Purple flowers on the green roof at the Fay Street Lofts and The Warehouse Studios aren’t the only thing starting to bloom this spring over at the old Diggs building, formerly a meatpacking plant.
Don Shrubshell photo
By ANNIE NELSON of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, April 13, 2008
Columbia’s second warehouse art studio space is a project of founder Stephanie Lyons and local architect Brian Pape, and it will differ from the Orr Street Studios by offering live-in loft spaces, as well as open studio memberships, or access for artists to work space for a $99 a month membership fee. Warehouse Studios also will offer private studios similar to Orr Street Studios, Lyons said.
On the south side of the building - the commercial side that will hold retail space, classrooms, a gallery, private studios and open studio space - dividing walls have been built, drywall is going up, sprinklers are in and the oak staircase leading to the second floor is installed.
It’s still too early to say when everything will be ready for artists to move in, said Lyons, but architect Pape said construction could be finished in a month. "I don’t have dates for when the studios will be available because it depends on a couple factors: when the space has an occupancy permit and when we have enough funding to buy more equipment," Lyons said in an e-mail of the not-for-profit group.
When the occupancy permit is issued for the commercial side of the building, artists will be able to start renting private studio spaces, but more funding will be needed to fully equip the open studio spaces, Lyons said. She’s planning fundraising events for the spring, and donations can be made through her Web site, www.thewarehousestudios.com. Studio and commercial spaces will remain unfinished, and artists and commercial tenants will be able to design their spaces to suit their needs, Pape said.
A new green feature of the building has gone in - the commercial space’s zoned heating, Pape said. The building’s heating is broken down into sections, anticipating some areas will need less heat in the winter, such as the southeast studios, which will receive full sun in the mornings.
People are already moving in to the north side of the building, which houses the Fay Street Lofts. Pape said he expects the sixth of eight lofts to be rented this week. Pape has already moved into a one-bedroom loft. The lofts are renting for $900 for a one-bedroom and $1,800 for the two-story, two-bedroom spaces.
Signs of the building’s origins are incorporated into the loft designs, such as the exposed steel trusses used in warehouses to support a large roof without floor-to-ceiling support beams or the exposed wooden supports and exposed brick walls.
Another green feature Pape made sure to point out - because it doesn’t stand out - is the building’s porous asphalt parking lot. "This is like a jar full of marbles. You can coat the marbles with sticky stuff so they’ll adhere together, but you’ll never block the holes between them," Pape said, explaining how the asphalt allows water to run through it.
Below the asphalt lies 12 to 15 inches of crushed rock, which traps and simultaneously cleans the water, Pape said, before slowly releasing it back into the groundwater table. The building’s gutters also pipe directly underground into the crushed rock.
Lyons said she’s lost count of the total number of artists and musicians interested in space at The Warehouse Studios - which will include rehearsal space for bands as well - but said she’s recently seen a surge of 20 to 30 people interested in occupying space in the warehouse, which is located near the intersection of College Avenue and Paris Road at 505 Fay St.
Much of the 1920s-era building had to be rebuilt, Pape said, while maintaining its historic features to qualify as a historic preservation.
"The renovations are amazing, and I don’t think anyone, except those who toured the space right before Brian purchased the property, can really grasp the magnitude of this transformation," Lyons said.
Tours of the building are available, and open houses are often held, Lyons said. To schedule a tour or for more information, visit www.thewarehousestudios.com, and faystreetlofts.com for more information about the lofts.