Adaptive Reuse

Old Milwaukee Is New Again: Pabst Brewhouse Becomes Brewhouse Inn & Suites

Posted on: May 6th, 2013 by David Robert Weible No Comments

 

Original PBR campus. Credit: Brewhouse Inn & Suites
The Brewhouse, part of the original Pabst campus, built in 1892.

Milwaukee is a hard-nosed town. It was built on heavy machinery, third shifters, and the no-nonsense beer they drank after the whistle blew. And though decades of decline had left the city largely stale and generally unpalatable, Milwaukeeans -- true to form -- brewed up a solution and followed a cue from one of their city’s icons, Pabst Blue Ribbon: They started to take old Milwaukee and make it cool again.... Read More →

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible is an assistant editor at Preservation magazine. He came to DC from Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote for Sailing World and Outside magazines.

“Come On In My Kitchen”: Homeless Shelter to Restore Famed Robert Johnson Recording Studio

Posted on: May 1st, 2013 by David Robert Weible 2 Comments

 

Exterior of 508 Park Avenue. Credit: Alan Govenar/508Park, flickr

Robert Johnson was never a rock star, but the 13 tracks the wandering blues musician laid down at the makeshift studio inside 508 Park Avenue in Dallas in 1937 eventually inspired musicians like Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton (who even recorded there in 2004). Now, thanks to a $12 million restoration project headed by the Stewpot, a homeless shelter located across the street, the building itself will have an opportunity to do the same for generations of musicians to come.... Read More →

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible

David Robert Weible is an assistant editor at Preservation magazine. He came to DC from Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote for Sailing World and Outside magazines.

[Slideshow] Historic DC Church Gets a Mural Makeover

Posted on: April 12th, 2013 by Emily Potter 6 Comments

 

Alex Brewer, better known as HENSE, is an Atlanta, Ga.-based graffiti artist who took to Washington, D.C.’s city streets last year for a private commission to transform an abandoned, historic church into a work of art.

blog_photo_HENSE_studio
HENSE in his studio.

... Read More →

Emily Potter

Emily Potter is a copywriter at the National Trust. She enjoys writing about places of all kinds, the stories that make them special, and the people who love them enough to save them.

[Slideshow] A Makeover for the Mayo Building

Posted on: March 27th, 2013 by Gwendolyn Purdom

 

A majestic relic of turn-of-the-20th century Tulsa, Okla., the Mayo Building, erected by two of the state’s founders, Cass and John Mayo, is the last remaining building in the city’s original “skyscraper district.” But as recently as 2005, the structure was abandoned and derelict.

Enter developer Wiggin Properties, LLC and architects Kinslow, Keith & Todd, who transformed the forgotten property into a mixed use residential and commercial building, earning the $30 million project the 2012 National Housing & Rehabilitation Association’s Best Historic Rehab Utilizing New Market Tax Credits award, among other recognition. There’s now even a permanent display in the structure’s public spaces that tells the Mayo Building’s unlikely story.

Take a look at our slideshow to find out more about this inspiring makeover.

The Mayo 420 Building is a lunchtime destination for downtown workers drawn to the YMCA and Billy’s Restaurant.
Gwendolyn Purdom

Gwendolyn Purdom

Gwendolyn Purdom is an associate editor at Preservation magazine. A Chicago native, Gwendolyn is passionate about the people and stories behind historic places – the quirkier the better.

Going Against the Grain: Historic Jail Becomes the Maine Grains Grist Mill

Posted on: March 25th, 2013 by Katherine Flynn

 

Lambke and her business partner, Michael Scholz, bought a 5,000-square-foot jail building in 2009 and turned it into a grist mill. Credit: Amber Lambke
Amber Lambke and her business partner, Michael Scholz

When Amber Lambke toured a historic jail building in downtown Skowhegan, Maine, in 2007, she already thought that it seemed like the perfect space for a grist mill that would process grains grown by local farmers. It didn’t matter that the jail would be pricey to renovate, or that, at the time, it was still filled with inmates.

Lambke purchased the 14,000-square-foot building in 2009, beginning a process that she saw as essential to reviving a once-thriving grain economy in central Maine.

“We realized that farmers in our area weren’t really interested in growing grains until they knew who was going to buy them and process them,” Lambke says. She saw the mill as a way to bolster their livelihoods, while at the same time providing residents of Skowhegan and neighboring towns with organic, fresh-milled flour.... Read More →

Katherine Flynn

Katherine Flynn

Katherine Flynn is an editorial assistant at Preservation magazine. Her work has appeared online at the Washington Post and in Consequence of Sound, a music and culture blog.