While in New York this past weekend, I stopped into a grand building at the corner of 8th avenue and 14th street.
The building in question is now a
CVS pharmacy but started life as a bank. This type of repurposing has become common recently as churches become restaurants and banks apparently become pharmacies. You may remember my recent
POST on the Gordon Biersch restaurant here in DC in an old bank as well.
While I'm glad to see beautiful old buildings getting a 2nd life rather than meeting with the wrecking ball, I have to question the number of bland branch banks (every street corner in many cities including here in DC) when beautiful old structures sit vacant.
This definitely is the most beautiful CVS ever built and even had great new lighting. What examples of repurposed buildings are near you?
Most are gas stations on to something else. But a bank has become a restaurant and one church became an apartment which instead of #s is named by apostle, another became an office building and the latest became a vet practice.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I got married in Baltimore and we had the reception at a new inn in a converted tobacco warehouse on the water in Fell's Point.
ReplyDeleteHBD - gas stations! I've never seen that. I've seen fast food joints changed into something else (they always look like their original business though, Pizza Huts come to mind).
ReplyDeleteKerry -such a fun neighborhood in Baltimore. You guys really have lived all over!
Some fire stations here have been turned into loft space.
ReplyDeleteA CVS, amazing!
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
The more public the use, the better. I prefer our must beautiful to be our more accessible. Now that we're talking branch bank repurposing here is a WIP, picture taken yesterday. Sit down before looking http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrykearns/6842560473/
ReplyDeleteI know this building - the Celt's sister and husband lived nearby. Was it not a Dean and Delucca or something like that before it became a CVS?
ReplyDeleteIn a week when I've been showing students photos of Penn Station torn down in the 1960s its good to see such a building as this old bank survive and be reused.
I recall that this building was closed and virtually derelict for many years, and was first repurposed as a rug and carpet store, longbefore CVS moved in. It is a lovely building, indeed.
ReplyDeleteA very attractive old church here was recently bought and razed by CVS to build the ugliest drugstore imaginable. To add insult to injury, they added ill-proportioned pilasters to remind everyone what was formerly on the site. But I am glad this bank, not far from where I lived on W 11th met with a happier fate. Did you notice the modern penthouse? It was published about ten years ago, the apartment of an older female interior designer (whose name escapes me).
ReplyDeleteHoly cats! If one has to have a CVS, this is a good one---and how wonderful is that wall clock?
ReplyDeletePS, speaking of beautiful old buildings going wanting while banks (who nowadays seem to be stuck in a miasma of bad taste), our local bank just remodeled...Im still trying to calm down enough to write a post about it...
ReplyDeletecvs! I'm glad it was preserved, but a little saddened to see it filled with so much plastic :)
ReplyDeleteNot too long ago this was a Balducci's. I totally get what you are saying, but I am so tired of the ubiquity of CVS and their largely blank street front windows with a few historic pictures. Sigh. I guess it could be a lot worse. Maybe I wouldn't mind if CVS wasn't such a crappy chain--at least the ones in DC are. But then again that may say more about DC than CVS.
ReplyDeleteThomas, I think it's a problem in most cities. This one CVS is a rare shining example of 'done right'. Wonder why that is?
ReplyDeleteHi there - I work for an architecture firm here in Houston, TX. Adaptive re-use architecture is my favorite - the projects offer challenges and the results, like this beautiful CVS, can be so unexpected and amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! - Aly
What a great reuse of such a beautiful place dahhling...
ReplyDelete