Saturday, October 16, 2004

A space of their own

POLLY HIGGINS

Tucson Citizen

To the outside world, the warehouses peppered throughout downtown are crumbling hulks, cavernous casualties of the age when most freight rode the rails into Tucson.

In many senses, that summation is not far off. Some of the structures - the buildings are clustered along Toole Avenue between Stone and Sixth avenues - are nearly 100 years old and in need of safety repairs.

But to a group of artists, the formerly unused spaces represent the future. Pioneers such as ceramic sculptor David Aguirre, who has worked in the Steinfeld Warehouse, 101 W. Sixth St., since 1987, and metal sculptor David Lewis, at Toole Shed Studios, 197 E. Toole Ave., since the mid-'80s, poured in sweat equity to transform the interiors into inexpensive, workable studios.

Years later, some 200 artists working in a variety of media enjoy inexpensive rent as well as a hospitable community that serves as a creative incubator.

"It's not the cheap rent at all," says Aguirre. "You get so much. It's rich, the different things - the cultural things - you can get really quickly in just a few blocks."

Aguirre recalls his early days at the Steinfeld Warehouse, when he worked by a light bulb hung in the basement. In 1986, the building was empty, or "quasi-empty," as squatters had taken up residence there.

"We feel like we barely saved it," Aguirre says.

Then there are people such as David Schwam, an architect who uprooted 300 pounds of obsolete wiring as part of a quest to turn an abandoned warehouse at 510 N. Stone Ave. into a work space. He liked it so much, he decided to move in.

At this point, the public has little reason to know of all the paintings, sculptures and photographic works being created behind the warehouse's doors, as the spaces are not set up for retail. The Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA, 197 E. Toole Ave., is an exception, with rotating shows and a gift shop.

Tucsonans are invited into the spaces twice a year, when the artists come together for the Open Studio Tour and welcome the public into their studios.

The majority of the warehouses are owned by the state Department of Transportation, acquired in the 1980s with the intention of demolishing them for the proposed Barraza-Aviation Parkway extension through the area.

As neighborhood activists and others battled over the parkway route, the state leased the warehouses to artists - who then became part of the organized parkway opposition.

In 1997, the artists helped win historic status for the Warehouse District.

Last year, the city hired local architect Corky Poster of Poster Frost Associates to design a master plan for the district.

The City Council in June approved Poster's recommendations, including a tree-lined art walk along Toole Avenue and the creation of a board of directors for the district. The parkway alignment through the Warehouse District was officially abandoned.

A further-along success story of warehouse conversion exists in the Lost Barrio, in the 200 block of South Park Avenue. The former warehouses are home to a variety of import shops and other businesses, as well as artists' studios.

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