Entrepreneur & Community Visionary
by Lena Morgan & Shannon Perry
Laurie Z Divine Photography
HOW IS A BUILDING LIKE A BUTTERFLY?
Most of us would not look at a building – especially an unloved, broken-down one – and see a butterfly.
Entrepreneur and community visionary Thaine Fischer saw not just any butterfly but the bold and beautiful monarch in a tired and beaten-down building on the corner of Ogden, Utah’s 25th and Ogden Streets.
Twenty-fifth has a…colorful history. It’s seen the rise and fall of fortunes, house brothels and rail-riding tramps. More recently, it’s seen vacancy and the usual vandalism that goes with it.
Within the last two decades, the storied street had begun to come alive again, finding new tenants, housing local businesses, and generally enjoying renovation and a new lease on life. But like many projects, the restoration hit a wall during the recession of the 2000s – and renovation of the building in question was put on indefinite hold.
Restoration delayed, the building sat, wrapped in a chrysalis of neglect for years. Though its windows were broken and its spaces empty, Thaine heard the flutter of life within, just waiting on its chance to break free in all its hidden glory.
THE MAN BEHIND THE MONARCH
Thaine grew up on a ranch just outside of the very small Montana town of Kila, population 62. As he got out into the world, he discovered creativity.
The Blue Man Group was touring through Boston when Thaine visited in his 20s, and the visual cacophony of creativity moved him, sparked an interest in the workings of the creative mind. The way that troop of creatives found a way to turn paint and sound into visual art through elements completely disconnected from one another started him on a path to supporting creative energy.
In the building now known as The Monarch, Thaine saw an opportunity to both express his own creativity and artistry and support that of others.
In our interview, Thaine spoke of sunlight coming into the building and how that could inspire a creative human being with warm, natural ambiance. He believed combining the energy of creatives can spread like wildfire, feeding a collective creativity in a shared space for gathering and communicating ideas.
His vision of the space is now beginning to unfurl in the way a butterfly emerges and spreads its wings to fly.
In its original day, The Monarch building began as a state-of-the-art garage with wide open bays and renaissance architectural design. Thaine Fischer is, as he says, in the business of “buying birdcages and making them into hip Urban Spaces.” This is his ninth project reviving Ogden’s historical architecture back to the beauty it once was.
In contrast to the general idea to build, build, build, Thaine looks to restore, enliven, and envision the possibilities of spaces left to time.
BUSINESS AND BALANCE
Although Thaine has contoured and shaped his eye for creativity and programming, he is an entrepreneur. And beauty takes work. While Thaine understands the value and his own obligation to give back, balancing the needs of business, his own instincts towards altruism, and the need to provide for his family is an evolving process.
Active in the local community as a board member, visionary, and entrepreneur, time can be somewhat of an afterthought for most, but not for Thaine. His time away from his family and dedication to a project are choices carefully made.
That means when his is dedicated to a project, he is all in. Sometimes it brings challenging decisions and making the commitment to take time for business. However, his family knows that his dedication to work has a time stamp for each project and that the end of the tunnel is in sight as The Monarch approaches opening day.
THE PATH TO HERE
The Monarch is only the latest in a string of restorations Thaine has undertaken. The realization that art, creativity, and legacy matter cam with the purchase of the old Star Noodle Parlor building, his first restoration project.
Like all firsts, the Star Noodle Parlor project came with a learning curve: The sign for this location was a staple in Ogden’s visual history. When the sign was removed, the community had questions – where did it go? Why were we not involved? Where is it now? Is it coming back?
Additionally the purchase had multiple partners, and partnerships can become difficult. Reparations had to be made and partnership reassessed, and all the while, the community continued with the questions.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from the Star Noodle Parlor was this: history matters. It matters to the community; it must be the foundation from which any restoration begins. The story, the visual remembering, they are truly important to people. Bringing a community icon back to life, restoring it, preserving it through enhancement matters to people. Historical legacy matters.
This experience fueled Thaine in business and creativity. The realization that restoration can be profitable and genuinely impact community for the better became his work in this world.
From the Noodle Parlor, Thaine followed the line of Ogden’s historical path like a butterfly on its migration, and it led him to understanding the significant impact he could make on the community around him.
