7 hours ago, Ucgrad2015 said:

Taken 12/20.

What building is that?

1 minute ago, stpats44113 said:

What building is that?

It’s the new TownePlace suites at the northwest corner of 7th and race. 

On 12/18/2020 at 5:18 PM, jwulsin said:

The buildings appear to have been built at different times, but are now connected. The same owner owns both parcels, and all together it makes for a pretty large, complicated building. Looking at aerial images, I think they were probably built in 3 phases. 

 

Here's the aerial view looking south. 310 Perry is essentially the back half of the building. Then the 313 W 5th St parcel has two connected structures. You can see by the rooflines how the three structures are delineated. 

 

 

 

Yes, it's all one building. 

On 12/18/2020 at 3:03 PM, jwulsin said:

@mcmicken I would assume the lauan is purely decorative to cover the structural parts. It looks like they've got vertical framing that presumably bears the weight... but you're the architect and if you're concerned, then I would be too!

 

 

If you look closely, there are no structural parts! There are a half dozen 2x4s as a center pole, with 2x6 risers cantilevered out toenailed to post and 2x4  treads nailed to the bottom of the risers. Literally nothing about it would bear more than 1 person without collapsing on itself.

Residents at 550 East 4th were given a years notice to vacate so that Western Southern could renovate the building.

On 1/1/2021 at 2:34 PM, Cygnus said:

Residents at 550 East 4th were given a years notice to vacate so that Western Southern could renovate the building.

 

Yes, plans have begun for a full renovation of this building.  Built with high end features throughout, most of which are fully intact, but largely obsolete and many barely functioning.  Couldn't ask for a better location on Lytle Park next to the Residence Inn and across from the Taft Museum and new Lytle Hotel.  Taft Museum will be undergoing a full exterior restoration later this year as well.

 

Edited January 3, 20214 yr by thesenator

4 hours ago, thesenator said:

 

Yes, plans have begun for a full renovation of this building.  Built with high end features throughout, most of which are fully intact, but largely obsolete and many barely functioning.  Couldn't ask for a better location on Lytle Park next to the Residence Inn and across from the Taft Museum and new Lytle Hotel.  Taft Museum will be undergoing a full exterior restoration later this year as well.

 

 

It appears the parcels under this building are owned by the City of Cincinnati (mostly over the Lytle Tunnel).  Probably a ground lease to the apartment owner (an affiliate of Western-Southern, I believe).

On 1/3/2021 at 10:42 AM, thesenator said:

 

Yes, plans have begun for a full renovation of this building.  Built with high end features throughout, most of which are fully intact, but largely obsolete and many barely functioning.  Couldn't ask for a better location on Lytle Park next to the Residence Inn and across from the Taft Museum and new Lytle Hotel.  Taft Museum will be undergoing a full exterior restoration later this year as well.

 

I alwayst thought these buildings were condos. Who knew.

It looks like interior demolition work is about to start at the Second National Bank building. A trash chute has been installed on the north side of the building and they have some parking spaces blocked where the dumpsters will probably sit. The first phase of that project involves converting the existing historic building into 60 apartments.

22 minutes ago, Guy23 said:

Aren’t these protected from demolition because of the 4th St Historic District?

 

Ha Ha...thats funny. They'd let GAm demo Music Hall if they wanted to..

On 1/10/2021 at 4:41 PM, taestell said:

It looks like interior demolition work is about to start at the Second National Bank building. A trash chute has been installed on the north side of the building and they have some parking spaces blocked where the dumpsters will probably sit. The first phase of that project involves converting the existing historic building into 60 apartments.

 

 

^ I posted the above image on Twitter and someone has already replied calling this project "gentrification." Who knew that converting a vacant Class B office space into market rate apartments resulted in displacement!

21 minutes ago, taestell said:

^ I posted the above image on Twitter and someone has already replied calling this project "gentrification." Who knew that converting a vacant Class B into market rate apartments resulted in displacement!

Pigeon Gentrification is not a laughing matter Jim!!

 

26 minutes ago, taestell said:

^ I posted the above image on Twitter and someone has already replied calling this project "gentrification." Who knew that converting a vacant Class B into market rate apartments resulted in displacement!

