Art vs Architecture in Prairie Avenue District
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The CAF maintains that the Swiss Products structure, which the city bought in 1976, not only has no redeeming architectural value but also blocks what should be the main entrance to the Prairie Avenue Historic District, which the CAF has been working to develop. They want a park on the site. “We’ve worked so long to make the district a mini-Williamsburg,” says CAF executive director John Engman, “and the Swiss Products building is an eyesore that ruins the integrity of the district.” Other CAF board members say they are not opposed to working with the city to develop an arts colony in and around the Prairie Avenue district, but resent the city’s efforts to retain the Swiss Products property. “We feel our long-range plans have been disrupted,” says Hill Burgess, a CAF board member and chairman of the Prairie Avenue Historic District committee.
Rabkin says he probably will issue a request for proposals from developers and arts organizations interested in the Swiss Products building. He says the CAF is free to submit a proposal to demolish it. In a very real sense, however, the arts community and the CAF need each other to make the Prairie Avenue Historic District a viable vision. A concentration of artists in spaces such as the Swiss Products building, and the related restaurants and other businesses they would attract, ultimately would help the CAF by attracting more local residents and tourists to the district. Whatever fate awaits the Swiss Products building, a developer already has contracted to buy a large structure across the street that he wants to open up, in part at least, to artists.
Prelude to Prelude
