by Ann Marie Kennon
DOWNTOWN RENEWAL
photos courtesy Douglas Moss
TAYLOR REVITALIZATION IS PAYING OFF In suburban America, the renaissance of historical town centers incorporates each city’s vision and mission to marry the old with the new in a constant effort toward positive growth. Taylor, a city built and thriving on agriculture is on the cusp of becoming a world technology center, but architect Douglas Moss is driven to bridge the two. He and Darwin Harrison, his partner at Public Sketch, LLC, have a vision to rehabilitate and repurpose historic downtown buildings and develop new projects while maintaining the smalltown character of their hometown. The goal is as personal as it is profitable. Moss grew up in Taylor and his family still lives there. His brother owns the True Value hardware store that has been in the family for 55 years, and he literally knows the streets, having ridden his bike on all of them as a young person. In the aggregate, these experiences have provided him many and unique perspectives on the history of the city.
WHERE TAYLOR HAS BEEN
WHERE IS TAYLOR NOW?
While Taylor has not experienced explosive growth on the same timeline as cities closer to IH-35, it is a Nationally Accredited Main Street City. Public Sketch plays a part in the Main Street mission to build stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. With greater access provided by the SH-130 Toll Road, and even with help from the historic tax credit program, there remain many buildings awaiting restoration and vibrant new tenants.
Moss says he always had in interest in being a small-scale real estate developer and four years ago Harrison told him about the building at 2nd & Main in downtown Taylor, which had been for sale for many years and in some areas was nearing collapse. “The prior owner was not able to maintain a large building by herself,” he says. “By using the Historic Rehabilitation Tax credits offered by the Texas Historic Commission and National Park Service, we turned this nearly derelict structure into a vibrant new building that houses Frills and Western Darlin, two unique clothing and gift stores and nine live-and-work lofts.”
Moss and Harrison are planning cumulative changes that will bring back the vintage feel to the city. “We are focusing on pieces of the overall picture,” Moss says. “We are not like a developer who buys 100 acres and builds something massive. These small projects will have a huge and positive impact because they are incremental and, we like to say, we develop with the public in mind.”
2nd & Main Loft
14 WILCO BUSINESS REVIEW | 2022 • ISSUE 2
For 2nd & Main and others, he is investing his own money but adds that investors and banks did not support his ideas at first. “My plans to restore downtown buildings did not seem sustainable because banks didn’t believe anyone would want to live upstairs from a commercial operation in downtown Taylor, or near an overpass or train track or have no parking.” But Moss, whose day job as the managing partner of the Austin office for the international architecture firm of Steinberg Hart, works on large-scale municipal, university, and mixed-use residential projects, scaled those architectural insights to see the building bared to the bones, and had the vision to restore it from the pipes and electrical to the roof and façades. The result is a destination retail tenant and unique loft spaces all rented within six months of completion.
