Just in case you were losing sleep over the disappearance of the plate-glass sign man on West Main Street, rest assured, yesterday we spotted him back in his normal spot near the corner of Ninth Street. No need to fear he was planning some strange Halloween prank where he might jump out from behind the corner, yelling ‘Boo’ and waving his mirror.
This week’s blank wall covers nearly an entire block of East Main Street and is home to family-owned Service Tanks Corporation. Even though the wall casts a shadow on nearly 400 feet of sidewalk, there is something about this building that we love. Maybe it’s the faded and mottled blue fiberglass cladding or the massive purity of form of the entire structure, or maybe its the sheer scale of the wall that seems to go on forever. Whatever it is, this wall plays on our psyche with its monotonous tone.
Blue fiberglass mystique aside, the building still creates a massive dead zone in the gentrifying East Village and a visual barrier for Butchertown to the north. The constant metal-on-metal pounding, grating, and clashing that goes on inside is also unsettling to the passer-by. The building is an anachronism is the modern urban area, a throwback to the 20th century when gigantic industrial warehouses engulfed city blocks in the ever changing clangor of the industrial city.
The building is not the business. Sure the blue Service Tanks building sure looks like one giant service tank, but it is important to distinguish between the building and its occupant. While the urban form of this blank wall is less than ideal, the business and the jobs going on inside are important. The business is one of Louisville’s home-grown-success stories. They have been located on Clay Street since the 1920s. Here’s some info from their web site:
In 1923, Earl F.Greer I, started a small welding shop on Clay Street in downtown Louisville. In 1928, the company incorporated and began manufacturing storage tanks as well as doing repair work and miscellaneous projects. Mr. Earl’s two children joined the company as they reached adulthood.
During World War II, the company operated around the clock manufacturing segmented tank treads for the M-6 army vehicles to assist the war effort. Post war demand for truck tanks and storage tanks resulted in expansion of our facilities to satisfy the customer’s requirements.
The sixties and seventies saw our company grow in capacity and manufacturing quality. Two of the four grandchildren chose Service Welding as their career. The company now occupies one city block with an additional 7-1/2 acres of storage nearby.
About two months ago, work began on a small warehouse on Shelby Street between Main and Market streets. What could have been just another boring building is shaping up to become one of the nicest modern warehouses built in Louisville. The warehouse is being built by high-tech firm Quadrant Technologies which operates out of the renovated fire station on the corner of Shelby and Main Streets.
The building is small but rich in detail. It is being built in the craftsman style and will be clad in siding and shakes. It’s design was inspired by a house the owner saw in California. It’s a nice touch that the building includes real windows and dormers helping the two-story structure blend into the historic neighborhood.
Well, the results are in, and it looks like there’s no room for debate: Bardstown Road has been voted Louisville’s greatest street, trouncing the competition with 63 percent of the vote. We have to admit, it didn’t take a crystal ball to pick the winner of this contest, but the results are still interesting.
West Main Street, recently named one of the Top Ten Streets in America placed third with only 10 percent of the vote and Fourth Street was shamed as it received not a single vote (We wonder how the results would change if you could vote against a street?). Southern Parkway, perhaps the greatest of the Olmsted parkways in Louisville, pulled in a surprising 8 percent—or three votes—to upset the gentrifying East Market Street. Frankfort Avenue came in a not-so-close second with 15 percent.
Downtown’s newest tower crane was installed over the last weekend on the campus of Jefferson Community & Technical College on Second Street to help speed along construction of their new Allied Health Building. The new $25.6 million, four-story building has begun to rise out of the ground over the last few months as concrete columns project from the first floor.
Around the corner, in a tight space that was once the seldom used terraced courtyard, crews have been installing formwork in preparation for a concrete pour next week that will enclose the basement. Once the concrete has set on the ground level, expect to see evidence of progress quicken as the second level takes shape. The character of the street changes dramatically as a void is filled in and the urban edge of the city is defined. This new building will be clad predominantly in metal panels, brick, and glass and features a prominent stair tower along Second Street as well as a defined cornice line. The structure was designed by Arrasmith, Judd, Rapp, Chovan. of Louisville.
Jewish Hospital is getting serious about selling the old J.C. Penney Building on the corner of Fourth Street and Guthrie Green. Earlier this year, the hospital was considering keeping the building and giving it an exterior face-lift, but it now looks like the hospital will continue to seek a buyer. The building in question is three stories and clad in pink synthetic stucco and last operated as a department store in 1982. An identical neighboring two-story building called the W.T. Grant building is seamlessly clad in the very same pink stucco and is not part of the deal. It will remain as offices for Jewish Hospital. JH Properties also owns the parking garage on the corner of Fourth Street and Chestnut Street.
The building is just over 66,000 square feet over three floors and is listed at $2.3 million. The original brick facade allegedly still exists underneath the pink stucco and styrofoam, but there’s no telling what condition it might be in. Any buyer would be advised to revamp the facade ASAP, probably scrapping the brick for glass anyway. Here’s that catch, though: Jewish Hospital will retain the building’s basement for its own use and the buyer will own only the three floors above grade. That’s still a lot of space to make into, say, an entertainment complex. That’s what the Cordish Companies thought back in 2005 when it announced it had purchased the property for an extension to 4th Street Live. They even paid a $75,000 non-refundable deposit before the closing date in March 2006. They had promised to have tenants in the building within 18 months. That deal obviously fell through leaving one of the most ideally located properties on Fourth Street languishing away.
Not a lot has been happening on this stretch of Fourth Street since 4th Street Live opened. An upscale Japanese restaurant has cancelled its plans for City Property Group’s Wright-Taylor Building and a local club once planned for the McCrory’s building has fallen through. With the J.C. Penney building’s location on a pedestrian mall just a block south of Cordish’s development and between the Brown and Seelbach hotels, redevelopment of the property is only a matter of time. Recently, there has been substantial interest in the building even though nothing has materialized. Even last week, a potential deal for the building began discussions, so hopefully we might hear something about the property soon.
Construction has been quietly making progress next to the Independence Building on Muhammad Ali Boulevard between First and Second streets. A small non-descript, completely blank, white building has been remade into a pretty nice, though still sidewalk inaccessible, office building.
The structure is small and during the demolition phase earlier this year, we thought they were taking the entire thing out. Masons soon arrived with bricks and cast stone to add a traditional facade. Windows were punctured into the walls so the building at least recognizes, “Hey! There’s a sidewalk out there,” even though that’s about as far as it’s willing to go. Entrances are gated from Muhammad Ali Blvd. and you must walk around to the alley or to Second Street to enter from the parking lot.
Half the building will be taken over by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital offices which will move from a historic red brick building across Second Street that’s probably going to be demolished for the Center City project. The Independence Building next door contains just over 26,000 square feet and features a mural of Independence Hall of Philly in its lobby. The modern-styled limestone building was built in 1961.
