There may be nothing sexier in downtown development that a good old fashioned striptease. You heard me. Before you proceed, click the link for the music just to get you in the mood:
Downtown development is a process and sometimes stripping down to your roots is the best way to get that process started. Here in Georgia, we average one building rehabilitation completed in our Main Street cities everyday of the year. It's just plain exciting to watch. It takes a willing eye to imagine what is underneath those layers of paint, tin, fiberglass, stucco, and slipcovers that have adorned our downtown buildings since the 1960s. Today we see buildings like this (the old Belk Matthews in Milledgeville, Georgia):
become buildings like this:
The hard work and close eye to detail by developers like Frank Pendergast made this project possible. Using our Downtown Design Studio in Athens, Frank and Milledgeville saw the reclamation of this downtown eyesore into a centerpiece for mid-block rejuvenation. Now home to lofts, an interior courtyard and reclaimed retail space that includes a restaurant, the building houses students from Georgia College & State University, and even a family with two young children. This strip job was gorgeous!In many towns around our nation, we see this:
Imagine the time and energy that went into planning buildings so that the daytime light could be used to benefit the space inside. Then generations later, we forgot the need of daylight when we forgot that second and third floors could be valuable and useful space instead of something that we just cover up.
Thanks to the hard work of groups like the Kirbo Charitable Trust and Main Street Bainbridge, Georgia, this property got a face life that included reclaiming it's original assets. Our Downtown Design Studio staff provided a plan for renovation and restoration and now this space has life on multiple floors again:
Who thinks closing down Main Street permanently is a great idea? The federal government did when they provided grants to Toccoa, Georgia to convert their downtown into a pedestrian mall. Concrete canopies lined what use to be the streetscape. Not too many years later, the stores were gone, the customers were gone, but the concrete stood. Thanks to the leadership of Toccoa and its Main Street Program, the canopies came down and the façades were restored. It's amazing to see this city today!
Finally, in the town I call home, Canton, Georgia, the County sold its abandoned administrative office complex downtown to a developer to remove metal awnings and stucco. The past is being revealed one piece at a time and it's so exciting to see what's going to happen here.
If you want your downtown to improve, sometimes the best way to catch the public eye is a sexy façade striptease!
