

January 13, 2013
3:16 am
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Daryl
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Hi Lauren

Sorry about the name thing, I'm Daryl Richardson from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. What I would like to find is some documentation where a group of artists have moved in the neglected area and improved the area increasing the the property values and been a net benefit. I know this happens to most areas of a city when it happens. We have a special case when the property belongs to a city. Our city planing is poor at best, one of the latest, was putting in low cost housing on 20 acres and by doing so decreasing the property assessments on the a joining 100 acres. as a result a loss of Tax base.

What interested me was the case study in the mid west that I mentioned earlier. It was in the early days of the www and I was hoping to find the page or cases like it that were well documented. I would like to be able to go to the city and say we have a better business plan that will be of greater benefit to the city and provide and home and center for the arts and Crafts of the city.

P.S.
Some how my location no longer shows up, I'm not sure why.

January 13, 2013
4:08 pm
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JNewman
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Daryl I would contact Jeremy at the Cobalt group that I posted a link to. He seems to have made a career out of this sort of thing and is the guy I originally talked to 10 years ago. Hamilton has had a recent surge in the number of artists working here, many moving from Toronto. This has revitalized and raised the property values of the James North area of the city.

January 13, 2013
5:27 pm
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Daryl
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Thanks John that is a great start. I would still like to find more examples.

January 14, 2013
8:07 pm
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Mark
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Sounds interesting Daryl. I will be watching to hear what comes of the revitalization initiatives in Saskatoon. I have some connections at a few architectural firms in Saskatoon that I will bug for some info.

In Regina, our 'Warehouse District' of historic buildings started becoming very hot commodities about 10-15 years ago when young professionals and yuppies jumped on the open loft/condo bandwagon. Many of these old buildings maintain their original timber column & beam and brick open structure construction while given extensive Mech & Elec updates and high end interior finishes. Now there are quite a few 3000 sf condos in the area worth around $1,000,000+. I believe there is one on the market right now for about $1,700,000 that has it's own elevator.

The company I work for is bidding on a Tenant Improvement project right now to convert an entire floor of one of these buildings into office space for a client.

Unfortunately, given the popularity of these spaces with a wealthier crowd, I doubt an artist group could afford the spaces for studios or galleries.

January 15, 2013
1:33 am
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Lee Cordochorea
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There's one at 640 SE Stark Street in Portland Oregon. Gallery on the street level featuring LOCAL work opened just ten days ago. A veritable hive of artists working in the back and on the upper floor.

Sorry, Daryl, but no website that I'm aware of. If you like, I can give your contact info to the guy who made the Gallery happen...

No matter where you go... there you are.

January 15, 2013
2:47 am
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Rob F
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Down here in Ca an old napa auto parts store closed and is now a workspace/gallery for many types of artists but no metal work other than a bit of jewelry. They are all in one room that has some walls to divide their spaces.
I found a link online for you: http://www.studiosonthepark.org/
My family has industrial property in vancouver wa. that I have had thoughts of doing a rental studio workspace but I dislike overcast weather too much to live in it.
Good luck
Rob

January 17, 2013
1:54 pm
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Daryl
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Thanks Guys for the Info, Rob that is a great site, I like how the promote themselves. I would still like to find one that shows how it generated economic improvement to and area, but I may be out of luck.

Mark these barns have three different architectural offices surrounding them. That should give you a good idea of the site. I'm not sure if I would move into the site but it is close to my house. I'm certainly interested in seeing an Arts Craft Center over some of the cities other projects.

January 17, 2013
4:14 pm
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Rob F
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Daryl, the area in town where the art studios are was an aging downtown of decrepit old buildings. The abandon napa store maybe the worst. Now the city has a beautiful and vibrant downtown area that people will travel to as a "destination" The san simeon earthquake seems to be when things started to shift for the better. Now instead of cheap furniture stores, thrift stores, seedy bars and empty spaces they have cute boutique stores, fancy salons, wine tasting and a wine bar, as well as numerous art galleries and nice restaurants. This was a effort bigger than the art studios but they did help improve the area. You should call the studios and maybe even the paso robles chamber of commerce.
Rob

May 18, 2013
7:59 am
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smith46
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The art and craft are very useful for decorating the old building.
The combination of different color art on the front side make the
view of building very different.

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