Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician
But I just wish it were located elsewhere. Downtown is all about street facing retail, density, enclosure, walkability. This is a motel.
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It actually isn't that auto centric though which is what is charming about it. Compare it to the HoJo that came down for that Magellan tower. It DOES have retail on the ground floor, just on the corner. Until recently that retail was filled with a trendy Leghorn Chicken joint. That's the most appropriate spot for retail. While it does have a parking lot, something about the design of the building, probably the nifty corner retail/office structure makes it feel inviting, not like it is solely the domain of the automobile. Pedestrians regularly cut through the parking lot without fear for their lives. I would rather have these kinds of parking spaces where pedestrians share them with cars than fenced off lots and garages. Make drivers accept that a pedestrian can be anywhere at any time, even in a parking lot, and you will make all spaces in the city safer.
As others have mentioned, it could be adaptively reused in a number of ways. It could be converted to townhomes (which would be the worst option given the fact that it would probably be fenced off), it could be converted to retail on the ground floor and offices upstairs. Or it could just be left as is and upgraded as a trendy hotel.
Given the amount of festering post industrial sores our city is littered with, a building like Ohio House should, at a minimum, be wayyyyy down on the list of places to be razed.
It's funny, I literally just found a box full of about mid century 50 ashtrays in a building I am renovating. They are mostly from Vegas Casinos (very cool), but there are also a bunch from random motor lodges around the US apparently collected by someone on wide ranging roadtrips around the country. One of the is from a place called "Redwood Motel" in Mankato Minnesota that had an image of the lodge on it that made me immediately think of Ohio House and Heart O Chicago and all the other lovely googie motels we have smattered around down.