Ten Downtown Buildings: Re-use study.

Ten downtown buildigns as a design study. Ten local architectural firms get 1o buildings to propose a re-use. Read about it at this DMM post.

The buildings on a downtown map:And pix keyed to the map.



South Jefferson Street

Starting with the "Transportation Center" (AKA "that big parking garage"). It would take a couple of snapshots to really capture this building, but its a big monolithic barrier between downtown and the Oregon District. Here is the Jefferson Street facade, as it fits in with the next two subjects.
Next, across the street, Price Brothers. There might be a stone neo-romanesque facade hiding beneath that gold screen.


A half block south on Jefferson, 20 s. Jefferson has a crumbling terra cotta facade. This is maybe the most intriguing one as what's proposed here could be applied to three other similar buildings nearby


The Fire Blocks

"Merchants Row". The city designates this entire block as Merchants Row, so not sure if this is going to be an urban design scheme or the architect is going to be working with specfic buildings. This block, or most of it, is listed on the National Register as the "Fire Blocks", rebuilt after a fire during the 1913 flood.


The "David Building", one of the Merchants Row buildings. This place actually has a few tenants already, including a charter school on the upper floors. Whats notable about this one is that it seems to have the original windows.


Also on Merchants Row, kittycorner from the library, the big windows suggest a loft conversion. Ground floor is a funky mix of porn, the Dayton Dirt Collective, and Bingers.


Main Street Buildings

The next three would be eligible for city money. See this post about the fund left over from the Shuster Center construction and its set-aside for Main Street renovations.

25 South Main was closed as offices in the mid 1970s and was aquired by the city in the mid 1980s as part of the failed Arcade Centre urban renewal project. Recently news reports say it was given to Bob Shiffler, who owns the old McCrorys next door.


The KeyBank Building is at a prominent location at the heart of downtown and will be empty when Keybank relocates across the street to the former Mead Tower. This building is a good example of the Chicago approach to high-rises (think Michigan Avenue facing Grant Park), as discussed in the book Form Follows Finance.


The Walker Building is a former mens' clothing store, notable for how it wraps around the corner high rise, having a facade on 1st Street (left) and Main (right).

Moving off Main, another parking garage. At the corner of 2nd and Ludlow, again at a prominent location in the heart of downtown, the Leigh Building does a pretty good job of "holding the corner" and creating street space. The Leigh Building also fits into the prewar Dayton tradition of disguising garages to look like a downtown commercial blocks via that neat facade treatment. Does this need that much work?




(but yes, the garage interior is dark and grungy)

Next, a look on how these subjects fit in with what's going on downtown.