By Rob South, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-947416.mp3
Lansing, MI –
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero will hold his State of the City address tonight. Bernero's speech will start at 7:00 in the Knapp Department store building. Since he took office in 2006 Bernero has chosen the addresses venue to highlight his accomplishments and to demonstrate the progressive momentum of the city's development.
Last April, Bernero announced the planned renovation of the Knapp's building, which has been vacant for nearly a decade.
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Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is likely to highlight the gains the city has made in preserving the city's historic structures, most notably several shuttered elementary schools, The Ottawa Street Power Station and now, the Knapp's building.
The J.W. Knapp Department store was built in 1938 and almost immediately caught the attention of Lansing residents. Its yellow and blue enameled-steal panels, curved walls and glass block windows were unlike anything that had been built in the city before, or since.
While it is often referred to as Art Deco, it is more appropriately an example of an Art Deco sub-type called Art Moderne. Bob Christianson is with the State Historic Preservation office.
"It's an outstanding example," says Christenson. "Certainly in Michigan it's hard to think where there's another example that fine. It really would look good anywhere in the country, it seems to me."
The Knapp's building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Getting that designation ensures that any renovations done to the building will be historically accurate. The Knapp's building, by the way, was designed by Orlie Munson, who also had a hand in designing the Ottawa Street Power Station.
But keeping history in place has presented a challenge to its renovation. One of the most prominent features, rows of glass block windows, means little or no views to the outside. But architect Lis Knibbe, who is also working on the Ottawa Street renovation, says it presents an opportunity.
"The footprint of the building is really big and square, because it was a department store," Knibbe says. "As offices we don't really need that kind of depth. So were going to cut an atrium into the center of the building that will have a big glass skylight on it. That will then bring more light in the building and offer views from the offices into the atrium and of course there will be views of the sky from the atrium."
Knibbe says another challenge for the renovation is the vibrantly colored panels. They are concrete covered with enameled steel. She says it was an experimental product called Maul Macotta and has not held up over time.
"So, it is the most fragile part of the building in that the panels are starting to fail and fall off the building," she says. "So our biggest challenge is to restore the building's skin and keep its historic integrity so that it looks just like it did. So we know we have to do the technology differently because what they did the first time around didn't work."
All of the work will be expensive. The Eyde Company, which owns the building, says it will cost upwards of $30 million to turn the mid-century department store into high-end office and retail space. Eyde spokesman Mark Clouse says the 190,000 square foot, five story building won't be worth $30 million on the open market even after renovations. He says it's the more than $20 million in federal, state and local tax incentives, grants and loans that would make the project possible.
"I think as a society we have learned to appreciate the historic nature of these buildings and the significance of having these buildings in our community," says Clouse. "And because of that, governmental bodies have decided to entice that type of use."
In an economy where new construction is scarce, putting historic building back in use has paid off in Lansing. Bob Christianson says the city has done a good job keeping its architectural heritage.
"It seems like there are a certain number of buildings that really say to the world that Lansing is an up-and-coming kind of a town that always represented progress," he says. "This is one of those buildings. The fact that it's still here is an illustration of the city's progressiveness."
The Eyde Company hopes to start renovation on the building later this year and expects to move its headquarters there by 2013. Tonight's State of the City Address starts at seven o'clock on the first floor of the Knapp's building.