The Urban Facelift Project
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The idea for "The Urban Facelift Project" came from putting our proverbial money where our mouth is. However, we are not at a point where we can buy numerous buildings and give them facelifts and physically change their appearance, but we can use our talents to show the community, as well as property owners, what a little paint, landscape, and awnings can do for a building.
We set out to photograph any buildings that we see any glimpse of potential in, i.e. good “bones”. The rules and guidelines that we have set for ourselves are that we cannot change adjacent buildings to the project, unless we are doing them all under one facelift, and that we cannot alter any city property, including street lights, which we would love to change, and sidewalks.
We also limit our time, major reason being that we are not profiting from these renderings or designs. This is down and dirty speed design. We take the photo, discuss the potential we think the building has, head back to the office and sketch out some ideas, quickly model the existing structure, and then spend about two to three hours trying to make it look like something. This process usually takes about 4-5 hours.
We would love to see residents from other city's (you guys) choose a building and do their own facelift, not just architects and designers, but anyone with a desire to be a part of the project. If the project meets our criteria, essentially the same format that we've show in the previous UFP's, we will post it to our blog. Obviously, we’d like to see some of the owners realize the potential of their investments, and the potential gain of incorporating some of the ideas shown in the facelift for their building. After all, the revisions to the exterior that we are providing are usually cost effective ways to drastically change the structure’s, and therefore the immediate community’s aesthetics.
Please see a couple examples of the Urban Facelift Project below, and for more UFP's please visit: http://www.contentdg.com/category/the-urban-facelift-project/
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Jason,
I am really interested in participating with you and your group. I can't get to my files until later this evening, but have a number of projects using sketchup (I posted some of them on the old forum, but don't know how to access the archived files.) I will find and will post some that show potential for old buildings, design renderings and finished building photos.
My home town has a formal fascade restoration program with matching grants of up to $25K per building for fixing the fronts up. Not a lot of money but it really broke the ice. This fascade program never went anywhere until the cash came up. Now the whole town square is getting involved. Very infectious.
Next week I will be meeting with the council president of a nearby town to help them set up a similar program for their downtown strip. They want to get peoples energy up and photos with some photomatched SU sketches can help (along with a boat load of money of course). Having a historic district helps. I know Jacksonville has a very active historic society, have you talked with them at all??
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