Sandusky Adaptive Reuse
Grocery Market
Sandusky, OH
​
Kent State University
Fall 2014
Professor:
Jack Hawk, AIA
The vision of this project is to establish a new central downtown food
market that will provide healthy and fresh foods to the people of downtown
Sandusky. The service it provides will further encourage more development
into the downtown area.
Many buildings downtown have thriving businesses on the lower level, but are unoccupied on the upper levels. The long term goal of this project is to create something that will make Sanduskyís downtown more livable, and encourage permanent residents to move in to the upper levels of buildings. What is the need for a grocery store in downtown Sandusky? Most of the large stores are located in Perkins Township, far away from downtown. There is a grocery store right outside of the downtown area, but it seems to attract customers from the neighborhood and does not encourage the future development of the downtown and lacks particular specialization. Along with that grocery store, there is a farmers market that occupies an empty parking lot. It does not offer full time service, therefore it does not promote significant long term growth. The goal of this new central market is to be a market that has specializations in real and fresh foods. That will give the resients of downtown Sandusky the opportunity to acquire quality foods to sustain a healthy life.
1. The current configuration of this site has two old and historic buildings that are distinctly different from one another.
2. The building on Columbus Ave has a brick facade on the upper levels, and the building on E Washington Row was a neoclassical banking hall. Besides their adjacency, the only thing linking them is their inclusion of four stories.
3. In order to take these two different buildings, and to unite them into one cohesive structure that houses a multi-level market, certain changes would need to be made to each building.
4. On the Columbus building, the lower floor was expanded to keep the amount of retail space on the floor, while also adding additional back room service spaces. The E.Washington building was of an ‘L’ shape, and the foot of that ‘L’ has been removed, which will allow for a more cohesive floor plan.
5. The upper levels of the Columbus building form another ‘L’ shape that creates an open air void for natural light for the once existing apartments. A new atrium will enclose that space. This atrium will link with one of the key features of the E.Washington building, a double height banking hall/ worship hall. These two grand spaces will unite the two buildings into one.
6. These two monumental spaces link the two different buildings and offer multi-sensory connections between different levels of the grocery market. One floor does not hide from another, but wants to be seen. This encourages people to move up and down between the various areas with ease. That experience makes this grocery market a unique destination for locals and visitors.
E.Washington Row Building - "Bakery Hall"
Columbus Ave. Building - Atrium
