It’s a common sight in small-town America – vacant or underutilized storefronts lining the heart of town. Declining populations and a struggling economy have both taken their toll and it shows. How communities deal with these growing vacancies varies from place to place. The most forward-thinking communities will “mothball” buildings until their utility can be harnessed again. Misguided, less imaginative – and sometime less optimistic – communities will raze neglected structures and justify the destruction with the understandably controversial practice of “nuisance abatement”. Some communities will use both tactics simultaneously.
Mothballing can be done subtly, in a discreet manner, so as not to wave a giant red flag which loudly proclaims, “Hey, everybody! Look over here! An EMPTY BUILDING!!!” The following images show how NOT to treat an empty building. Facades like these are highly visible warnings that your town does not have enough economic vitality to keep the doors open:
For some reason, the brightest white possible was chosen to finish the flake board covering the plate glass of this former business.
Better. Still blank, but at least white was not chosen to emphasize the problem. The wall has some textural variety and spans two storefronts – thereby creating the illusion that there is only one vacancy.
This might have passed for a gay bar 30 years ago, but now everyone knows that the building is just not commercially viable.
Although this is the side of an underutilized storefront, it is highly visible and sends the same message as its blank front does.
While it is good that these buildings are protected and maintained from the exterior, some of color choices made are not subtle. If a building absolutely must be boarded, painting the infilled windows in darker hues (such as a dark warm gray) will help to make the problem less visible. Lighter colors will only stand out and call attention to the vacancy. Preferably, if the window glass is intact and not at risk, it would be best to keep the glass clean and the interior staged in such a way as to imply activity is taking place. Below are two photos that show how darker colors can downplay a former window which has been infilled:
The infilled windows of the building to the left jump out; the infilled areas of the building on the right do not as they are painted a dark green. They allow the building to maintain something of its intended appearance in spite of the alteration.
These infills are quite unobtrusive. Batten strips give relief to plywood infill while a warm gray mimics an existing color on the building – that of the stucco parging on both the foundation and chimney.
Yup, see plenty of those, even here in a bigger city like Omaha. The exciting thing is when economics and preferences change, and they’re opened up and brought back. That’s been happening a lot more here in our part of the city as demand for urban living has grown, and the supply of underused old buildings is getting low enough that it’s driving new infill, most of it appropriate for the density, and some of even with appealing appearance.
The upside to mothballed storefronts, is that they’re far easier to return to productive use than demolished ones.
Exactly! Once an old building is destroyed, so is any possibility of it ever contributing to its community. Growing towns and cities like Omaha tend to have more potential for the kind of economic incentives that drive the renovation of blighted areas. Small towns in rural areas routinely hang themselves unwittingly because they fail to imagine an empty or blighted property ever being anything other than what it looks like currently. That kind of thinking inevitably leads them to resemble parts of Detroit… riddled with empty lots surrounding the occasional structure. It is often far more likely that someone will rehabilitate a decrepit commercial building in a small town than it is they will build a brand new one.