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DPJ Article: Three New ‘R’s: Rezone, Reuse and Revitalize — The City of Phoenix’s Adaptive Reuse Program

On December 30, 2009, in Uncategorized, by Yuri Artibise

Originally posted in the Downtown Phoenix Journal on December 22, 2009.

Over the past two years, amidst all the new buildings popping up, Downtown Phoenix has quietly become a leader in promoting adaptive reuse. Adaptive reuse is the process of tailoring old structures for purposes other than those initially intended. As old buildings outlive their original purposes, adaptive reuse offers a process to modify these buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features. As a result, an old warehouse may become an apartment building, or a rundown church may find new life as a restaurant.

A prime candidate for adaptive reuse: the city-owned (ca. 1909) Leighton G. Knipe House at 1025 N. 2nd Street.

By taking buildings that are either historical, dated or in older, established areas of the city and ensuring their presence long into the future, adaptive reuse is one of the ultimate expressions of sustainability. Not only does this take advantage of materials that are already there (which is environmental and economical), but it also respects a city’s history and plays an important role in community revitalization. Adaptive reuse also demonstrates that old buildings make great places for new ideas. As the famous urbanist Jane Jacobs said, “Old ideas can use new buildings, but new ideas need old buildings.”

The city’s Adaptive Reuse Program began as a pilot program in April 2008 to streamline the process of modifying older buildings for new business uses. In addition to adopting the International Existing Building Code, the city offers guidance, expedited time frames and reduced costs to individuals and companies looking to “recycle” older buildings for new business uses. Program participants can save between two weeks to three months time and $2,000 to $40,000 during the development process. In September 2009, the program won a “Crescordia” in the “Livable Communities” category at Valley Forward’s Environmental Excellence Awards. The Crescordia, named for a Greek term meaning “to grow in harmony,” is the highest honor awarded in each category.

This issue is important to the city, because as Mark Leonard, Director of the Phoenix Development Services Department explains, “Adaptive reuse preserves our history, helps small business owners be successful, creates unique restaurant and business settings for all of us to experience and it’s environmentally friendly.” Mayor Gordon concurs, noting in a 2008 speech, “Historic buildings are a critical part of what makes the Phoenix skyline truly our own, truly unique.”

The interior of The Lost Leaf

One example of adaptive reuse that will be familiar to many DPJ readers is modifying a historic, single-family residence for use as a restaurant or business. Some notable participants in the program include Tuck Shop (2245 N. 12th St. in Coronado), The Lost Leaf (914 N. 5th St. in Evans Churchill), The Paisley Violin (1030 NW Grand Ave.) and Hula’s Modern Tiki (4700 N. Central Ave. in Uptown). In total, the program has supported 30 total adaptive reuse projects in the past 18 months, although a few of them did not proceed past plan review due to the economy.

Earlier this month, based on the recommendations of a Development Services Ad Hoc Task Force, council unanimously approved expanding the Adaptive Reuse Program. During its deliberations, the task force looked at the existing program’s experience to date, as well as best practices from other cities, and came up with what may be the most comprehensive adaptive reuse plan in the country.

The expanded plan now includes buildings constructed prior to the year 2000, increases the size limits from 5,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet and allows for occupancy change flexibility. This expansion of the program provided increased opportunities to rezone, reuse and revitalize vacant strip malls, big box centers and other blighted community areas and keep them out of the landfill.

Special thanks to Jim McPherson (Arizona Preservation Foundation), Kimber Lanning (Local First AZ) and Denee McKinley (City of Phoenix Office of Customer Advocacy) for their assistance in researching this article.

DPJ Article: Three New Rs: Rezone, Reuse and Revitalize — The City of Phoenixs Adaptive Reuse Program

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DPJ Article‚ÄîGrowing a Community in Central Phoenix: Abraham James

On October 15, 2009, in Uncategorized, by Yuri Artibise

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. I’ve been insanely busy, but the light at the end of the title is in sight and I’ll be posting some original material soon. In the meantime, here’s a recent article I wrote for the DPJ.

Originally published in the Downtown Phoenix Journal on October 5, 2009:

Growing a Community in Central Phoenix: Abraham James

What started as a way to reconnect with his past has led Abraham James to connect with his Central Phoenix community in ways he never imagined.

Abraham James in his garden. Photo by Yuri Artibise

James started gardening in a small corner of his back yard about four years ago as a way to reconnect with his Southern roots. He grew up surrounded by gardens and tended one of his own as a teenager growing up in rural Georgia. After high school, however, Jones‚Äô focus shifted to architecture. He left home to attend school in Lafayette, LA; later beginning his architectural career in Dallas, TX. He moved to Phoenix in 1986, and purchased his home in 1988. He has lived there since, except for a two-year stint to attend graduate school in Los Angeles. During his time in Phoenix, James has worked on many architectural projects throughout the Valley, including Amsterdam and Crowbar in the Downtown Phoenix core.

About four years ago, his mind turned back to his youth and his family gardens. Despite being thousands of miles from Georgia, James looked around his yard and saw the potential to plant a garden like the ones he had growing up. He found that his home was ideally situated for a garden. Its western exposure and plenty of neighboring trees help to mitigate the summer heat. In addition, his neighborhood is flood irrigated by the Salt River Project (SRP), giving his garden a free and reliable supply of water.

James first planted a few vegetables that he loved to eat in a small corner of his back yard. His first crops consisted mainly of Southern staples, such as okra, black-eyed peas, collared greens and sugar cane. Each season, however, James got a bit more adventurous and his garden continued to grow in size and variety. Today, it envelopes his entire back yard and most of the front, and his bounty now includes a wide range of produce, including onions, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, citrus and fruit trees, grapes, lemongrass and various herbs. Currently, about 20% of his diet comes from things grown in his garden ‚Äî he eats something from his garden every day. This definitely helps with his grocery bills, especially in these tough economic times. While he still buys many of his seeds, James’ goal is to develop a self-sustaining gardening, using reseeding vegetables and cuttings from existing plants.

As his garden has grown and evolved, so has James‚Äô relationship with it. In addition to the food it supplies, he sees several other benefits to being an urban gardener. He finds contentment in working in the garden, as it enables him to reconnect with nature and the seasons. The organic nature of gardening also functions as a nice counterpoint to his work with the built environment as an architect.

In gardening, James has also gained a new appreciation for his adopted city. He notes that Phoenix was founded because of farming, and much of what is now Central Phoenix was once farm fields and citrus groves, including his neighborhood of Green Gables, near 24th and Oak streets.

James has always been an active member of his community, serving on the Encanto Village Planning Committee, the city’s Development Services Ad Hoc Task Force and the Phoenix Public Library Advisory Board. His garden, however, has given him an opportunity to connect more directly with his immediate neighborhood ‚Äî this is one of the reasons he began gardening in his front yard. Through his garden, James has built close connections with his neighbors, many of whom have become great friends. He enjoys sharing his bounty with other neighborhood gardeners in exchange for things he doesn‚Äôt produce, such as eggs and watermelons.

For readers interested in starting a garden of their own, James has three words of advice: Go for it! He feels that despite popular sentiment, much of Central Phoenix is a great place for urban farming, given its Sunbelt climate and neighborhoods with irrigated lots. Moreover, with the current economic climate and shift towards more sustainable living, the time couldn‚Äôt be better. James suggests starting small and growing food you love to eat, as this will give you with the incentive to make the considerable effort successful gardening requires. For help, he recommends getting in touch with the Maricopa County Extension Office, as well as local nurseries, including his favorite, Baker‚Äôs Nursery.