 

Anybody under the age of 30 is too young to remember when almost every part of almost every U.S. city was cheap to live in because it was semi-abandoned if not completely abandoned.  The only way cities are going to get cheap again is if they are abandoned, and then these same people will complain about vacant storefronts, high crime, etc.  

 

 

 

 

On 9/22/2014 at 3:02 PM, Ram23 said:

The Chong is an interesting store. The guy who owns the store owns the entire building and has since 1993. I have no idea what the upper floors are, but with those tiny windows it must be an awful space to be in.

 

There's some charm to this stretch of Race because of the ugly 1950's architecture.

 

^ As for the CVS, the building it is in was built in 1950 per the county auditor, which looks about right. It seems to have a different owner than the tower portion, even though it looks like one building. The building The Chong is in was built in 1865 per the auditor, but it seems like something was demolished and The Chong building was built in its place, unless it was a fairly substantial 1950's remodel. Sanborn maps would probably be more accurate.

Bringing this back from the dead thanks to a Bill Rinehart tweet. Looks like it was a giant remodel and it has columns?!?

^Alternatively, they could have bricked in the windows and modeled it after the Terrace.  

Interesting structure being revealed as they remove the brick from Chong's.

 

 

9 minutes ago, dotunderscore said:

Interesting structure being revealed as they remove the brick from Chong's.

 

 

Amazing!, thats seems like a lot of construction activity, did 3CDC already announce plans?

imagine having those large openings, and wanting to close them all up!

"yeah, this'll be nice"

 

 

what a moment for design appreciation

What were architects/developers thinking in the 1950s?! I mean who would cover large windows bringing in natural light with that f'ing brick facade? 

Downtown Hamilton used to have so many ugly false fronts that obscured beautiful facades. This revelation reminds of the excitement I had seeing those give way to the original designs. Lets hope this one can be salvaged.

24 minutes ago, ucgrady said:

What were architects/developers thinking in the 1950s?! I mean who would cover large windows bringing in natural light with that f'ing brick facade? 

 

That classical architecture was passé, these buildings were old and rundown, and those big old windows were drafty and made heating very expensive (don't even think about air conditioning).  New/sleek/modern = good and old/ornamental/classical = bad.  A new façade was a relatively inexpensive way to get what looks like a new modern building.  

 

That explains drop-ceilings too, which keep the heat from floating up to the high ceilings, while also giving room to run a/c ducts and the additional wires and pipes necessary for modern lighting, bathrooms, and eventually networking.   It's much cheaper to just hide all the old stuff than to fix it. 

 

Classical architecture exteriors and interiors were a dime a dozen back then.  Clean modernism with fluorescent lighting and air conditioning was the new thing.  Now it's the other way around.  Lots of natural light isn't always ideal in office settings either, especially with computer screens.  It can be too dark and chilling at night, and uncomfortably bright and hot during the day without very careful engineering.

my guess is that it could have been Kroger that combined the 3 buildings and used the upper floors for stock/storage?

 

 

 

 

Does anyone have a rendering of what this building used to look like before the remodel of the exterior?

27 minutes ago, jjakucyk said:

 

That classical architecture was passé, these buildings were old and rundown, and those big old windows were drafty and made heating very expensive (don't even think about air conditioning).  New/sleek/modern = good and old/ornamental/classical = bad.  A new façade was a relatively inexpensive way to get what looks like a new modern building.  

 

That explains drop-ceilings too, which keep the heat from floating up to the high ceilings, while also giving room to run a/c ducts and the additional wires and pipes necessary for modern lighting, bathrooms, and eventually networking.   It's much cheaper to just hide all the old stuff than to fix it. 

 

Classical architecture exteriors and interiors were a dime a dozen back then.  Clean modernism with fluorescent lighting and air conditioning was the new thing.  Now it's the other way around.  Lots of natural light isn't always ideal in office settings either, especially with computer screens.  It can be too dark and chilling at night, and uncomfortably bright and hot during the day without very careful engineering.

