Register here.
This tour highlights two non-profit institutions that serve the Columbus community that have recently completed new spaces through adaptive re-use projects in downtown Columbus. Presented by the Committee on Design.
1. Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC)
The building at 182 E. Long St. was built in 1916 by Wilbur Winders as a newly branded automobile sales facility, the Winders Motor Sales Company. Between 1924 and the 1940s, the building served a variety of businesses, but it remains one of the few original automobile dealership buildings in the downtown Columbus area. The Greater Columbus Arts Council moved into the renovated space in the Spring of 2020. The mission of the GCAC is to support and advance the arts and cultural fabric of Columbus.
The project works to expand the work of the GCAC. Arts Council programming provides access to the arts for people of all cultural backgrounds, economic status, sexual orientation, age, and physical ability and ensures broad public access to the arts. The new location provides the Arts Council with 1,300 more square feet in office space and improved access to resources and staff with street level presence and a community meeting room. The project also includes a gallery that is dedicated to showing work by artists from historically marginalized communities.
The tour will highlight the GCAC’s mission and the relationship between architecture’s impact and potential to promote and implement art in the community. The project was designed by AECOM with Connect Realty.
2. Freedom a la Cart
Built in 1928, the two-story brick and stone building at 123 E. Spring St. housed various businesses over the years in a neighborhood currently dominated by surface parking lots. In April 2021, Freedom a la Cart moved into the space. Freedom a la Cart is “a nonprofit social enterprise that makes meals more meaningful by tastefully combining fresh, from-scratch cuisine with life-changing employment and long-term support to local survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation”.
The 5,000 square foot space is an expansion of the social enterprise catering business with a fast casual café. It incorporates a commercial kitchen supporting both catering and the café, café seating, plus a first-of-its-kind Survivor Resource Center (The Freedom Loft) on the upper level. The café, kitchen and upper-level Freedom Loft were strategically structured with trauma-informed design principles to provide a safe oasis for survivors. By incorporating natural light, specific design colors, live greenery, and strategic layouts with open sight paths, the Freedom Loft offers a woman repose in the midst of whatever circumstance she faces in her life. Every design and detail in the café, kitchen, and Freedom Loft has purpose- to continue promoting the message of recovery and restoration.
The tour will highlight Freedom a la Cart’s mission and the relationship between architecture’s impact and potential to promote dignity and healing. The project was designed by RED Architects.
Attendees are invited to stay for a happy hour following the tour.
August 16, 2022
4:30-6 PM
Earn 1.5 LU|HSW
Limited space available.
Members: $15
Associate Members: $5
Non-Members: $30
