A reader tipped us off recently that work is getting started on a project that will breathe new life into a currently unappealing warehouse on the southeast corner of 28th & Cambridge. We actually told you about this project a little over a year ago, right before it came before the community. The project apparently found favor, as it got approved by the ZBA a few weeks later. Checking in on the building today, we see only small signs that construction has gotten underway, like the presence of a construction fence and a hole punched in a former window openening. But we do see they got their first building permit last month, so construction efforts should soon grow much more apparent.

For those that don’t feel like reading our previous post on the property, we’ll tell you here that Greythorne Development is renovating the building, which was a brewery a hundred years ago, into a mixed-use project with ground floor retail, 14 apartments, and commercial space at the corner. If you think the building looks too small to accommodate all that, you’d be correct- the project calls for a two story addition and will be about 50′ tall when all is said and done. And while it’s true that the building will rise above all the surrounding homes, it’s a reasonable trade-off in our book, to maintain some architectural diversity and reuse an old building that’s ripe with potential.

As for what the renovated building will look like, we confess we aren’t entirely sure. The developer’s website presents two renderings of the project with thoroughly different looks, and we don’t know which direction they’re taking. Check ’em out:

The former rendering has a more traditional look to it, with brick at the corner and warehouse style windows. The latter rendering is much more contemporary from what we can tell, both in terms of color, materials on the facade, and the windows. We aren’t sure which version we’d prefer, as either one would represent a dramatic improvement over the status quo. Which one would you rather see? Does anyone know what direction the developers are going to take the building?