 

I hope people think about that kind of stuff when they destroy things from the '70s and '80s too, not just things that are 80 or more years old at the time. It's more easy to see something that is intact from the '60s then it is to see anything made between 1970 and 2000 that hasn't been totally gutted.

44 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

 

I hope people think about that kind of stuff when they destroy things from the '70s and '80s too, not just things that are 80 or more years old at the time. It's more easy to see something that is intact from the '60s then it is to see anything made between 1970 and 2000 that hasn't been totally gutted.

I think the big difference is that the nature of construction had changed so much by the 1970's. Commercial buildings started to become nothing more than cinderblock boxes whose interiors continue to be reconfigured to this day. I wonder how much of this is due to changes in tax codes regarding depreciation, and how much was simply rising labor rates for craftmanship style finish work?

Will anyone want to save EIFS exteriors from the 1990's? Should they?

Edited January 25, 20214 yr by TheCOV

It's a little painful to see because it looks like they chiseled off the top of the columns in order to create a flat surface to put up the modern brick facade. I wonder if 3CDC can/will restore the details that were lost.

26 minutes ago, taestell said:

It's a little painful to see because it looks like they chiseled off the top of the columns in order to create a flat surface to put up the modern brick facade. I wonder if 3CDC can/will restore the details that were lost.

Alms and Doepke on Central Parkway at Sycamore which was rehabbed by the county had much worse destruction of limestone details to contend with.

2 hours ago, TheCOV said:

Downtown Hamilton used to have so many ugly false fronts that obscured beautiful facades. 

 

One of my friends' uncles owned and operated one of them, "Home Furniture":

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.399035,-84.5622744,3a,75y,252.41h,102.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3tYM6TG4Yq_Fd8H_eEbZnw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

It shut down about two months after Ikea opened.  Previously, it made like half of its money for the whole year selling stuff to incoming Miami students who chucked whatever they bought right back out on the sidewalk at the end of the school year.  Now those same students do the same thing but with Ikea stuff.  

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

One of my friends' uncles owned and operated one of them, "Home Furniture":

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.399035,-84.5622744,3a,75y,252.41h,102.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3tYM6TG4Yq_Fd8H_eEbZnw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

It shut down about two months after Ikea opened.  Previously, it made like half of its money for the whole year selling stuff to incoming Miami students who chucked whatever they bought right back out on the sidewalk at the end of the school year.  Now those same students do the same thing but with Ikea stuff.  

 

 

 

I loved going into that place. it was pretty cool on the upper levels. i used to stop in there back when I used to be in Hamilton a few days a week. Very nice family that owned it. I was sorry to hear it closed. 

I still don't fully believe that The Chong is closed for good. They're the cockroach of downtown. 

3 hours ago, TheCOV said:

Downtown Hamilton used to have so many ugly false fronts that obscured beautiful facades. This revelation reminds of the excitement I had seeing those give way to the original designs. Lets hope this one can be salvaged.

 

By my count, there were at least twelve buildings in Hamilton that once had cladding. Six have been uncovered and restored, two demolished, one reclad in a better design, and three still hidden.

 

Most of Hamilton's cladding jobs were just metal screens, however. The masonry cladding on the Kroger/Chong building is much more substantial, almost like the cladding job on Shillito's (which I hope never comes off).

1 hour ago, BigDipper 80 said:

I still don't fully believe that The Chong is closed for good. They're the cockroach of downtown.

 

I'd like to know how they stayed in business for as long as they did. 

23 minutes ago, ink said:

 

Most of Hamilton's cladding jobs were just metal screens, however. 

 

The McDonald's on Sixth St. had a light blue metal screen and of course a gigantic "M".  Batsake's was on the corner in a short garish art deco building and Hustler was to the left of the McDonald's.  Around the corner was the decrepit Metropole + Phoenix Cafe.  Altogether it was like a 50/50 mash-up of Baltimore and Santa Monica.  Like John Waters goes surfing.  It was awesome.  Way more personality than the CAC.  

