CINCINNATI — Tony Lipps cleans his paintbrush. He sprays it with a water bottle and scrapes it on the table. He’s standing in a shower.
Well, what used to be a shower.
Lipps’ art studio is part of a co-working space at the old Queensgate Jail. He knows it used to be a shower because he worked there for two years as a corrections officer.
“When I found out it was the jail, I had to come see it,” Lipps said of the studio.
Lipps has been making art since he was 3 years old. He used to take comic books and try to mimic the pictures. He didn’t actually read them. He even went to college in a fine arts program, but graduated and became a cop.
That's the reality of life.
“The hardest part is jumping,” Lipps said. “Making that leap.”
It would take him 13 years to quit law enforcement and focus on painting full-time.
“It’s not easy,” he said.
In Queensgate, development like this isn’t easy. Outside of Lipps’ studio, you don’t hear birds. You hear trains.
But Lipps said the vision for "LinnCinnati," and the community around it sold him.
“What excites me about this development is it really is signaling the change that is possible,” said Brian Boland, an urban planner. "Old places that were once thought of as forgotten can be brought back to life in new ways.”
Once part of the West End, Queensgate has been called an industrial wasteland. It’s one of Cincinnati’s only neighborhoods that doesn’t have a community council. Because hardly anyone lives there.
Decades ago, officials destroyed thousands of homes and businesses there to make room for Interstate 75. LinnCinnati officials tell us this project could be the first domino to fall for a better future for the neighborhood.
“We’re hoping that we stimulate lots of people thinking about Queensgate differently,” said Alek Lucke, building rep for LinnCinnati.
On Monday, Lipps walks around the facility where he used to carry a sketchbook. He said he didn’t like his job very much.
“I would draw,” he said. “That’s how I passed my time.”
More than a decade later, he looks out the window where his truck is parked in what used to be the rec yard.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “This is exactly how I remember it.”
