Southeast students develop proposals for downtown Cape historic building

During the past spring semester, Southeast Missouri State University students were given the opportunity to explore real-life challenges, reaching creative solutions to restore and redevelop historic buildings.

Steven Hoffman’s Historic Preservation-Based Economic Revitalization class created feasibility assessments of a one-story brick building at 101 William St. in downtown Cape Girardeau as part of a semester-long group project.

A feasibility assessment evaluates a historic building for economic use and creates a proposal for redeveloping the structure, Hoffman said. During th project, historic-preservation students coordinated with construction-management students to visualize their proposal and create a multidisciplinary team, he said.

Students were separated into three groups, with five students in each group, historic preservation junior Madelyn Brown said. While the mid-semester transition to remote learning posed a challenge, Brown said it helped students find more creative ways of communicating. Students used Zoom, Microsoft Teams and GroupMe to coordinate plans for the building.

Brown, whose group proposed the space be turned into a brewery, said the project was a unique experience to go beyond the classroom into real-world experience. By coordinating with both construction management students and local professionals, she said the project simulated workplace collaboration experiences.

The property at 101 William St. is seen Sunday, May 31, 2020, in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com

“It’s important to understand those real-world scales of communication and being able to thoroughly explain what you’re wanting from another group,” she said. Her group collaborated with construction-management students to help visualize and create images of the proposed brewery.

The other groups proposed an event center and teen hangout business, Hoffman said. Those two groups also included plans for a second-story addition to provide a better view of the Mississippi River.

The 1916 structure was formerly used as a warehouse and is currently used for storage, according to a news release from the university.

At the end of the semester, groups presented their plans to property owner Bill Cole during a Zoom class conference, Hoffman said.

This is the sixth time Hoffman has taught this class, which is offered every other year. Using the Main Street approach, he collaborates with Old Town Cape to identify buildings in need of development. He said he looks for buildings involving a moderate amount of challenge with property owners open to new ideas.

“The best way to preserve a building is to be able to use it for something,” he said. “Beautiful, historic, old buildings need to have an economic use, and this class project focuses on that and the steps that are involved.”