Queen Village is home to some of the most wonderful architecture in the City, with many beautiful rowhomes and numerous examples of older buildings that have been restored and reused over the years. It's also home to a lousy looking shopping center on the northeast corner of 2nd & Christian that's home to a 7-11, a cleaners, a pharmacy, and a Chinese restaurant. The building sticks out some in Queen Village, looking like it would be more at home in the 'burbs than at this location. Judging from the crapitude of the architecture, we'd guess it was built in the 1970s.
The other day, a reader brought it to our attention that some permits have been posted to the side of the building which could spell good news for people who never cared for this building. The owners of the property plan to build an addition to this property, with plans calling for two new stories and fourteen apartments. The ground-floor retail will remain. From what we can tell, the project will be entirely by-right.
By definition, this project will mean a radical change for the look of this building. Most notably, the gabled roof seems unlikely to be recreated above the third floor and with the removal of the existing roof the storefronts could be given some additional room to breathe. You can see in the photo above, the current roof hangs over the signage, making it tougher for passersby to identify the businesses. As for the upper floors, we will speculate and guess that the new facade will be a mix of brick and cement board, like many of the other new construction projects we see around town these days. Though we confess, we wouldn't be sad to see an effort to make the new and improved building fit in a little more with the historic neighborhood that surrounds it.
There are some pretty solid examples of nice buildings right across the street, if we do say so.