Spirit of downtown: Revitalizing the spirit of a downtown

Thesis Statement: Through adaptive reuse of historic structures it is possible to revitalize the economies of small towns, revitaUze their dovmtowns, and change their economies from industrial to service markets in order to make them competitive in the global economy of the twenty-first century while maintain the spirit of the downtown. Facility Statement: The purpose of the facihty is to create a place to draw local residents and tourists to downtown to a central meeting place and estabUsh a node that wiU create a sense of place in downtown. The faciUty wiU be an adaptive reuse of an existing historic building to maintain the character of the district. The building on the comer of the block wiU be transformed from on abandoned grocery store to a bakery and café with residential lofts on the second floor. This faciUty is not ment to revitaUze the downtown by itself, but instead to be the first in a series of revitaUzation projects. Context Statement: The historic building is located in FuUon, UUnois three blocks from the Mississippi River. The building was chosen for its prominent location in the downtown district.