20+ historic sites downtown vie for facade program
Published: 07.23.2008
20+ historic sites downtown vie for facade program
TEYA VITU
Tucson Citizen
More than 20 historic downtown buildings will be evaluated for the city's $530,000 facade improvement program.
Property owners from many prominent downtown businesses met the Tuesday deadline to be considered for the program, said Glenn Lyons, chief executive of the Downtown Tucson Partnership.
"I'm terribly pleased," Lyons said. "I had no idea we'd have this kind of response."
That's because property owners have to make a 50-50 match for the city funding if they are among the four chosen to do facade work. Applicants include Hotel Congress, Wig-O-Rama, Beowulf Alley Theatre and ArtFare The Muse.
The selection committee headed by Lyons expects to narrow the list by Aug. 1 to eight applicants. They will each be assigned an architect and each given $7,500 from the program fund to prepare their concept and renovation proposals, which are due Oct. 7.
The selection committee expects to announce four finalists Nov. 8. City funding could be as much as $125,000 for a corner property and $90,000 for one midblock.
"It'll be hard to choose eight and then four," Lyons said.
The buildings have to date from before 1948 and must have an original facade that can be restored. The program is limited to buildings on Broadway and Congress and Pennington streets, between Toole and Church avenues, Lyons said.
The selection committee is Lyons and Donovan Durband from the partnership; Assistant City Manager Karen Masbruch and her assistant, Fran La Sala; Brooks Jeffery, associate dean of the architecture school at the University of Arizona; Demion Clinco from the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission; developer Phil Lipman; Mary Lou Focht, owner of Old Town Artisans; and Jonathan Mabry, the city's historic preservation officer.
"Can you imagine what downtown would be like if we could fund all 23 (applicants)?" Lyons mused. "You wouldn't recognize the place. It would be the most historic downtown in North America."
-----------------------
WHO'S APPLIED
Applicants for city's facade improvement program
Address Business/property name owner year built
311 E. Congress St. Hotel Congress Richard Oseran 1919
111-121 E. Congress St. W.A. Julian Bldg./former Club Asylum David Nichols 1908
20 E. Congress St. Western Union/Bank Annex Building Bourn Partners 1913
72 E. Congress St. Rebeil Block/Indian Village Building Bourn Partners 1897
178-186 E. Broadway Julian Drew Building Urban Ventures/Ross Rulney 1917
118 S. Fifth Ave. The Carriage House Urban Ventures/Ross Rulney 1920
63 E. Congress St. McLellan Building John Wesley Miller 1946
256-278 E. Congress St. Block between Arizona and Fifth avenues Tucson Urban Land LLC (WDD/Peach) ca. 1915-1920
64 E. Broadway
Southern Arizona Legal Aid Ron Schwabe/Gwendolyn Weiner 1919
101 E. Pennington St. Reilly Mortuary Steve Fenton 1907
98-110 E. Congress St. Wig -O-Rama, Grill, Vaudeville Cabaret Miyung & Suk Hoo Kim 1915
210 E. Broadway Tucson Academy of Leadership & Arts Medlar Investments/Dr. Frank DiPietro 1944
300-320 E. Congress St. Rialto Block Don Martin 1920
44 N. Stone Ave. Roy Place Building/old Walgreens, Montgomery Ward Pima County 1929
40 W. Broadway Charles O. Brown House/El Centro Cultural de las Americas Arizona Historical Society ca. 1855
11 S. Sixth Ave. Beowulf Alley Theatre/former Johnny Gibson Gym Equipment Co. Gibson Family ca. 1915-1920
127 E. Congress St. The Screening Room Arizona Media Arts Center 1906
254 E. Congress St. Block between Sixth and Arizona avenues Shirley Cooney/Congress St. Partners 1900
31-47 N. Sixth Ave. Art Fare Mary Williamson 1917
51 N. Sixth Ave. Art Fare Richard Melikian 1930
55 N. Sixth Ave. Art Fare Richard Melikian 1945
