Today’s building is in Cincinnati, Ohio:

Here’s the side. Between the attached CVS building and the building’s front on the big corner, there are a bunch of little storefronts.

It sort of resembles a lot of office buildings:

Or maybe an old department store:

Now this is a building type I’ve featured a lot here, but it doesn’t have, or at least no longer has, many of the typical design clues as to its original purpose. Do you know?

Now you do:

Here’s the full vintage photo in the top right there. Look at the big urban buildings that are standing where the CVS and a parking lot are now. Also the streetcar tracks.

The building and its immediate area are being renovated to try to bring more economic life back to the neighborhood. Here’s an article from 2017, when this was beginning. Here’s the gist of the project, with a neat bit on the building’s history:

The building used to be topped by a metal spire that was taken down during World War II to be donated to the war effort.

Starting in the 1940s, the building hosted McDevitt Menswear, a retailer of “better men’s clothes.” It had been vacant for years when Richshafer moved from 911 Vine St. to make way for the main library’s north building expansion in 1977 (he previously had to move from 813 Vine St. to make way for the main library building).

Renovation has started on the Paramount Building, which itself will house 15 residential units and 24,600 square feet of commercial space, 10,000 of which will be taken up by Esoteric Brewing. The larger Paramount Square development includes 957 E. McMillan St., 2436-2454 Gilbert Ave., and 2363 St. James Ave., which will make up 44 apartments and 15 commercial spaces totaling a $20 million project cost.

That’s so cool. Accommodating the existing urban fabric while doing more with it should be a best practice. It’s historic preservation, but alive.

Related Reading:

A Lesson in Adaptive Reuse

Nothing to Write Home About

“Excuse Me, Where’s the Car Aisle?”

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