Frisco
Station Apartments -
Senior Housing
6/25/03 - Developers:Frisco's still on track
Waiting list available for housing program
By Wally Kennedy
Globe Staff Writer
As
he walks through the 90-year-old Frisco Building, Greg Keller
stops to talk with a plumber about a kink in a copper line. He
then lifts his clipboard and jots down a note to
himself.
His note pad is filled with handwritten
messages. For Keller, the man who is in charge of the
restoration and conversion of the Frisco into a 56-unit
apartment building, the devil is truly in the details - and
they are spread out over eight floors.
"We're
assembling and installing seven skylights this week," he said.
"The ceramic lion's heads and cornices will go back up next
week. The elevator is going in right now.
"There's work
going on all over the building.''
The $9.2 million
project, known as the Frisco Station Apartments, is
progressing on schedule and should be completed in September
by Larry Snyder & Co. of Joplin. The developer is Carlson
Gardner Inc. of Springfield.
Some of the one- and
two-bedroom apartments on the lower floors are finished,
including carpeting and air conditioning.
Local
interest in renting the apartments is growing.
Tammi
Creason, with Mid-America Management Inc. of Springfield,
said: "We have been ecstatic about the local interest at this
point. The Economic Security Corp. of Southwest Missouri has
accumulated a waiting list, and we have been coordinating with
them.
"There are eight to 10 people on that list, but
we certainly have had an abundance of calls beyond that. We
think this will fill a need in Joplin. We are so encouraged by
the local support.''
Work of late has focused on the
main floor, where passengers once entered the terminal to the
former railroad station and office building. Damaged plaster
cornices inside the main terminal have been replaced with new
fiberglass versions that were molded to form exact copies of
the originals.
Historic preservation is a significant
element of the project. Instead of using metal to frame the
windows on the main floor, workers are using wood because that
was what was there originally. The marbled hallways will look
as they did when the building opened in 1913. The frames for
office doors and windows are being reinstalled in the hallways
to re-create the appearance of an office building. The glass
in them, like the originals, will be frosted.
Keller
said thousands of sheets of Sheetrock have been used in the
project.
"We got a truckload of Sheetrock on every
Wednesday and Friday for weeks and weeks,'' he
said.
The Frisco, influenced by the Chicago school of
structural design, was built for $1 million by Isaac T. Cook
Construction Co. of St. Louis. At one time, the station served
26 trains a day. The last train rolled out of the station in
1955.
Before the restoration was started in April 2002,
the building stood vacant for 15 years at Sixth and Main
streets.
For details on the waiting list for Frisco
Station Apartments, people may call (888)
896-5656.
Some doors, porcelain sinks and other
materials are available as salvage. Interested people may call
Keller at 782-1060 for details.
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© 2002 The Joplin Globe Publishing Company. |
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