New Life for an Old Firehouse
Business to Business Monthly Magazine
Date -- January, 2001 - By Bill Milliken, CCIM
Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce
The term adaptive reuse will take on a whole new dimension this year in Ypsilanti when the City's one hundred-year-old firehouse undergoes a fourfold expansion in the hands of a private developer.This expansion, however, is unique: it will pave the way for the public display of at least fifteen antique fire engines, which is the largest single collection in the Midwest. The result will be a 21,700 square foot complex that will also include an array of fire fighting memorabilia, a community meeting room facility, as well as four, 2-bedroom apartments.
Ann Arbor's Bowers & Rein Associates designed this 16,200 sq. ft. addition
to the former Ypsilanti Firehouse on Cross Street, which Ypsilanti architect
E. P. Rorison designed in 1898. Construction will begin this spring.
Construction Begins this SpringLocated on Cross Street, the addition to the Victorian Romanesque building has been designed by Scott Bowers of Bowers & Rein Associates in Ann Arbor. Bowers says the main entrance, located at the corner of Cross and Washington streets, will be constructed of architectural metal panels incorporating large expanses of glass. The project will include underground parking for 26 cars, and the building will be steel-framed with a masonry exterior. A standing seam, metal roof system has also been developed for it. The project will be out for construction bids next month and will target the end of this year for the completion of construction.
Controversial Site PlanSite plan approval was granted by the Ypsilanti City Council on November 15, after some surprisingly brisk debate regarding the project. It was stymied at one point when the City balked at the removal of a landmark tree, something that was necessitated by the need to move the Lovett house from the site. In the end the tree survived. But the wood framed residential structure was offered up as a controlled burn to the Ypsilanti Fire Department, something that they could presumably have supervised from a vantage point in the former Fire Chief's office on the second floor of the old firehouse.
Includes Luxury ApartmentsEntrepreneur and businessman Howard Weaver is the impetus behind the creation of the Museum. He calls himself a car collector, too, but it was his love of antique fire engines that led to the acquisition the firehouse. As a practical matter, he needed a place store the fire engines he owned. After purchasing the building in 1998, he created a non-profit entity that will own and operate the completed facility. One stroke of genius has been to include the construction of four luxury apartments attached to the north side of the museum. Each unit is two stories, and has two bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms, which are built above dedicated two car garages. The economic objective is to utilize the cash flow from the apartments to help provide the museum with operating funds in the years ahead. "We're working cooperatively with Greenfield Village in developing our collection," says Marcia McCrary, curator of the Museum. McCrary, a retired Ann Arbor Public Schools librarian, as well as president of the Washtenaw Genealogical Society, is watching her part-time job at the firehouse speak for more and more of her time as the project unfolds. Her husband, Bob McCrary, restores and maintains the fire engines with the help of several dedicated volunteers.
Automotive Heritage MuseumThe firehouse expansion allows Ypsilanti to beat its drum again over its rich automotive heritage. Three blocks away, the community's Depot Town already hosts the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum. This is a 13,000 square foot complex housing thirty automobiles that were designed or manufactured in Ypsilanti. They include a Kaiser Dragon, one of only 1,300 that were manufactured; a 1969 Corvair with 531 actual miles on it; and a Tucker movie prop car that appeared in the movie "Tucker". Miller Motor Sales, the nation's last surviving Hudson dealer, was recently acquired by the Heritage Museum, and has thus been accorded its place in history.
Sports & Exotic Cars, TooAnother jewel is nestled nearby on Forest Street in Ypsilanti: R-M Classic Cars' showroom. This is the U.S. showroom for a preeminent automotive restoration company headquartered in Ontario, Canada. R-M Classics, which employs about 75 people, holds four major collector car auctions around the U.S. each year. Ken Wallace, showroom manager, says he moved about 300 cars through Ypsilanti in 2000. Some were sold off the floor, and others were routed to one of the auctions. They ranged from a 1909 Peerless to a 1997 Ferrari F50, which sold for at auction $687,000. R-M's inventory ranges from European exotics to Detroit muscle cars, and their 8,500 square foot U.S. facility is open to the public during regular business hours.
For More Information Contact:
Bill Milliken, CCIM
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