Arts Commissions: Creating Cool Downtowns Webinar
Wednesday, August 12th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Art is one of the most important elements of creating a cool downtown. This webinar will share the success of four communities from around Ohio: Athens, Canton, Hamilton, and Toledo. What are their most successful projects? What barriers have they had to overcome? How have they funded these improvements? Each community will provide a short overview and then presenters will be available to answer your questions.
Please join: Carol Patterson Chair of the Athens Municipal Art Commission; Tricia Ostertag, VP Marketing & Special Events for Arts in Stark; Jacob Stone, Communications Specialist City of Hamilton; and Ryan Bunch Director of Community Initiatives at the The Arts Commission, Toledo
Change and Tradition: Downtown Main Streets in Ohio Web Discussion
Thursday, June 11th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Wellington has a rich tradition of late 19th Century commercial buildings that have been preserved in the downtown area. This look at the buildings of downtown will focus on the styles of the original buildings, both in current photos and historic photos, and the changes that have been made to the streetscapes over the years. To put the town in context, we will look at the development of downtowns in various places throughout Ohio, including Hudson, Medina, Norwalk, and Warren.
Speaker
Christie Borkan is an architectural historian who grew up in Wellington, living on North Mill Street and later on South Main Street. She earned a BA in Art History from Hiram College, and an MA from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, University of Delaware. She has worked in the Spirit of ’76 Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Hale Farm & Village, and the Western Reserve Historical Society. She has also taught courses in American Decorative Arts and American Architecture for over 30 years at Hiram College and Cleveland State University.
Why Signage is Important & Why Business Owners Aren’t Excited About Signs, But Should Be! Web Discussion
Thursday, June 11th – 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Meggan and Jason with Innovative Marketing Products will discuss sign materials and cost as well as designs, colors, fonts and what to put on a sign.
We would love to leave time to answer questions. Jason will handle all questions related to specs and fabrication as he can answer any question ( we mean any) that you may have.
Innovative is a small sign shop located in Wellington, OH. We are entering our fourth year as business partners, but Jason has over 20 years experience with signage and industrial arts. We specialize in designing and fabricating custom signage. We take a lot into consideration before we have a solid foundation for a sign idea. We do one to two site surveys of a business to help us develop a plan for a sign. We will then design and create digital images to share with a business owner before we begin production.
In many cases, we handle all the sign licenses with the city and finalize details with the building departments. We also do sign refurbishment; providing some TLC to older signs or a logo change. We also offer banners and car graphics. When we first got started we thought we would go into personalized products as well as signs, but we are sticking to signs, banners and car graphics, so you may see a name change! The best place to find us is on Facebook at Innovative Marketing Products, llc.
Medina: 60 Years of Targeted Historic Preservation Web Discussion
Wednesday, June 10th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Founded in 1818, and suffering a major fire in the 1840s, and again in the early 1870s, Medina, Ohio has risen like a phoenix several times over its storied history. Largely rebuilt between 1871-1881, our community features a cohesive and comprehensive collection of mid-to-late 19th Century brick commercial buildings.
In the mid-1940s, Medina, was chosen as a quintessential, Midwestern small town in America, and was the focus of an RKO/Pathe Pictures 20-minute short film called Hometown USA. However, by the 1960s, the historic buildings surrounding the town square has been modernized, bastardized, and generally ignored.
Join Matt Wiederhold from Main Street Medina as he shares how 60 years of targeted historic preservation and private investment became the stepping stones to economic vitality in Medina, Ohio, and how important preservation and authentic placemaking is to creating a vibrant community.
2019 Quarterly Revitalization Series: Design
Join us in Van Wert as we explore Design in Downtown. We have several speakers lined up to talk with you about local projects as well as hands-on opportunities to do some placemaking in Downtown Van Wert. We will have sessions on painting colorful crosswalks, opportunities to discover how temporary signage can increase foot traffic in your downtown as well as a chance to spruce up an existing pedestrian alleyway. Please come prepared by wearing comfortable shoes and clothes that you do not mind getting splashed with a little paint. Lunch will be on your own in downtown so you will have plenty of time to explore what Main Street Van Wert has to offer. We look forward to seeing you downtown!
2018 Quarterly Revitalization Series: Design
April 18th in Marietta, Ohio
More details as they become available.
