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'Oxford's favorite bar' getting a facelift

Brick Street's plan to add garage doors OK'd by Oxford historic commission

By Carleigh Turner, The Miami Student

"Oxford's favorite bar" will be getting a facelift.

Oxford's Historic and Architectural Preservation Commission (HAPC) signed off yesterday for Brick Street, 36 E. High St., to add two new garage doors on the patio side of its building.

The project is an effort to relieve internal crowding and provide direct access from the inside of Brick Street to its patio, according to Michael Kohus, HAPC Chair.

"I've been to Brick Street a couple of times, and there definitely is congestion sometimes on Friday and Saturday nights," Kohus said. "It will be nice to be able to open the garage doors so that the building can get some fresh air."

The new garage doors should also improve egress from the building in case an emergency evacuation is necessary, according to Kohus.

Brick Street owner Mark Weisman set the work in motion with an application for a Certification of Appropriateness (COA), which was first mentioned at the HAPC's Sept. 7 meeting. The application sought to replace two existing windows on a patio and remove a block below, creating two garage door openings.

Weisman could not be reached for comment.

However, his first application was not successful.

Kohus, who is also an architect, said that he thought the doors were a great idea. But HAPC, whose mission is to preserve the historic nature of Uptown, had an objection to the original choice of garage doors. Their industrial look and horizontal striping did not meet HAPC standards.

At the HAPC's direction, Weisman submitted a revised plan, calling for garage doors that match the color of surrounding brick and featuring 18-inch tall windows. The HAPC agreed that that choice will better preserve the historical integrity of the building.

"It's going to look a heck of a lot better," Kohus said.

Miami junior Anna Senchak is not looking forward to a change.

"Brick [Street] has so much character and the garage doors would take away from it," Senchak said. "[Brick Street] is always crowded at the beginning of the year and they just need to wait it out."

(According to records from the Oxford Police Department, Brick Street did not receive any overcrowding violations from Aug. 1, 2015, to Sept. 16, 2016.)

Sarah Kitt, also a Miami junior, is likewise unenthusiastic about Brick's door plans.

"It might help the crowding situation, but I would be very upset if they did [put in garage doors]," Kitt said. "Brick [Street] is such a classic and traditional Miami bar, and I think that doing any type of large construction would definitely disappoint its biggest fans."

This story was produced in cooperation with patch.com, a community-focused website with content produced by Miami journalism students.