His most recent project, The Monarch and Perry Lofts, are the work of one architect ancestral to Ogden, Leslie S. Hodgson. Paying respects to an architect’s vision from 100 years prior is an honor for Thaine. The restoration of a community legacy is crucial in bringing this work forward. This is a distinct part of what makes Thaine recognizable as a steward of the beauty available in Ogden.
CREATING SPACE
For Thaine, collaborative creativity and artistry are vital elements to success. Paying respect and homage to all the pieces that have gone into the emergence of these projects is a focus for this man.
Admittedly, Thaine is not conventionally educated in art, nor does he seek to reduce creativity to visual art alone. The way his team can take the seeds of a vision for spaces and distill them into reality is creativity at its finest. Brewing all the elements of creativity together is where the magic happens, where the caterpillar turns inward and emerges as the Monarch.
Providing space for it all to happen is the intention behind the artistry of The Monarch. When a space is set up for creativity, it can attract creative minds on all platforms. Coincidentally, the rise of The Monarch also gave life to 01ARTS exhibit, Platforms, on the corner of 25th and Adams Avenue. Eight concrete platforms were created against the backdrop of a mural by artist Rachel Pohl.
Thaine works with local nonprofit 01Arts that birthed this complementary space for creativity in an empty lot across the street from The Monarch. Eight platforms being used in all manner of artistic expression. Creativity is spreading like wildfire in Ogden’s emerging 9 Rails Creative District, with The Monarch its epicenter.
THE BUTTERFLY’S EFFECT
What happens when this butterfly gets its wings? Everyone will feel it in an upsurge of activity, creativity, and opportunity. Dining, visual art, podcasts, music, printing presses – now there is space for it all, for creative minds to assemble, put all their forces and energy together, and erupt out into the community to spread that energy. It’s attractive, it’s illuminating, it creates an infectious desire to create more, to beautify more, to migrate out into the community and nest in the minds surrounding it.
The Monarch is a big undertaking. The building itself is able to house immense creative potential. Instead of identifying every creative mind as an artist, Thaine has taken the approach of seeking “creatives” to occupy studio space within The Monarch. Creatives of all kinds can have membership in studio space and have 24/7 access to it. It is theirs to do with what they will in order to create their offerings to this world.
The Monarch’s website showcases each creative, and it is magnificent to see all the different elements that will emerge from this space. Painters, woodworkers, stained glass artists, sculptors, photographers, podcasters, all fluttering around under the same rood. All this creative energy moving, migrating from pupa to full-fledged offering out into the community. While in their own chrysalis stage, each creative has access to a community of creative energy under a shared umbrella to bounce ideas off of, to gather with, and to share the love of creativity outward.
THE FLIGHT PATH
As The Monarch emerges, Thaine’s work on the initial project draws to a close. The next phase brings the building’s future into more collaboration with the community he has helped revive and re-energize.
This birdcage has been transformed, and every effort that has gone into it has been essential. Each step along the evolution of Thaine’s life as an entrepreneur, creative, community partner, collaborator, husband, father, human being and all other hats he wears, distinguishes him among the business and creative community. While not every step has been easy, each choice has been his.
Following the unveiling and stabilization of this creative endeavor, Thaine plans to take some time for himself and his family and to reacquaint himself with his paths to joy outside of business.
The Fischer family has chosen to view the dedication to this undertaking as a necessary step with Thaine focusing his concentrated energy toward the project. Yet simple pleasures, like home-cooked meals prepared by Thaine have remained a staple. A reprieve and more time as a family is approaching. All are looking forward to Thaine having the time to relax into the rhythm of life outside of focused tasks.
Time and choice, focus and precision, all they’ve worked so hard for is coming to fruition. When those doors open and the dreams are birthed, Thaine’s work will not cease overnight as reaching stabilization will take effort. Then…respite set against a tropical beach, perhaps, or devoted family time under a canopy of trees.
Whatever the setting is, the next chrysalis will be shared with family, watching movies, talking about the day, and knowing that all the hard work is devoted to the hatching of a dream was worth it.
Cheers to The Monarch, cheers to the creatives.