Visual Merchandising Displays: Big Bang Little Bucks Webinar
September 21st, 2017 1 pm – 2 pm
Join Heritage Ohio for a webinar with design consultant Susan Shaddox from Main Street Arkansas! We will be discussing how businesses can make the biggest impact with their visual merchandising, even on a smaller budget.
Heritage Ohio Members Register Here
Not a Member? Join Heritage Ohio now to get access.
Susan Shaddox, Main Street Arkansas Interior Design Consultant
Susan Shaddox has worked as an interior design consultant with Main Street Arkansas since 2006. Prior to her position with Main Street Arkansas, Susan worked as an interior designer for Embassy Suites, Baptist Health Systems, and Dillard’s Department Stores.
Aside from her state position, she conducts Window Displays, Visual Merchandising, and Space Planning workshops all over the US for other Main Street communities. She has also been a speaker at several National and Regional Main Street Conferences, presenting her design workshops.
Having owned her own Pet Boutique for over 20 years, Susan also has experience in all areas of retail and merchandising, and most recently set gift shop displays at Crystal Bridges American Art Museum in Bentonville, AR for the Walton Foundation
Susan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Design from the University of Central Arkansas.
Historic districts, significance, and current integrity v. future integrity
An article caught my eye the other day. The Durham, North Carolina, Herald-Sun posted an article about the expansion of the Cleveland-Holloway historic district, and the ensuing controversy regarding which properties to include in the expansion, and which properties to exclude. You can read the article here.
Particularly, one 2-acre lot has been at the center of the conversation: a vacant (but prime for development) parcel. So, why would a vacant parcel be included in a historic district? Without any historic resources, how does the parcel warrant inclusion? The answer may have something to do with the properties surrounding the lot, and what future development on the lot might look like. However, before we try to get to the bottom of the vacant lot and the historic district, let’s talk a little about the initial process for determining the inclusion of resources in a historic district.
Evaluating a property to understand its historic significance can sometimes get complicated. The National Park Service (NPS), through its National Register Bulletins, provides a framework we can use to guide us through the evaluation process. By determining integrity, which the NPS defines as “the ability of a property to convey its significance,” we can come to a good conclusion about whether a property would be eligible for inclusion in the National Register, or a contributing resource in a local design review district.
When we consider the integrity of a resource, we’re looking for signs of how the resource has changed or hasn’t changed through the decades. If I’m asked to judge the integrity of a resource, I ask myself this question first: if we could bring the original builder/occupant of the property forward in time to join us today, would he or she recognize the property as their own? Has the neighborhood changed radically since the building was constructed? Has the building itself changed radically over the years? The less sure I am that time traveler would recognize the building, the less sure I am that building retains the integrity needed to be considered a historic resource.
And when we judge integrity, the NPS asks to us to judge based on seven different aspects, including location, design, and setting, among others. Location often comes down to, as you might expect, physical placement, and usually comes into play when a property has been moved. Design may focus on the single property and its appearance, a streetscape, or the entire district, and oftentimes these aspects all help to determine significance and integrity. Not only is the alteration of the building important to consider; alterations in the vicinity of the building that alter design must also be considered. Finally, setting considers the character of the property in question. A good example of loss of setting: the historic 1830s farmstead constructed on a 200 acre farm that has been subsequently swallowed up by subdivisions of new homes on the land. Even though the original house still exists, the surrounding land has been so severely altered that it would be difficult to capture the feel of the property as a working farm. If you want to dive into the different aspects of integrity, you can read more here.
In the case of the Durham expansion, I think the central issue comes down to this: future construction on the vacant lot could compromise the integrity of the local district as a whole, based on the aspects of design and setting. Therefore, one way to stave off future construction that doesn’t fit into the character of the district is to add the vacant parcel to the district, thereby (if the ordinance is written to provide oversight for infill/new construction) putting future construction under design review. In the case of the Durham expansion, the current property owners don’t want the added layer of regulation, while many of the adjacent owners don’t want an out-of-scale development that could jeopardize the character of the district.
If this controversy came before you, how would you resolve this issue? Traditionally, historic districts were enacted to preserve significant properties. But, when we consider design and setting when evaluating the integrity of significant properties, adjoining parcels and what’s built on them can influence the look of the district, for better or worse.
You can provide your thoughts in the comments section below.