So, I would imagine you are saying to yourself right about now, that's a huge building. And you're probably imagining how much money the artist is going to need for this project?

The building is 60 X 25 feet, four stories tall, and only slightly larger than the majority of single-family McMansions being built today. The County Auditor lists the building as 6000 sq. ft. It's a little more than twice the size of the farmhouse my family of four lived in in northern Maine for seventeen years. That may not mean much to a reader, so trust me, the architecture of the building makes it look much bigger than it is.

I was told by a Cincinnati realtor, the architectural style of this building is called, "Italianate," though I'd never heard of that term before finding this building. The building has been on the market for almost a year and advertised for $79,000.00

American Rust-Belt cities, Detroit, Cincinnati, Buffalo etc., have been taking a beating as the effects of economic globalization are sending manufacturing jobs overseas. The Detroit and Buffalo real estate markets are so beat up, I entirely looked past those two cities when I looked for a project. I found Cincinnati after looking in Columbus - Ohio last summer when I visited friends there. For me, Cincinnati is just compellingly cosmopolitan enough for my tastes, and it is a city from which one can drive five or ten miles and be out in the countryside of either Ohio or over the Ohio River into Kentucky.

Vine Street is a particularly notorious street running through the Over the Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. Over the Rhine is both experiencing a rejuvenation and suffering a decline at the same time. Within a few block of this building there are multi-million dollar condominium projects, some of which are stalled, and also dozens of vacant and abandoned, and often enough, burned out buildings. According to the newspapers, this locale is a hotbed of crime, drug activity and prostitution. One can however, see on the faces of the residents here, this is also a deeply proud area with great hope in the face of an impending future that is barreling at the its residents from both directions.

The above map is of 1732 Vine. This map is not entirely accurate in that the outlined area does not include the parking lot behind the 1732 Vine Street parcel. The lot that fronts on Hamer Street, the parcel numbered 09400070002, is also included with the purchase of 1732 Vine Street. So the 1732 Vine Street property has something like 115 feet of street frontage on East Elder Street, and 25 feet of street frontage on both Vine Street and Hamer Street. The parcel wraps right around two corners. This parcel includes the 25 x 55 foot parking lot directly behind the 1732 Vine Street building shown on the map.

Note on this map the gray areas are buildings, and the white areas are vacant lots.

The two following maps zoom out from the first map.

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