Door Design Contest

Memphis Heritage always has very interesting fundraisers.

Its latest — the Adapt A Door Design Challenge — is no different.

On April 25th, Memphis Heritage will hold the Donut Door Dash at 10 a.m. Participants will pick one of Memphis Heritage's doors — where did they come from? I don't know — for a cost of $25 each.

Then (I think) you take your door home, nurture it, water it, open it, shut it, and, most importantly, transform it into a chair, a table, a rack, or whatever else you want.

The doors-turned-artwork will be displayed at Memphis Heritage's Howard Hall on August 22nd.

Hmm, I wonder if there will be a "door" prize.

Interested parties need to sign up by April 9th. For an entry form, go to Memphis Heritage's website.

Bank Bail-out

Fresh off its Cumberland Presbyterian/Chick-fil-A victory, Memphis Heritage is setting its sights on the C&I Bank building at 200 Madison.

Photo courtesy Memphis Heritage

The distinctive downtown landmark, which was designed by noted architect Francis Gassner, is on the market and interested parties have proposed plans to demolish it. According to Memphis Heritage's press release, the Museum of Modern Art included the building in its 1979 exhibit of 400 buildings that had a significant influence on recent architecture.

Memphis Heritage will host a meeting at its home at Howard Hall, 2282 Madison, Wednesday, August 13th, at noon to discuss the latest plans for the property and alternatives to demolition. To RSVP or get more information, email jwest@memphisheritage.org.

It's such an interesting building from the outside, but the inside has that great atrium. When it was still a bank, I was always amazed at the natural light in the lobby.

Chick-fil-A/Cumberland Pres. update

Memphis Heritage sent out an update today about the Cumberland Presbyterian building. You might remember that the property is currently slated for a Chick-fil-A.

"On Wednesday May 7 several local architects, on behalf of MHI, toured the Cumberland property to see what possibilities existed for the adaptive reuse of the building as a CFA restaurant. The next day these same architects met with Chick-fil-A's architect, construction specialist and VP's of Real Estate and Construction who flew in from Atlanta to review the findings.

It was a productive meeting. While both groups agreed that using the entire building is virtually impossible for CFA's needs, Chick-fil-A has agreed to review the plans that were discussed on May 8 and get back with MHI within the next several weeks regarding the possibility of some sort of compromise."

I'll be interested in seeing how this plays out. The church has already purchased other property off Germantown Road for its needs, so it's out of the picture. Chick-fil-A seems to be a responsible company; while the whole "closed on Sunday" sometimes bothers me as a hungry consumer, I respect its commitment to values over financial gain. And that fact that company reps are even meeting with members of the community is a good sign.

Tower Power

Though it took a hit in the October 2006 downtown fire, the Lincoln American Tower is looking pretty spiffy these days.

Memphis Heritage held a fundraiser at the building this weekend, with tours through several apartments, including those in the very tip-top of the tower. I've got to say, the view was pretty spectacular from every angle.

I think this view might have been from one of the penthouse bathrooms.

The Lincoln American Tower was built in 1924 to be the headquarters of the Columbian Mutual Life Assurance Society. (The company was brought to Memphis by its president Lloyd T. Binford, the Board Of Censors head who banned local audiences from seeing any Charlie Chaplin movies, among others. For more about that, see Michael Finger's recent story for the Flyer, Banned in Memphis.)

Each of the tower apartments is two stories, with elevator access to both floors (and cute staircases). They did a good job matching the original hardware to what had to be replaced and keeping the historic feel of the building. Check back later — I may post a few more pictures.