The restoration
In 1924 the roofline of this block carried ten lamp standards, each with an opal glass globe and a single 75 watt lamp, drawn and specified by the architects on the same sheets that laid out the storefronts. The Billings Gazette announced the building that July with a roofline, in its words, surmounted with a row of ornamental lamp standards. They are gone. Getting them back, with the flag flying from the roof and the lighted, pierced bronze work along the facade, is what this building is working toward.
2nd Avenue North, 1924
Eight lamp standards crown the 2nd Avenue parapet, one on every pier, doubled at both corners, with two more on the North 29th Street piers. The architects lettered the instruction across the top of the sheet in their own hand: 75 watt lamp in each standard.
Why it matters to a tenant
A restoration on this scale is not paid for by a grant or a gesture. It becomes possible because the building works as a business: the boutique, the artists, the salon, the yarn shop, the therapists and attorneys and technology firms upstairs, and the coworking floor behind the 1929 facade. We appreciate every one of them, because their success is what provides the resources for the next stretch of terra cotta and the next set of standards.
Our privilege is being part of that success. Tenants who do well here are the whole point of the place, and the building gets better as they do. That is the arrangement, and we are grateful for it.
Today
The block has had a roof put on it, storefronts rebuilt, fire systems installed, and a floor-by-floor return to full life, one stage at a time. The ornament above the second floor is largely still there, waiting. The drawings survive. So does the intent.
