Fine Art Building's facade being preserved for future reuse

The preservation of the facade of the Fine Arts Building, located at 44 W. Adams facing Grand Circus Park, is pretty refreshing given the buildings getting torn down around the city these days. Owner Olympia Development hired Ann Arbor-based J.C. Beal Construction to dismantle the bulk of the 1905 structure while delicately maintaining its brick facade -- a task that took about five months and required digging into the street to erect a support frame for the wall that remains.

The future use for the Fine Arts -- designed by Louis Kamper, also known as the architect of the Book Cadillac Hotel -- has not yet been determined, according to Karen Cullen, spokesperson for Ilitch Holdings, the parent company of Olympia. In a statement she released, Atanas Ilitch, Olympia's president, says, "We are confident that the façade of the historic Fine Arts Building can be preserved and ultimately integrated into a new development that will occupy the site at some point in the future."

Neighbor Jerry Belanger, owner of the Park Bar and the building that houses it, Bucharest Grill and Cliff Bell's doesn't much care what kind of building goes up on the site as long as it is ultimately redeveloped."It's great that they saved the facade -- they didn't have to," he says. "I'm indifferent to the use. That thing would have just been a pile a dust if they weren't already committed to building. That's what excites me, to see development."

Belanger speaks regularly to folks with Olympia and the construction crew and says there are plans to uplight the facade from both sides. "It'll be a very cool effect on the cityscape," he says.

Sources: Karen Cullen, Ilitch Holdings and Jerry Belanger, Park Bar
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh