For five, intensive days early last month, nearly 30 design and land-use professionals from around the country gathered at the Old Governor’s Mansion for a leadership training workshop sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its local partner, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana.
The participants were divided into five teams, and then given one of two buildings to design for adaptive reuse: the 1950s-era Commerce Building at Third and Laurel streets downtown or the iconic Huey P. Long Field House on the LSU campus.
The event did not make big headlines, and it might not have seemed particularly significant to people outside preservation circles. But the workshop represented a watershed moment for Baton Rouge, symbolizing that a city often dogged by its sprawl, poor planning and lack of appreciation for all things old and unique had arrived, so to speak, on the national scene.
“You have a wonderful architectural fabric here, and a tremendous cultural fabric that we think is really a well-kept secret,” says Valecia Crisafulli, vice president of the National Trust. “Baton Rouge was uniquely poised to do this.”
That the National Trust selected Baton Rouge as the site for its leadership training is noteworthy, and it gives a boost to preservationists who often feel they’re swimming upstream when they try to save houses in Spanish Town from the wrecking ball or fight zoning variances in Beauregard Town or the Garden District. Indeed, their challenges are many.
But the workshop also had another, tangible benefit. Five distinct plans came out of the event that could be used as the starting point for total overhauls of two aging buildings.
“This really serves as the catalyst,” FHL Executive Director Carolyn Bennett says. “Now it’s up to us as a community to look at these plans and say, ‘Let’s do something.’”
As to what can be done, the design teams offered plenty of ideas.
Two teams tackled the Commerce Building, a 60-year-old, eight-story structure that has been vacant for the past three years on a corner of prime downtown real estate. The teams suggested that the 180,000-square-foot building was ideal as a multi-purpose facility, and they suggested the first floor be used for badly needed retail, specifically a grocery store or drugstore.
The teams also recommended using the basement for parking and converting the upper floors into apartments, but they differed on the specifics. In either case, the building could provide at least 100 rental units in its top six or seven floors that would rent from $900 to $1,400 per month. The units would be marketed to downtown workers, young professionals and empty-nesters. One team also suggested using the second floor as a community space.
The teams pointed out that federal and state historic restoration tax credits, which are available because Third Street is a historic district, could be applied to the project to help offset the developer’s cost. One team estimated that cost to be around $17 million; the other estimated the cost to be $26 million.
Reaction to the proposals was enthusiastic, not in the least because of the need for more downtown housing and retail. More than 10,000 employees work in the central business district, but only 2,300 residents live there. Part of the Downtown Development District’s master plan has focused on developing more housing for downtown, and the Commerce Building is a natural fit.
SWIMMINGLY: LSU’s Huey P. Long Field House was built in 1932 and served as the original student union, with a ballroom, soda fountain, post office, beauty parlor and barber shop. At the time of construction, the outdoor pool was the largest in the country.
“We think it’s very exciting,” DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer says. “We’d like to see that modern building come back to life as residential.”
The building’s owner, Bob Dean, likes the idea, too. He says he’s working with an unnamed group on an adaptive reuse plan not unlike those suggested by the teams at the leadership training workshop. His plan also calls for retail on the ground floor; Dean says he is talking to a drugstore chain about the corner location. The upper seven floors would be converted into apartments that would rent from $1,200 to $1,500 per month.
Dean questions whether the economic climate is right for the project at the present time. He estimates the project would cost between $20 million and $25 million.
“Is it feasible? Yes,” Dean says. “Is it the right time to do it? The economics are not so good. … But I might do it if all this comes to fruition.”
Three design teams studied LSU’s Huey P. Long Field House, which was built in 1932 and served as the original student union, with a ballroom, soda fountain, post office, beauty parlor and barber shop. At the time of construction, the outdoor pool was the largest in the country.
FHP has long had its eye on the landmark structure, Bennett says, and the leadership workshop was the ideal forum in which to generate ideas on rehabilitating it.
One design team envisioned an adaptive reuse that would turn the complex into a community center for Baton Rouge’s underserved population, as well as an educational and recreational facility for LSU. The pool would be rehabilitated, and the kinesiology department and AgCenter could use classrooms for educational and nutritional programs. A decking system could be installed over the pool to provide greater flexibility for other revenue-generating uses.
A second team envisioned turning the structure into a hotel and apartment complex that could be used as a development tool by the LSU Alumni Association, which would own and manage the facility. A third floor would be added to accommodate additional rental units, and the main gathering areas would be used to generate revenue from special events, parties and concerts.
“This project is an architect’s dream come true,” says Norman Chenevert, one of the principals with Chenevert Architects, who served on this design team. “The building served as the social center of the university during the war years. This concept would bring it back to that.”
A third design team proposed renovating the facility but retaining its purpose as a pool and field house that would provide people on the west side of campus with educational and recreational amenities. The team’s plan envisioned converting the pool to salt water, converting the upper deck to a jogging track, turning the first floor into a gym and using the second floor for classrooms for the kinesiology department.
The estimated price tags for the three reuses varied greatly, from $11.7 million for the first plan to $17 million for the second and more than $20 million for the third. The teams agreed that, given the financial shape of LSU and the state, the only chance of pulling off such an ambitious project would be through attracting funding from a variety of sources and with heavy dependence on private donations.
Because of the financial challenges, an adaptive reuse of the Commerce Building would appear to be the more feasible of the two, at least for the time being. But leaders of the workshop stressed that historic preservation needs to be seen as an economic development tool.
Cities that have historic districts and unique, architectural characteristics are increasingly sought by Creative Class professionals because those characteristics enhance a city’s quality of life.
“The success or failure of most cities today depends on their quality of life,” says Don Rypkema, a Washington, D.C.-based consultant. “And what we’re finding is that the differentiating qualities of a community are what give it its competitive edge. So it’s really fundamental to the economic future.”
Rypkema also notes that historic preservation isn’t about just saving old structures to maintain the character of an area. It’s also about building quality structures for the future.
“Places that appreciate preservation build really nice, quality new buildings, not junk,” he says. “In 50 years, your community isn’t going to be measured on the number of old buildings saved, but in the quality of the new buildings built, like your Shaw Center—people will be fighting to save that on day.”
Bennett and Rhorer think Baton Rouge is finally catching on to the importance of historic preservation. Both sit on the HPC and say, after six years, the agency is finally coming into its own.
Not everyone would agree. HPC is charged with deciding what can and cannot be done in two of the city’s two historic districts, Spanish Town and Beauregard Town, but the agency often finds itself at odds with the Planning Commission, of which it is an offshoot. More troubling is that HPC ultimately is powerless in the face of the Metro Council, which can—and frequently does—overrule any decision HPC makes.
“We have just two historic neighborhoods in Baton Rouge, and if we keep changing our zoning laws we’ll lose even those,” says Susannah Bing, who attended the workshop on behalf of the East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority. “We don’t have strong enough laws on the books to prevent this.”
Bennett concedes that’s a problem. But she is hopeful the recent workshop will continue to enhance the momentum for change she sees happening around Baton Rouge.
“This community is ready for preservation,” she says. “They are embracing it. We have arrived on the preservation scene.”
