Street Makeover and Building Restoration

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PHOTO: KIM ZARNEY
Downtown Medina, OH looked much more inviting after a street  makeover and a series of building restorations.

If you take a look at MOTHER EARTH NEWS from the 9th issue through the 25th, (with the exception of issue 12), you’ll see the considerable talent of Kim Zarney displayed on the front covers. Nowadays, though, Kim has a much larger “canvas” to work with. For the past seven years his firm, Townscape, has done design consultation for nearly 40 communities on projects ranging from individual building restoration to street makeover concepts for entire downtown areas!

A Hometown Example

Zarney’s interest in urban beautification started some 16 years ago, when he was still a student at the Cleveland School of Art. At that time, his hometown of Medina undertook what still ranks as one of the nation’s most successful “Main Street” restoration projects. Since Kim’s father (a commercial artist) was a leading figure on the Community Design Committee, the son soon became involved in Medina’s program. And the benefits that the restoration subsequently brought to the Ohio town made a lasting impression on the young artist.

“Most of America’s Main Streets have been around for well over 100 years,” Zarney notes, “but in that time, little has been done to them to keep the customers coming to the central shopping areas. Newer malls usually offer better lighting, parking, displays, and security … and, ironically, many of them try to look like old-time Main Streets, while the real things waste the wonderful ambiance they already possess.”

Recapturing lost trade and making central urban areas convenient, comfortable, and attractive is often more a matter–the consultant has discovered–of revealing than of rebuilding.

  • Published on Jul 1, 1980
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