Q: Were you pleased w/ the turnout of artists?
JB: It's a yes and no question. We gave out 250 applications. So I was please with the number of applications that we gave out. I was surprised that more people didn't show up at the door. I was also surprised though that they started lining up almost 24 hours before. So it's a yes and no question. I think people are afraid in a way. I mean it's so very new for Reno and for what we're doing and by the time you look at an 8 page application, and you start reading through it And there are some sensitive things because it's affordable housing. So you're asking people sensitive questions that most people don't want to talk about. You don't have to talk about in a normal application I think that we're probably going to end up getting many more applications. But yeah I was surprised that there were... I think there are 44 now. I was surprised there were not 144. The other half of that though is that ArtSpace never had anyone line up at the door ever. So …. So that's the other side of it.

Q: So was Will surprised about that?
JB: Will and Terry were shocked. They had no idea. They thought that I was joking when I said the artists wanted to come early, would be here early. And they were. I mean, the first guy waited until he saw the last staff member leave right after 5 o'clock, and then showed up. So…

Q: Do you have a good pool of applicants?
JB: We are looking for a diversity of art disciplines. There are many more visual artists than performing artists right now. I think part of that is because we have a very limited performing arts community here. Because it's very hard to make it in a non-profit performing arts sort of venue. So you're either working full-time and you're over qualified and you perform part-time. Or you don't live here kind of is the way that it is. So there are less performing artists than I would like to see. Huge number of visual but we've always been very heavy in visual artists in northern Nevada. I think part of it just the visual environment that draws visual artists here. And we don't have huge performance venues that do that. And I think that we're going to get more literary artists. I think that they're probably the more cautious of all the arts disciplines. That sort of written word kind of person is a little bit more cautious. I think the building is going to prove itself out over the years. And I think it will probably eventually balance out. But it will probably be heavily visually involved in the beginning.

Q: What is your vision for what the lofts project will be two years from now?
JB: My vision, I think it's going to be a synergy of activity. And I think it's going to be just a place that draws people. I think it will have a long waiting list of people wanting to move in or people who live there for long periods of time. And I think there will be a lot of collaboration between the artists and the disciplines. Sierra Arts will be probably be in the middle of that and having more things to do than we already have to do. I think that it will build on itself so that we'll think about doing another project.

Q: In a 24-hour town like Reno, how do you draw people?
JB: I think you are drawing different people. And remember we are on the south side of the river which is a section of the river that is much more business oriented like downtown sort of oriented as opposed to the north side of the river which is much more casino oriented. And what you have around us is the courthouse, and banks, and businesses, and the Pioneer Center. One of the problems the Pioneer Center has had for a number of years is that people don't feel safe in the neighborhood because there isn't this synergy and there aren't people who are living down there. And so I think it will create what we're all looking for in that shops and restaurants, and cafes are going to spring up that are going to be more 24-hour oriented. And that you're going to end up not being afraid to come down to the Pioneer go to a performance at 8 o'clock at night because there's going to be people. And it's going to be moving, because really people do stay primarily on the north side of the river, and they're not venturing on the south side. Of course Barney Ng's project with the Sienna is going to help that, you know reopening of the Holiday, is going to help that and all the other things that are going on. And the only casino right now that's running or was running on the south side o f the river was the Pioneer. And now that closed because the courts are going to move there. It's really turned in to a business district. I think the same as what you want to do in LA and Seattle and everywhere else is have people living on the river, living in that business district and then you are going to draw much more of an audience.

Q: So do you see taking the led on a second project?
JB: It's a pretty politically charged question. And it's, I think we tend to do things, we meaning the staff and the Board of Sierra Arts, when we see a need, I mean we've always seen ourselves as sort of gap kind of programmers. You know, sort of jumping over whatever crevice happens to be to bridge things together. And we've talked about some other buildings. We've talked to ArtSpace about some other buildings. And I would say there are probably other things in the future and it could be a variety of things. It could be help with a new performing arts center. It could be the renovation of the old Post office. It could be another artists' live/work building. It could be a studio only building for industrial type artists. There are many possibilities here. And as our arts community grows, you know, we're going to have to kind of access what it is we want to do. But if we see a crevice that needs to be jumped over, more than likely we will.

Q: How do you look on that point when the asbestos problem arose and shut down work on the building?
JB: It seems like so long ago. It really seems like forever ago that everything ground to a halt. And it seemed like such a huge stone wall to jump over at the time and now it just seems like a hic-cup in the road. I mean such a very small thing. Go back and I look before that when we were fighting for the tax credits and then when we were stuck and Oliver Macmillan wanted to pull out of the deal, and those were actually probably bigger stone walls. But they didn't feel like it at the time because we were in action mode and we were doing something, and you know sort of charging forward, the patriots with our, you know, bayonets out kind of a thing. And with the asbestos there was nothing we could do. So it was like hitting a brick wall. And so that brick wall probably wasn't that big compared to some of the other ones we had already jumped over but I think when you feel very powerless and very helpless, which is what I did personally, and I think that we did as an organization. It seemed like a huge brick wall and now it was hiccup. It was just a matter of time waiting through it, you know having the building abated and you know, coming around and making up the schedule.

