The feasibility of renovating Ypsilanti's Thompson Block

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 | Source: Concentrate

This story originally ran 9/30/09

The Thompson Block is too far gone from last week's fire to be saved. That's the conventional wisdom for a building with only its shell left after a fire in Michigan.

"Fire is so dramatic and seems so final," says Ted Ligibel, a professor who teaches about historic preservation at Eastern Michigan University and runs its award-winning historic preservation program.

But is the road less traveled to saving what's left passable or even financially feasible? Stewart Beal thinks so. The developer working to turn the long-time blight into Ypsilanti's latest redevelopment win isn't giving up yet.

"We're planning to save it," Beal says.

You can forgive the young man in his 20s for being so headstrong. His youthful exuberance might blind him from just how big the staggering job ahead of him is, and it just might be what carries the day in the end. Some construction experts think that might be just what the Thompson Block needs.

Ligibel points to EMU's Scherzer Hall as an example. The stately century old building in the middle of the university's campus burned in 1989. Fire consumed its roof, interior and even caused the collapse of some of its walls, much like just what happened with the Thompson Block.

"And yet it was rebuilt and restored," Ligibel says. "It can be done. It all comes down to money and structural stability."

And a developer with enough foresight to see it through. A similar situation is playing out in the Forrest Arms apartment building next to Wayne State University in Detroit. There a local developer is rebuilding a 100-year-old apartment building after fire consumed the roof and heavily damaged the rest of the structure last year. If Detroit can do it, then why not in Ypsilanti?

"It's not beyond the realm of possibility that a building that has sustained that much damage can be restored," says Larry Darling, a Saline resident and national director of masonry restoration and preservation for the International Masonry Institute.

He points out that the extreme temperatures from the fire could easily weaken the clay-bricks and mortar joints in the circa 1860s Thompson Block. However, the remaining walls could still be kept up and be used for aesthetic purposes rather than structural with a practically new building going up on the side.

"If you can maintain the historic fabric of the building, it's a successful restoration," Darling says. "It could be regarded as a great success."

Source: Stewart Beal, developer of the Thompson Block; Ted Ligibel, historic preservation professor at Eastern Michigan University and Larry Darling, national director of masonry restoration and preservation for the International Masonry Institute
Writer: Jon Zemke