Your favorite local rehabilitation projects...

[rockyi]

Lately we have been on a roll here in the Quad Cities with rehabilitation of old, decaying structures, many that have sat empty and neglected for years and a few which already had a date with the wrecking ball.
The first one I will post is a very visible structure in downtown Davenport, Iowa that I pass every day on the way to work. Called the Forrest Block, it was constructed in 1875. After a long, usefull life was finally vacated in 1983 and sat empty for the next couple decades. I always had a soft spot in my heart for this old structure, while most others were screaming to have it demolished I always saw promise in it. The worst part about it was that it is on the route of the popular yearly road race called the Quad City Times Bix 7 and was basically an embarrassment for us since the race has had up to 20,000 runners from around the world passing this eyesore. Finally in 2009 a company called Restoration St. Louis came to town to renovate the Hotel Blackhawk a few blocks away and apparently they saw the same promise and beauty that I saw in this sad, sad structure and took on this project also. It was scheduled several times to be demolished over the years but the next few photos can show what can be done with something that many saw no value in whatsoever...

Forrest Block in the early 1900s...


Sad and broken and partially covered in Band Aid™ colored paint, as it looked for many years in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s...


During renovation in 2010...


Complete and fully occupied as loft apartments today. This summer should see the planting of trees along the sidewalk...


Show some of your local favorites!

[rockyi]

This next example shows that not all rehabs need to be a big project. A small, nondescript building on the edge of DT Rock Island was also empty and forgotten for many years....


Rehabed a few years ago, all it needed was a buyer....


Enter Rozz-Tox, a great, intimate coffee shop/bar/cafe/live indie music club. This building is now bustling with life and draws new acts from all around. I've seen a few bands here and I love the place. Not too large which is fine with me. I also purchase my Intelligentsia™ coffee from them.




The much recognized nude mannequin in the upper bay window, all dolled up for Halloween, welcomes you.


Stop in soon...

[ThatOneGuy]

I love threads like these. It's always interesting to see old and run-down buildings brought back to life. Sadly there aren't such projects in my area.

[thomax]

Built in 1924 after the original Listor Block building was destroyed by fire in 1923.

Listor Block in the 1940s:


A few years ago after it had been abandoned for many years:



After being restored and re-opened in 2012:

[rockyi]

^They did nice work! Thanks for posting!

[thomax]

Just down the street from the Lister Block building restoration I posted earlier their is another building that was recently rehabilitated. It was originaly built about 120 years ago, but I am not sure the purpose of the building at that time. In the 1960s it was home to the Dominion Furniture store and then more recently it was home to the Friendship Gift Shop until being abandoned. In 2010 the renovations started for a new headquarters for an all digital news service (the first in Canada) called CBC Hamilton. The building had its grand re-opening in ealry 2012 with its new digital news service launching on May 10, 2012.

1960s when it was home to the Dominion Furniture store:


Dominion Furniture in the 1970s:


When it was home to the Friendship Gift Shop:


After being abandoned:


Renovations to the building underway in 2010:


The completed facade in 2012:


Above the large new windows you can see the strip of original 120 year old windows which were discovered under the panelling during the rehabilitation:


Here is the link to the CBC Hamilton news website if you want to know what an all digital news service is all about: http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/

[LMich]

For me, it's not even a competition, the reuse of the Ottawa Street Station (power plant) is the most unique rehab in the Lansing. Decommissioned in 1992, there was even talk of demolishing the thing back in 2006 before Accident Fund Insurance Company decided to reuse the building as their headquarters.

(All my photos)

Before:


Ottawa Street Power Station by NewCityOne, on Flickr

After:


No Accident by NewCityOne, on Flickr


Box by NewCityOne, on Flickr


Grand Lights by NewCityOne, on Flickr

There are plenty of smaller examples, as well. Most of the closed school buildings in Lansing have been reused in very unique ways.

[photoLith]

Heres one in downtown Houston that is almost complete.


Before


Photos by me

And now

[thomax]

This building is probably my favourite that I have ever seen. It is an iconic landmark for my city but it has become abandoned with many rehabilitation plans that have fallen through or are not official. I figured I would post about it here even though the rehabilitation hasn't started or been officially approved, but it is so cool and the previous plans for it were amazing.