Q: The delay in the work schedule at one point looked as if the December occupancy date would be lost. And with that, so could the tax credits.
JB: It all evaporated. Everything evaporated. But it's true. A Very critical of the timeline for this building was very critical Um, we lost a lot of time last fall with the negotiation with OliverMcMillian and the beginning of construction which really should have happen last fall. We had hoped to open the building in July of this year but through all of the little things that came about you know we ended up not starting until January. We're up and running for two weeks and then closed for 45 days. And so we need to occupy by the end of the year 2000 and if we don't the affordable housing tax credits go down the drain, which is a huge portion of the money that finances this building. So yeah, that part of the whole stone wall. How are we going to get those people in there? And I have to say that Tom Pellett did an incredible job at Q&D, to really push all the sub-contractors and everybody to make it happen and make up those days. And I think he always had confidence that he could do it. And maybe it's sort of that kind of Nevada thing that we'll just push and push and push until we get what we need. And I'm not sure that ArtSpace had quite the confidence at that point. And I'd never been in construction before so I didn't know what to think, basically.

Q: What's been the highlight for you so far?
JB: I'm not sure it's arrived yet. I think when the artists move in and we move will be the best moment. When I feel like it's done. I'm sort of like a train and I'm always running and chugging until all the details are done. And then I can relax at the end. And so even though we are very close I'm by no means relaxed about this whole building and this whole process. So I'm not sure the best moment has come. It has been a wonderful ride. Very interesting, Very different from what I was hired to do. Very out of my realm of experience and knowledge base. And so I've picked things up on the fly pretty quickly. But it does make me want to do another project. And I think, the best part has really been working with ArtSpace. And I think that Will and I give each other a hard time all the time but I think that we have developed a really good friendship and a good understanding for missions and what you believe in. I mean you don't work for a non-profit because you want to get rich. You work because you believe in some sort of a mission that your organization does. And you feel like you want to do everything to make that go forward. And so I think that's been a nice highlight, to work with someone else who's as mission driven as I am.

Q: Describe Will to me.
JB: I think that Will has many hidden talents that don't come out. And he has a wonderful sense of timing and of knowing how to make these things work. And as I said, sometimes I'm a steam engine. So I'm rolling forward and I'm pushing forward and Will knows when to put on the brakes and say let's just stop and rest and take a deep breath and then we'll move on and the pieces are going to fall together. So really I've learned a lot of patience out of him because I've also learned that development has a lot to do with patience. Learning how to be patient and letting things fall into place, um, and so it's much like a hurry up and wait sort thing. And I'm a much hurry up, hurry up and hurry up sort of person. So I think he has an incredible sense for artists. Even though he's not really an artist himself but he has a great sense for artists and a great sense for building a community and for doing good things. And he also like the rest of us has a grouchy side as well. And every now and then that comes out. And he always surprises me when he does that because so good-natured.

Q: What's it been like working with Tom?
JB: Tom really, he really knows his stuff. And he knows how to get things out of people to make things happen and to keep on schedule. And I think what people have to realize is that we don't have a lot of high-rises in Reno. There's not a lot of construction experience related to high-rises. If you lived in Chicago, probably every construction company knows how to build and renovate a high-rise. Well, in Nevada it's a very different thing. So he's gained a lot, I think, on the learning curve with this building as well. We all have. I mean none of knew about type-2 construction. You know, and high-rise building that is 62 feet high and all of the things that go into that. I think that he has really pushed for a quality job, and really overseen it very individually. I think he's been very involved. And I think there's a piece of him that sits in this job even though he may not admit it every time he drives by the Riverside, I think a little smile is going to cross his face, to think that he was a big part of making it happen.

Q: At what point in the process did you feel that the Riverside was changing from a hotel to an artists loft building?
JB: I think it became that when the sheet rock came up, went up. I had been in the Riverside as a kid, and so I had been in both the section that had been torn down and the original section, many times, as a child. And then I was in it several times, you know, right around the time that we bought the building, when you were walking over the dead pigeon bodies and there was rubble everywhere and broken doors, and glass and all of that kind of thing. And then when they started to do the demolition and they started pushing everything out the windows. And then we walked in the first time, when all it was was columns, concrete floors and ceiling that was a very scary thing. But it still felt like the Riverside then to me. And then, once they started putting up the metal studs and then when they put the sheet rock in and I could feel each apartment individually, I could feel that there were seven apartment on each floor and the laundry room and the trash shoot, it began to feel like it was the artists loft thing. It went away from being an old hotel. And now I try not to refer to it as the hotel at all unless I am referring someone's memory to the fact that it was the Riverside Hotel, because really it is the Riverside Artists Loft now.

JB: I pinch myself every time I look at the outside of the building and think what an incredible thing we did. And when I was a kid I looked at the Riverside and I don't think I ever saw if as beautiful because of the addition that was put on in the 50s, which was really not very attractive at all. And then when we first bought it and it was very dirty and all that, and now when I look across the river and I see it, I do want to pinch myself and say I help to save that old building. And it's going to be working again and it's going to be fabulous again. And it's going to look like Victor Delongchamps wanted it to look. And that's, yeah, that's the morphine. That's the incredible sort of thing, is to know that you made a little piece of history, whether any one ever remembers that you personally involved, you can look at it and say, "yeah, that's a part of me." And that building will be a part of me just like it will for Tom Pellet and Will Law and probably every single person who worked on it.