TOLEDO – Deteriorating brick walls are getting some color, as muralists Connor Degnan and Chilly Rodriguez leave their mark on the downtown Toledo Davis Building at 151 N Michigan St.
These two murals are part of a public art movement led by local artist Dean Davis in partnership with River Gallery Studio and Keep Toledo / Lucas County Beautiful, called 100 Works of Art or 100 Mural Project.
But the murals are serving a practical reason, “water was soaking through the brick, and it was causing issues on the inside,” said Chris Eischen, a local entrepreneur hoping to percolate some interest in the Davis Building.
“We needed to seal the brick to eliminate that problem,” he said. After a quote, Eischen realized that repainting and sealing the walls would be the same price as painting a mural, so they opted for the mural.
“I’ve been over here the past, I think three days now, scraping and just getting the wall ready,” Rodriguez said of his mural on the northwest side of the building.
“It’s going to be really bright, vibrant, and colorful,” he said, mentioning that this was going to be his biggest solo mural to date.
On the southwest side of the building, facing The Switchboard and Culture Clash, Degnan was doing some of the same prep work on his wall.
“Whatever paint we would use would be good enough to seal it,” Degnan said. “But for this, I am using an extra high quality exterior paint-primer combination.”
Already, Degnan completed a part of his wall, and moved on to prepping more of the southwest side.
Both muralists are happy to be able to help refurbish the building, which they have some history with.
“Chris Rodriguez and I had studios here for about three years in, around 2018,” he said.
Now the two have invested themselves in a different studio space on the first floor of the Gardner Building, 500 Madison Avenue, Mind And Soul Gallery & Studios.
Beyond the artistry, Eischen hopes to create a community hub out of the Davis Building, and channel some of the goals of previous projects into the current one.
“This provides more opportunity for expansion and growth for a lot of the ideas that I had started over at the Tech Loft, and so this is kind of an expansion of that on a larger scale,” he said.
Previously, Eischen was attempting to create a technology-centered community with the Toledo Tech Loft (334 N. Superior Street), one of David Ball’s properties. Even before that iteration, Eischen passionately worked at creating Code City, above Rustbelt Coffee at 119 N. Ontario Street, in late 2016.
In this latest incubator attempt, Eischen is working with Davis Building Owner Elliot Katz, the man behind Clock Tower Properties LLC.
When asked about Eischen’s previous partnerships that didn’t quite pan out, Katz said, “That’s my opportunity!”
“Sometimes people don’t realize when they have a gem looking right at them, and they could do something amazing,” he said. “Literally, I couldn’t imagine anyone better than him.”
Eischen said the focus on the word “tech” during the Superior St. project became more of stumbling block for his vision than a help. Instead, he said the focus was really on “up-skilling our community,” and doing so with the latest technologies. But for now, Eischen said he’s focused on revitalizing the Davis Building as a retail and community space people would want to spend time in, and then start cross pollinating ideas with multiple people and businesses in one space.
“I’m looking for an overall building rebrand,” he said, and threw out the name Flux Community Building.
“If you’re a startup, we can provide co-working space. If you’re established and you need a private office, we can provide that, or if you’re a larger company that needs several offices, we have some spaces that have multiple offices.”
Already, Eischen said Flatrock Distillery Bourbon Street Bistro in Fallen Timbers Shopping Center would be moving into the Davis Building to take over the vacancy left by Leaf and Seed. A health company was hinted at as another potential tenant in the building, but regardless, there are already businesses and private working folks invested in the Davis Building.
Just like Degnan and Rodriguez before, there are people already committed to the space, and that gives Eischen more to work with as he tries to build community in downtown.
Located next to more open parking spaces, and across from The Switchboard and Culture Clash, already active community spaces, Eischen hopes the Davis Building will combine and amplify community and co-working.
As for the collaborations already happening, Rodriguez said, “I just want to give a shout out to Dean Davis for kind of making this this whole thing possible and giving other artists sharing the spaces with us…coming together for the common goal of making Toledo a better and more beautiful place.”
