If you were born the year that they dreamed up the idea for an Art Exchange downtown–and you were a guy–your voice would be changing, if it hadn’t already.

You’d be breaking out, looking at dames, thinking about driving–maybe even growing a cheesy mustache. You’d be turning 15 this year–that’s how long the Art Exchange concept has been kicking around Long Beach.

Which is why it was a little odd to hear Redevelopment Agency Assistant Executive Director Amy Bodek tell the crowd at yesterday’s RDA board meeting that “Clearly, what you’re seeing is the beginnings of a great idea coming to fruition.”

The beginnings? Only now?

Then again, yesterday’s Art Exchange conceptual plans–which the RDA board approved unanimously–have some of the most exciting implications for the Broadway Block, the former Acres of Books building, and downtown Long Beach that we’ve seen in a long while.

That’s all they are–implications. It’s been 15 years, and nothing has been built yet. But the city’s current plan–which also includes negotiations with Cal State Long Beach to build student housing next door to the Art Exchange–is nothing if not encouraging.

If it all comes to pass exactly this way, it will–of course–be something approaching a miracle. But the way they pitched it yesterday, it sounded pretty darn good.

First of all, Portland-based Williams & Dame Development–long linked to the Broadway Block project, bounded by Long Beach Boulevard, Elm Avenue, Third Street and Broadway–is no longer attached to develop the site.

This is notable, because as recently as December neither W&D President Dike Dame nor city officials would say one way or t’other who would be developing it. Yesterday, they did–sort of–and it’s not Williams & Dame. (Currently, there is no developer.)

And Williams & Dame’s proposal–at least, the one they shared with us back in ’07–envisioned demolishing every bit of the Streamline Moderne Acres of Books building except its historic facade, and then relocating that piece so as to clear the site for underground parking.

The new conceptual plans–created and explained Monday by folks from Long Beach architectural firm Studio-111–envision saving the first 75 feet of the Acres building and incorporating it into a development that would feature 300 square feet of studio space, and 300 square feet of classroom space for student artists from Cal State Long Beach.

There’s your art exchange.

The Acres building would, in effect, become the southern side of the complex–several buildings, the rest of them new, clustered around a central courtyard.

Next door to it–extending north along Long Beach Boulevard to the Third Street corner–Studio-111 Principal Alan Pullman told the board he envisions more studios and classrooms, in a glassy, slant-roofed modern space that might reuse the rest of the Acres’ roof trusses. If not, the truss and the remainder of the building’s bricks would be incorporated into the courtyard.

How exciting is all this? It’s very exciting–and nerve-wracking, chiefly because we’ve had our hopes for downtown dashed so many times before. Not only that, but as we’ve retained most of a historic building–Acres of Books–its namesake business has departed for good. That’s still sad. But back to where we’re at.

Viewed from now–February 2009–Studio-111’s plans are easily the most forward-thinking, preservation-minded ideas we’ve seen for this site. They would save roughly half of the Acres building, while simultaneously repurposing roughly one-quarter of the Broadway Block for use by Cal State Long Beach arts students–part of the largest body of arts students at any college west of the Mississippi River.

Studio-111’s plans got RDA board member John Thomas enthused about the project.

“I think it’s a home-run on a lot of fronts. I think it’s the conduit between downtown and the East Village that we’ve been looking for for a long time,” Thomas said at the board meeting. “I also think it’s a very green project we’re talking about, with the reuse of the Acres of Books building.”

Board member John Cross wondered how long the project would take to be self-sustaining, pointing out that the Torpedo Factory arts center in Virginia–one of the inspirations for the Arts Exchange–still doesn’t pay for itself.

“We feel like we can do the phase one of this project [the Acres reuse] at a fairly low cost, so that makes it more valuable from a cost and maintenance standpoint,” the RDA’s Executive Director Craig Beck said.

“I think it shows that this is something that’s being brought forward from the community and not just created. And thus, I think it has a fairly strong chance of being successful pretty quickly.”

We’ll see how they do. To scattered applause, the board unanimously approved moving forward with Studio-111’s conceptual plans–and opening negotiations for one year with Cal State Long Beach to build student housing on the Broadway Block.

Tags: acres of books, Alan Pullman, Amy Bodek, Art Exchange, Broadway Block, cal state long beach, California, Craig Beck, Dike Dame, John Thomas, Long Beach, RDA board, Redevelopment Agency, Southern California, Streamline Moderne, Studio-111, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Torpedo Factory, virginia, Williams & Dame Development