You would think that in a neighborhood that is experiencing a bit of a comeback, a project like this one would be frowned upon. Not only did the owner of this storefront on Grant Street remove the original facade in order to replace it with a bland, generic store-bought model, now he or she has installed a rolling metal garage door to completely seal the deal. I noticed the installation taking place earlier in the week, but it was not until I passed by at 10am this morning that the iron clad addition revealed itself for what it really was – a slap in the face to the neighborhood.
The initial precedent (replacing the facade) was bad. Incredibly the owner has actually outdone him or herself with this new twist on architectural blight. I would hope that if there was no legit permit to clad the facade and remove the original facade, there are ways to take action on what could be a terrible precedent for our commercial districts. First we saw this sort of Acme storefront come to Elmwood. Then to Grant Street… and now there are even more sightings in other parts of the city. This is the first complete bunker sighting though… let’s hope that it’s the last.
Thankfully we still have respectful building owners on streets like Elmwood and Grant that understand the difference between rolling down the steel garage doors and rolling out the red carpet (see the difference).