[continuing residential resurgence]

image from open atelier

At the risk of sounding more like a newsblog than an ideablog, this is the second post in a row breaking news about potential downtown development; but this kind of stuff is important and relevant to the healthy future of the city, so here it is:

It has just been [unofficially] announced that the former OM Edwards building, just south of the Niagara Mohawk building, is being renovated into housing.  The building should be getting full overhaul and the units will primarily be marketed to graduate students.  Open Atelier, a local downtown-based architecture firm, has worked on a design for the building, but it has not been confirmed that they are [or aren't] officially the architect for this project.

I've always felt that the eastern one-story portion of the building, bounded by Water, Franklin, and Erie, should be a small market or restaurant so as to take full advantage of the large sidewalk plaza adjacent to it.  The ample space here for outdoor seating would help activate this otherwise dead portion of Franklin -- an important connection between Armory Square and the Dinosaur -- and finally add a splash of program [architect lingo for engageable space, object, or activity] to this ambiguous portion of the creekwalk.  Fingers crossed that something like this is on the docket...