Best Use of an Empty Shoe Factory Ever?

Once upon a time, a handsome former shoe factory sat empty and lonely in Skid Row (or Central City East, if we must). But in December, it became a home for about 80 chronically homeless women and was rechristened as the new Downtown Women's Center (the former DWC was a smaller facility). The Center not only provides homes but also has a ground-level café/shop where people can buy wares and food made by some of Center's tenants. The reimagining of the 1926 factory will be one of only a handful of projects honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation tonight at their conference in Buffalo, reports blogdowntown. [blogdowntown]