BOLDLY GOING PINK: THE BLAIR IN DECATUR

If you convened a conference of commercial real estate folks about how to bring forth the most value from a building, few of them would likely say, “Paint it pink.”

Gene Kansas considers historic preservation, cultural development, and community engagement top priorities when it comes to return on investment. And so does the company he founded. Take the company’s latest project, The Blair Building in Decatur. Yes, they did paint it pink – a costume change, if you will, for this 1939 Streamline Moderne rarity. The goal, as part of its reimagination, was to give The Blair a more colorful, character-driven role, to impart its story upon an audience like a theater wherein the grand play unfolds.

Gene sat down and chatted about The Blair, how its design reflected its new chapter, and what he hopes it brings to the community.

Q: Let’s start at the beginning. What is The Blair building in Decatur, Georgia, and how are you connected with it?

GK: I mean, it started as just an office building in Decatur in 1939, 86 years ago. And it was pretty utilitarian, but it had this great design. It was very of the moment. It was quite literally moderne, this sub-genre of art deco. There are only two Streamline Moderne buildings in Decatur, and it's quirky and it's cool, and it's this character. We bought the building a few years ago and knew it needed a refresh, and we did that with a focus on being true to its history. 

It had all kinds of different businesses in it over the decades. There was a hair salon, a shoe salesman, Allied Cars started there. Farnell Blair had their office there, which is where it gets its name. It's true to the neighborhood. It's quirky, it's special. When we bought it, it had everything except the color. I think its original color was gray.

Q: When considering this particular building, but also buildings in general, what can buildings bring to a neighborhood and what do you hope this building does for the neighborhood? How will it serve Decatur?

GK: It's a good question. It's like the phrase “part-and-parcel to something.” Well, “parcel” is a piece of land. And “part” is something that's additive to a whole. A “part” is also a role in a film. I think that The Blair is part-and-parcel and representative of Decatur, and it's made possible through Decatur. Its identity is informed by the people who come there every day and who pass by and who live around it. So it's both independent and a part of something. It works together with Decatur to reciprocally inform identity.

It's like choosing whatever type of bike you want to ride as a representation of self. Are you riding a Schwinn, or are you riding a unicycle, or are you riding a mountain bike? The person is choosing the bike because it's a fit for them and their identity. The same is true with buildings that speak to us, like a great dance partner.

Q: Talk to me about the choice of the color and the power of color in buildings and what it brings to the conversation.

GK: The color choice was fun and difficult. It was fun because we got Matt Finn, the architect at Cognitive Design; Smith Hanes Design; John Howard Landscape Architecture; DUST Design Build out of Tucson, Arizona; and a few others involved. And we just kind of dreamt about what it could be, including the color.

And then we had Matt create a PDF of the building, kind of like a one-page coloring book that was The Blair Building. We invited 120 different people, including kids, who used crayons or markers or Adobe Photoshop to color what they thought it could be. Some of them were really straight on, some were crazy, some colored outside the lines, whatever.

I had always wanted to do pink. It has that Wes Anderson vibe. Pink is a loving color and it would stand out, its friendly and welcoming, and it's totally apropos of a boutique hotel in South Beach, which is what I think this building is as an office building in Decatur. But it was very hard to get the right shade of pink. If you go online and just look at pinks, there are a lot of pinks.

I think the two hardest things to do with building design are picking the right brick and picking the right paint. And you never know how the paint is going to look until it's on the surface, because the type of surface will determine the color, as well as the lighting, all that stuff. So we tried maybe seven or eight different versions of pink on the brick of the building and then picked one. 

And we said it was “boldly going pink,” which I like, and it resonated. There was a debate within the community. And that was part of the idea. “Let's invite people to talk about it; it's their building. It's our building. It’s everyone’s building. It’s no one’s building. That’s our philosophy, at least.”

Q: So you want to fit into Decatur, but then also offer some sort of leadership or narrative lead in the story of Decatur. But what is Decatur to you? How would you describe Decatur to people?

GK: Yeah. I don't know if we have any type of narrative lead. I think it's just a contribution to what's been there. But yeah, I mean, Decatur precedes Atlanta by a decade. It’s reason for being, like Atlanta, is rail. I find it interesting, if not odd, that it was named in honor of a Navy Commodore, Stephen Decatur. I mean, this guy fought Barbary pirates, he also fought the Macedonian, a source of pride for Great Britain. And he won! So, I guess, sure, why not name it after him.

Now, you've got this great food scene here, coffee, breweries, art, culture. Decatur has been named one of the country's most playful cities. It's really walkable. It’s super colorful. The layout of it is a nice scale. You're in a city that's accessible and approachable and you can have your own immersion there, whether you're just visiting for the day or you're raising your family there, or you have your business there or whatever. It's very quirky. It's liberal, it's open. I think it represents equality and all those things are really great.