Here is a quick history timeline I copied from wikipedia:
1911 - Businessman Harry Louis Frost approaches the city about building a grand hotel.
1914 - A building permit is issued for construction on the site of the Waldorf Hotel.
1916 - The hotel opens with a lavish banquet and dance on 5 June.
1922 - Prior to the 1922-23 season, the NHL would hold its Governors meeting at the Royal Connaught Hotel on King Street, where the visiting NHL teams who came to town to play against the Hamilton Tigers stayed as well.[1]
1927- In 1927, CKOC radio station was finding the Lister Building accommodations unsatisfactory and the radio station was moved to the 11th floor of the Royal Connaught Hotel. The transmitter power was raised from 50 to 100 watts. For a brief time, CKOC and CHML shared the same frequency... 880 on the radio dial. In 1931, CKOC changed to the 630 on the dial and boosted power to a full 1,000 watts. The radio business was beginning to boom![2]
1929- The hotel expands into a neighbouring building.
1930- United Hotels Company, which owned the Connaught, announces it has been sold. The new owner adds 200 rooms and turns the bottom floors into offices and shops.
1952- The hotel is sold to the Sheraton chain, which later completes a million-dollar renovation.
1973- The hotel is again sold, this time to Toronto-based Citicom. Another renovation worth $4 million is completed.
1988- The hotel is sold to Joymarmon Properties Ltd.
1992- Joymarmon loses the hotel when its mortgage holder forecloses.
1993- The hotel becomes a franchise under the Howard Johnson chain.
2002- Canmac Hotels Corporation, a master at reviving struggling hotels, buys the hotel, assumes its $6-million debt and promises full-scale renovations.
2004- Hotel closes after going into receivership.
2005- Five local businessmen buy the hotel for $4.5 million.
2008- Real Estate developer Harry Stinson makes a deposit with plans to reopen it for Christmas 2009.
2008- June 2nd 2008, Harry Stinson makes a public presentation of his proposed 100-storey Connaught Towers at the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce building. Once complete, it will become the tallest building in Canada. Three months later, on Thursday September 4th, Harry Stinson closes up the Connaught Towers sales office in downtown Hamilton and the project is officially cancelled.

Here are some pictures of what it was, what it is, and what it was planned to be:

Royal Connaught 1920s (postcard):


Royal Connaught after addition:


Royal Connaught lobby, 1940s I believe (postcard):


Royal Connaught lobby as it sits abandoned today:



Royal Connaught messanine floor, 1940s I believe (postcard):


Royal Connaught messanine floor as it sits abandoned today:


Royal Connaught abandoned and boarded up main floor and exterior as it sits today:


Once a floor full of the grandest hotel rooms, now completley gutted:


The 2008 official rendering for the planned Connaught Tower which was an addition to what would have been a restored Royal Connaught Hotel. At 100 stories it would have been the tallest building in Canada:


A 2008 brochure for the Connaught Tower:


The current unofficial plan for the rehabilitation of the Royal Connaught hotel with the addition of a condo which I believe is 27 stories:

[TarHeelJ]

The former RJ Reynolds Plant 64 rehab in downtown Winston-Salem, NC currently underway...being converted to residential/retail:

[rockyi]

These are awsome. LMich, the reuse of that power plant is fantastic!
And hopefully the Royal Connaught Hotel finds a renewal in its future.

Another from the Quad Cities....This building in downtown Davenport was home to the Peterson-Harned-Von Maur Department Store from 1892 to 1985. (Today it's name has been shortend to just Von Maur and is my current employer). After the store moved to the malls in '85 the building was used as it's distribution center for a few years until it moved out completely in 1990. It sat empty until 2003. Just days before it was to be razed it was saved and after restoration was opened as the Redstone Building in 2004. It houses the River Music Experience which holds several music workshops/museum/music store and three music venues. The downstairs music venue is MoJos which has many free acts and a coffee shop and retail. The RME room, upstairs, is another venue, but the best is the Redstone Room which hosts acts from around the world and has the best sound system I've ever heard. The first floor also holds the Woodfire Grill restuarant.

Early 1920's...


Sitting empty...


After renovation...


Rocking at MoJo's


Shaking the rafters at the Redstone Room

[thomax]

Originally Posted by rockyi

I like that one ^. It reminds me of the Right House in Hamilton which went through a bit of a restoration a little while back. It was built in 1890 and was the first department store in Hamilton. I couldn't find any pictures of before the restoration though. Feel free to google search for them if you're curious, haha.

The Right House - Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

[rockyi]

^Nice!

[alps]

This abandoned power plant in Halifax became the new headquarters of Nova Scotia Power this year:

BEFORE / AFTER:


(Source: chesterns.ca)


(Source: Dmajackson)

Photos from a tour some of us Halifax forumers took:







More rehabilitation projects just down the road: the long building in the centre is a former warehouse that has been repurposed as, in order from near to far, the new Farmer's Market; a new art college campus; a new immigration museum.


(own photos)

[ardecila]

All the hip stuff in the Quad Cities makes me think the Amtrak service to Chicago is gonna be a hit.

