Downtown's New Buildings

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Only Beckley says he actually likes the building: “I like the way the balconies break up the facade. The scale is good, with good use of modern materials. I even considered living there at one point.” But even Beckley admits that “the problem is the ground floor. Denali [the developer] made an honest effort to alleviate it, but he had to put the parking on the main floor. What he should have done is put retail in front and parking behind it.”

On the other hand, everybody in the group loves Liberty Lofts, the refurbished factory off Liberty just west of downtown. “It’s a great use of that building,” says Beckley, “and it’s really interesting to walk past. With all those windows, there’s always something to see.”

“It’s a great example of adaptive reuse of an industrial building,” says Quinn. “They respected the history of the site but turned the building into a contemporary living space. I understand it was challenging working in a historic district, but I was pleased to see they were allowed to put balconies on.” Like Beckley lauding Loft 322, Quinn pays Liberty Lofts an architect’s ultimate compliment: “That’s where I’d buy a condo.”

Rueter, Mouat, and Strickland all praise Liberty Lofts in nearly the same language—“successful job,” “good job,” and “quite successful,” respectively—and even the stern Luckenbach is comparatively positive: “It’s pretty much okay. It’s a perfectly legitimate conversion of an industrial building to a residential building.”