The Blair is just a part of that. It is emblematic of those things that make Decatur. It's part of Decatur’s conspicuous identity.

Q: You have a lot of experience in matching the tenants with the particular building, and finding a community that works together. How do you envision the people, the tenants, who will take up a place there?

GK: Well, first of all, we like to say “business owners” and “property owners.” I think that the “tenant” and “landlord” vernacular and relationship is antiquated, and it seems adversarial by nature. We don't have to formally state that, but The Blair is just a place where people can come to have their business, or I suppose it could just be a place for someone to have a room to sit in and play chess. I don't know. You don’t have to necessarily be a business to enjoy time here.

I think the strategy “let things be what they are” is a good approach. Don't try to change a thing or a person. We are who we are. The place is what it is. And so with The Blair, we lean into The Blair and what it is, and then just present it in a way that can connect with people.

And so some of the things designwise we did to help with that: We hired a phenomenal landscape architect, John Howard, to create this mid-century modern landscape. That's really hard for commercial buildings. There's a vast amount of great examples of precedent for residential. John Howard used to do commercial, but now he focuses on residential and a style that’s like Alice in Wonderland meets Wes Anderson meets something traditional. It's really kind of magical.

I knew we wanted to do that, but I didn't have the designer yet. I met with John, and I was like, “Are you interested in this?” And he's like, “I'm not doing any more commercial projects. I hate commercial design.” I was like, “I know, but look at this. Don’t you want to have fun?” He's like, “Yeah, I want to have fun.”  

We also brought in Smith Hanes, who's really, really well known and super talented, but he had not done many commercial office projects. But we wanted to work with Smith because The Blair is more like a hotel than an office, and it's all about hospitality, really. This goes back to the question: How do you attract people? The answer is: You design it, and then they're attracted to it. They'll find it. Part of that for me was to bring in people who are super-talented professionals like John and Smith and Dust and Matt, and let them do their thing.

And then later, Ashley McClure, who's also an interior designer, got involved with some of the detail-oriented stuff. Within Smith’s designs, Ashley came in and helped imagine finer details. He did a great job. 

Q: Doing an office building seems like a risk right now, no?

GK: I think it’s worth saying: Everyone thinks office space is dead. We disagree. The real  question is, how do we get people back in the office? The prevailing belief is that everyone just wants to work from home.

But the answer is simple: People go where they want to go. If the office is like them and fun and beneficial, they're going to go there.

Q: If you could name three movies that The Blair could star in, what would they be?

GK: I mean, most Wes Anderson movies. The Grand Budapest Hotel would be the first one, probably. Darjeeling Limited. But I also could see it in a classic movie like The Maltese Falcon. The interior hallways at Blair are like walking into a noir private detective film. You could definitely see Humphrey Bogart in this place. It’s versatile though, and could be a whole other generation, something like a scene from The Graduate with a backgammon board and a gin and tonic, looking out into a bamboo garden, some type of fuzzy glamour. The Blair of today is definitely anachronistic. It has The Deco Room, which is a huge conference room. You've got beautiful rattan chairs, you've got a Knoll Table, you've got great light. We did the built-ins and the millwork to be curved of that era in this pretty, mellow mint color. It all works together very well. And it’s an office building. People like it, and they want to be here.

Q: Your civil and social shared workspace Constellations in Sweet Auburn has events happening weekly and creates this community that expands further than the actual office space. Will The Blair model its community events like this?

GK: Eventually. At Constellations, in addition to long-term businesses, we have outside groups and organizations — meetings and events clients — renting a space for an hour or a day or whatever. At The Blair, it will also be more community oriented, more open to programming. So one of the things we're going to be doing is a classic car show in the parking lot — cars of the era that The Blair was born into, from the late 1930s to the late 1950s. That’s going to be a fun day.

And we want to do fundraisers and benefits and graduations and maybe a backgammon tournament?! We’ve also been contributing to Oyster South and Landlocked. We’ve been asking, what more can we do to help with that? First we had to get opened. And that took some time.

Q: Is there anything else you want to add?

GK: I would like to point out the work of Helen McGaughy, who started with our company during the Pandemic. She was at College of Charleston. She just basically took time off, started working at our company, and eventually finished her degree in historic preservation. She's had the chance to lead the historic preservation with The Blair Building. And she's now won three historic preservation awards. She’s doing really great work, as is Ted Bradford. Teamwork has made this bold, pink dream work, for sure.

WANT TO LEASE AN OFFICE AT THE BLAIR?! EMAIL HELEN, SHE’S THE BEST.