I hope you don't take it the wrong way, but it actually looks pretty awesome! Like, a place I might wanna live. My previous impressions of the Quad Cities were not so good, so I'm glad to be proved wrong.

[thomax]

The Former Toronto, Hamilton, & Buffalo Railway Station is now the Hamilton Go Centre which is a GO Transit railway and bus station. It was originally opened in 1933 as the head office and the Hamilton station of the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway. Also, it is the only example of Art Deco railway station architecture in Canada. In 1987 it closed and was not used until it was converted into the Hamilton GO Centre beginning in 1995 and finally opening on April 30, 1996.

Here are some pictures of when it was first built and what it is now (I have no pictures of during the restoration):

1930s:


Present:






Now protected as a historical building:

[rockyi]

Originally Posted by ardecila

All the hip stuff in the Quad Cities makes me think the Amtrak service to Chicago is gonna be a hit.

I hope you don't take it the wrong way, but it actually looks pretty awesome! Like, a place I might wanna live. My previous impressions of the Quad Cities were not so good, so I'm glad to be proved wrong.

Actually, your previous impressions may have been correct. The farm implement industry that we relied on crashed in the late 70's-early 80's and that started a long, dark local recession. Other jobs left, thousands of residents left, many structures sat empty. In the early 90's Money Magazine kicked us in the nuts by deeming us the WORST metro area in the whole U.S. in which to live (out of 375 metro areas)
Our local economy is currently doing better now than a lot of the rest of the country so we've been spending the last several years "cleaning up". The only good thing about having a long-running stagnant economy is that there wasn't lots of tearing down of great old structures for urban renewal....they just sat there, empty and now are getting rediscovered.
It's not all wonderful, though, we still have a loooong way to go.

BTW, There are many folks here who can't wait for Amtrak, also. I too think it'll be a hit.

[hauntedheadnc]

The Biltmore School, built in 1926. Over the years of its life, it served as an Asheville public school, then Biltmore College (which later merged with other colleges to become UNC-Asheville), and was last used as the headquarters of the Buncombe County Sheriff's Department in 1999.


Source.

The renovation is ongoing at the moment, and is progressing nicely.

Here's a clip from the local news detailing the rehabilitation of this lovely old building:

• Video Link

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by rockyi

Actually, your previous impressions may have been correct. The farm implement industry that we relied on crashed in the late 70's-early 80's and that started a long, dark local recession. Other jobs left, thousands of residents left, many structures sat empty. In the early 90's Money Magazine kicked us in the nuts by deeming us the WORST metro area in the whole U.S. in which to live (out of 375 metro areas)
Our local economy is currently doing better now than a lot of the rest of the country so we've been spending the last several years "cleaning up". The only good thing about having a long-running stagnant economy is that there wasn't lots of tearing down of great old structures for urban renewal....they just sat there, empty and now are getting rediscovered.
It's not all wonderful, though, we still have a loooong way to go.

BTW, There are many folks here who can't wait for Amtrak, also. I too think it'll be a hit.

Finding a unique path to progress is ten times better than following the same tired old renewal strategies (stadiums, convention centers, more parking lots) and 100 times better than continual decline.

I've been very surprised recently to see all sorts of great, unique development in odd corners of the Midwest (Grand Rapids, Winona Lake, etc). It's like the manufacturing and small-town decline is a heavy layer of grime that's slowly being swept away, and the awesome stuff underneath is starting to finally peek through.

[rockyi]

^Yeah, I love what I'm seeing in Midwest cities and towns that were once declared dead. I remember looking at the Quad Cities with optimism back in the 80s when things were at their darkest here. That optimism has really started to spread and has taken off in the last ten years. The amount of downtown lofts in Davenport, Rock Island and Moline already open or in the development stages is fantastic. I'm proud of what we've achieved....But, there's always more that can be done, often one structure at a time....Two buildings that I'm afraid might be lost forever are the Lincoln school in Rock Island (1894) that is scheduled for demolition in July. There is a group dedicated to saving it but I'm afraid it might not happen. It's a beautiful example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture and one of the few in this area...

It's actually in quite good shape for being empty since 1984. The roof is bad but the the walls are very sturdy and remarkably free of graffiti.

The other building that will soon be lost if nothing is done is the Lambrite-Peterson-Iles house in Davenport (1856). The problem here is the homeowner is living elsewhere and has no intention of renovating and refuses to talk to the city or members of the Gold Coast historical neighborhood.

This house used to be VERY visible from downtown and coming across the bridge from Rock Island but is currently very overgrown. I also fear it won't be saved. I don't understand why somebody would want to pay property taxes on a place they have no intentions of restoring.

I guess I'll just have to concentrate on what we have achieved already.