Fairmont vs. Mt. Notre Dame
Miami Valley styles
'Tis the Season Festival
Get latest headlines via RSS feeds
NewsVine
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Reddit
StumbleuponArchitectural firms donate design time to downtown buildings
Thursday, October 09, 2008
DAYTON — Local architecture firms will apply their design expertise to 10 downtown buildings in hope that someday those buildings get major face lifts and new tenants.
City and local architecture officials announced Thursday, Oct. 9, plans for the Strategic Building Reuse Project, in which 10 local firms will plan updates and modifications to 10 buildings in the core business district.
"It has been so easy to default to, 'Everything is going bad,' " said Michael Greitzer, co-chair of the Downtown Dayton Partnership. "No one else is going to pull the city of Dayton up by its bootstraps. The city of Dayton and the private sector, hand in hand, are going to have to craft a proposition that will resonate with businesses that are going to stay and businesses we want to attract."
The firms will submit final plans by the end of the year for the project, which started last spring when city officials decided they wanted to convert unused office space into updated office, housing or mixed-use space. Officials will seek out developers once the firms' plans have been submitted.
Much of the firms' time will be donated.
"This is an opportunity to lend our talent and our expertise to re-envision what downtown could be in the future," said Bill Williams, president of the local chapter of American Institute for Architects.
Officials hope the reuse plan will inject enthusiasm and energy into a downtown that has steadily lost tenants and population in the past decade.
"Part of this whole process is rethinking the use of what we have and then doing things with it ...," said Bob Shiffler, owner of the Kuhns, McCrory and Schwind buildings and chair of the reuse initiative. "We want to engage lots of people."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com
Updates Under Review
| Building | Architecture Firm |
| 18-20 S. Jefferson Building | Matrix Architects |
| 146 E. Third Street | Greg Lauterbach Architects |
| 25 S. Main Street | Jeff Wray Architects |
| KeyBank Building | Levin Porter Associates |
| Price Stores Building | Earl Reeder Architects |
| Transportation Center | Rogero Buckman Architects |
| Walker Building | The Architectural Group |
| David Building, 115 E. Third St. | John Poe Architects |
| Leigh Building | Lorenz & Williams |
| Merchants Row, Third Street | App Architects |
