The doors were braced keeping them upright. Dust was nearly an inch thick. And it was dark. With a clear vision and not much more than gut instinct, BUiLDiNG CHARACTER opened on Oct. 5, 2007, in Warehouse B. Prior to that day, a talented crew of workers from Ecklin Development, the owner of these historic 1900 warehouses, worked for months to transform the former Lancaster Storage Co., which had left the space years earlier after City Council voted against demolition of the structures. We wanted to keep as much authenticity as possible.

A corner office on the second floor was made with pine boards salvaged from floors; the office’s windows were repurposed from those original dilapidated doors. On the wall farthest from North Queen Street — in Warehouse C — the original storage units remain and have been turned into shops. The second floor in that warehouse also was removed but the beams were kept. That also was important to us.  And so the soul of these warehouses has transcended into what BUiLDiNG CHARACTER is today: a community-driven entity for us to share creativity, ingenuity and originality.