1 hour ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

The McDonald's on Sixth St. had a light blue metal screen and of course a gigantic "M".  Batsake's was on the corner in a short garish art deco building and Hustler was to the left of the McDonald's.  Around the corner was the decrepit Metropole + Phoenix Cafe.  Altogether it was like a 50/50 mash-up of Baltimore and Santa Monica.  Like John Waters goes surfing.  It was awesome.  Way more personality than the CAC.  

Ah yes, it was glorious!!

Can you folks please keep the pictures coming of the progress on the Chong building for us out of towners! I'd love to watch the progress and see what's underneath!

 

The back of this/these buildings are accessible (as we all know) from College Street. There's a really cool vibe back there. Not sure why. Maybe it's the old signs or the sense that you've transported out of downtown Cincinnati. Also the building just to the south of Chong has this interest curve on the back side of it that I am sure has an interesting story. 

Edited January 26, 20214 yr by Rabbit Hash
Typo.

23 hours ago, dotunderscore said:

Interesting structure being revealed as they remove the brick from Chong's.

 

 

Whooooaaa ... that's crazy!!!

more detail revealed

What are the plans for the building?

8 minutes ago, seaswan said:

What are the plans for the building?

3cdc owns it so I’m assuming apartments maybe office space. The facade reminds me of the 3 story vacant building at west 4th and Race. Thinking about that building does anyone know what’s going on with it? It’s sat vacant for as long as I can remember and its a great looking building. Would actually make a great urban target with the new 4th and Race right by. 

Wow--there is a lot left. They should be able to do something great, if the same level is generally intact across the building.

1 hour ago, ink said:

Wow--there is a lot left. They should be able to do something great, if the same level is generally intact across the building.

 

I suppose that if they got historic tax credits that they're obligated to restore it per that program.  But if not they could just use the damage as a jumping-off point to rehab the facade in an interesting way.  

2 hours ago, dotunderscore said:

more detail revealed

 

I'm so happy to see a once, "meh" looking building, transform back to it's original historic gem 💎

Hear me out: I would love if they saved ONE bay of the mid century update. This is the same thing that happened to the Shillito Building. If anyone else on UO sat through the same Jerry Larson History of Architecture lectures at DAAP that I did, then you would know that what we see on 7th Street and what we see on Shillito Place are the same building captured at two different moments in architectural style history. It's pretty cool to be able to witness architecture through that span of time.

43 minutes ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

Hear me out: I would love if they saved ONE bay of the mid century update. This is the same thing that happened to the Shillito Building. If anyone else on UO sat through the same Jerry Larson History of Architecture lectures at DAAP that I did, then you would know that what we see on 7th Street and what we see on Shillito Place are the same building captured at two different moments in architectural style history. It's pretty cool to be able to witness architecture through that span of time.

 

Yeah or continue to dismantle by hand but leave maybe the bottom left corner intact but with a jagged line.  In bad parts of town you'll see where someone starts painting a building but runs out of paint.  The effect would be like that.  

 

 

 

51 minutes ago, Chas Wiederhold said:

Hear me out: I would love if they saved ONE bay of the mid century update. This is the same thing that happened to the Shillito Building. If anyone else on UO sat through the same Jerry Larson History of Architecture lectures at DAAP that I did, then you would know that what we see on 7th Street and what we see on Shillito Place are the same building captured at two different moments in architectural style history. It's pretty cool to be able to witness architecture through that span of time.

 

And as a tribute to The Chong!

38 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

 

And as a tribute to The Chong!

A portion of the The Chong will be perpetually holding a 70% Off Everything Must Go sale. It's very appropriate. Peak historic preservation.

Edited January 26, 20214 yr by Chas Wiederhold

3 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

In bad parts of town you'll see where someone starts painting a building but runs out of paint.

 

 

 

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1273859,-84.5352889,3a,49y,25.05h,100.43t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1smGeT-dmgLMUuCslIfjs4rg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DmGeT-dmgLMUuCslIfjs4rg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D285.14%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

 

 

20 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1273859,-84.5352889,3a,49y,25.05h,100.43t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1smGeT-dmgLMUuCslIfjs4rg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DmGeT-dmgLMUuCslIfjs4rg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D285.14%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

 

 

https://goo.gl/maps/Ge72Ko3zzLh2coB46