The Future of 415 W. Washington
  • The Future of 415 W. Washington
  • Toxins
  • Feb 2023 Floodplain memo
  • Chimney Swifts
  • The Greenest Building
  • History of 415
  • Allen Creek Greenway Task Force Report
  • CIty's preferred option
  • Contacts
The main brick building was built in 1925 for the Washtenaw County Road  Commission (WCRC)—a simple concrete structure with offices above a garage. Three  years later, the commission added a one-story workshop, and in 1930 the addition of a  brick garage. The accessory sheds are associated with the WPA (Works Progress  Administration) launched during the Great Depression. WCRC employees worked on  the second floor of the main building doing surveying, engineering, bookkeeping,  purchasing, and personnel. In 1965 WCRC moved out and The City of Ann Arbor took  over 415. The offices were used for parks and recreation, forestry, parking, traffic  engineering, and Fairview Cemetery, along with the sign shop and eventually expanded  to include neighborhood parking regulations and "clean community" violations in the  building.
 
More than 40 years later in 2007 the City mostly moved out of 415 and discussions  began about what would become of the City-owned site. Since the site sits in the Allen  Creek Floodplain, in 2006 Mayor Hieftje appointed The Allen Creek Greenway Task  Force to gather input from the community and discuss options for the 415 site and the  two other publicly-owned sites in the Allen Creek Floodplain. The Task Force issued a  report in March 2007, which summarized the context of each site and presented three  options for each. Options for 415 included (1) removal of existing buildings and  conversion of the entire site into green open space with an art park and an open  performance plaza built on pervious surface materials; (2) adaptive reuse of the historic  brick buildings to serve community needs, such as arts and performance space; and (3)  removing the existing structures and building housing in the flood fringe section and  keeping the floodway section as green open space. Many plans were put forth over the  next decade which proposed creative adaptive reuse of the historic buildings, including  by Kiwanis and the Arts Alliance.
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  • The Future of 415 W. Washington
  • Toxins
  • Feb 2023 Floodplain memo
  • Chimney Swifts
  • The Greenest Building
  • History of 415
  • Allen Creek Greenway Task Force Report
  • CIty's preferred option
  • Contacts