Most facades downtown are two stories high, with commercial space located at ground level and offices, residential, or storage above. Visually, this arrangement divides the facade into two basic parts: the upper facade which is usually a flat masonry wall with regular spaced window openings and applied decoration; and the storefront, or lower facade, which is composed primarily of large display windows and the entry. Unfortunately, some storefronts have been changed drastically as they were "modernized". The end products of such modernizations have frequently been out of scale with the entire building, and incompatible with the original facade materica1 remaining .

Some building facades, on the other hand, have faired better and have escaped inappropriate modernization. In this latter case, the original facade should be preserved and repaired with little or no further alteration. Where the original facade is covered up, or no longer existent, any improvement should respect the historic character of the building as well as that of its neighbors.