Rehabbing downtown one building at a time
People watching the transformation of downtown Shreveport are often surprised at what the removal of a piece of plywood or the installation of a new window reveals.
If the 1920s was the age of beauty and grandeur in downtown Shreveport with the construction of the neogothic Slattery Building, the Italianate YMCA, the Beaux Arts Municipal Auditorium and many other architecturally significant buildings, then the 1970s was the era of ugly.
Owners or renters unwilling (or unable) to spend money on façade finery covered it instead with sheets of painted plywood. Broken windows and doors suffered the same fate. Colors chosen for repainting the historic buildings ranged from the truly awful to whatever had been returned – and was on steep discount – at the local paint store. The look was dismal and it wasn’t getting better over time. Amazingly, the silver lining under the atrocious paint and the flaking plywood was that the original transom windows and dentil moldings and even window frames were being protected from the elements. As construction crews work on the old Sears building in the 600 block of Texas, the former Selber department store in the 600 block of Milam and the Petroleum Building in the 600 block of Market, those amazing architectural details have begun surfacing again after years of being bricked up or hidden.
Over the last several years, the Downtown Shreveport Development Corporation and Downtown Development Authority have partnered to bring several historic buildings to life and have marveled at the transformations made possible by the combination of good design guidance, hard-working, willing contractors and a desire for change.
Robinson Film Center at 617 Texas and artspace at 710 Texas went from vacant – and in the case of 617 Texas, vacant, neglected and structurally impaired – to useful, beautiful, job and income-producing as well as excitement generating. Not bad for a building that was caving in and threatening to take part of the block with it.
A month ago, Downtown Shreveport Development Corporation completed its most recent project – the total rehab of a building that was more challenging in some ways than the others. The nearly century-old, onestory brick building in the 400 block of Cotton Street had never been a fine hotel, a beautiful bank, or a sleek office building. It was a workhorse, one of the many smaller structures downtown that housed the services that kept other people in business, but the years had not been kind. At some point, the roof developed a nasty leak that was left untended. A homely structure, its age seemed to be all that was special about it. The front, once natural red brick, had been painted white and sported 1970s-era aluminum windows covered by plywood. A dented garage door covered 50 percent of the facade, and letters denoting the tenant were so haphazardly stenciled that they ran downhill. The building sat by the train tracks on a street that the locals joked was one of the worst in the city. In short, it was a building ripe for rehab. Pulling back the plywood revealed original transom windows in great shape; only three of the glass panes were broken. The 16-foot ceilings sported giant wooden trusses and steel I-beams, hidden underneath faux wood paneling was a wall of original plaster and paint. Once the layers of grime were scraped away and the modern-era interior walls came down, the goal turned to marrying a historic structure to a modern need.
Architect Kevin Bryan, who is quickly becoming a go-to guy on adaptive reuse projects, rose to the challenge. Old concrete floors complete with paint markings and divots were saved and sealed. Rafters and beams were left soaring and exposed, brick was left uncovered wherever possible, modern materials were interspersed with the old to create a handsome, functional space that shows yet again why historic buildings deserve another chance. The great thing is that nothing we did can’t be replicated by anyone else with a desire to save history. We’re happy to share what we have learned with anyone looking to do the same. In a world of cookiecutter, a historic rehab will tell a story unlike any other.
Liz Swaine is the executive director of the Downtown Development Authority. She can be reached at liz@downtownshreveport.com.
