Roosevelt Row is known as a hub for culture, food, and art, but plans for a new residential space could take away decade-old murals.
GreenHAUS owners Cole and Danya Reed closed their boutique at the end of last year and moved to Oregon in January to have more secure parental rights for the son they are expecting sometime in mid-March.
Since then, the fate of the local space has been uncertain.
Baron Properties received the deed to 222 E. Roosevelt last summer as well as the deed to the neighboring lot at 1002 N. 3rd St.
The City of Phoenix granted Baron a total demolition permit for both spaces Jan. 15, which expires March 15.
The argument of keeping 222 E. Roosevelt revolves around adaptive reuse, which is the idea of incorporating old buildings rather than demolishing them.
The building is home to decades worth of history. On the inside, murals by Ted DeGrazia that date back to 1950 decorate the interior. As for the outside, the mural “Three Birds” by contemporary artist Lauren Lee covers one side of the building.
Before the building was greenHAUS, it was home to 307 Lounge, which offered a place for the LGBT community of Phoenix to hangout.
Petitioners Pete Petrisko and Bob Diehl started a petition about two months ago on change.org when the preliminary site plans did not show the existing building anywhere in the plan.
Diehl said that the community did react when they heard about the fate of the building. Since December, more than 4,000 people have spoke out in one way or another, including 1,200 people who have signed the online petition.
Even if the building itself couldn’t be saved, efforts were being made to save the DeGrazia murals.
There are two murals inside the building, a 4 foot by 4 foot piece as well as another piece that stands about 6 feet tall.
The 4 foot by 4 foot piece is painted directly onto drywall. A Tucson Museum agreed to cut the piece from the drywall.
The other piece, however, was painted directly onto the plaster on the mason reconstruction of the original building. Diehl said that multiple experts have looked at the situation.
The experts reported that cutting into the plaster would atomize the mortar holding the bricks together. In turn, it would ruin significant portions of the painting. It would also cost more to do this than to move the entire building, which was one of the options.
There have been no moves to revise the plans for the new residential complex by Baron.
Adaptive reuse is a growing concept that aims to incorporate older buildings into a modern landscape.
“There has to be a different approach to the destruction of buildings that have survived fifty years and are still intact, at least in downtown Phoenix. They do make a difference in the sense of place, continuity, and the sense of a city being lived in, loved and hated,” Diehl said.
