PHOTOS: Smart Studios building`s new owner honors its rocking roots

In an interview for Wendy Schneider`s 2016 documentary, "The Smart Studios Story," Butch Vig said, "1254 E. Washington was one damn ugly looking building. It was a two-story, red brick pile of junk, and it looked like a crack house."

The outside of the building hasn`t changed much in decades, but the interior is getting a whole new look and feel thanks to 36-year-old Kenosha native, Neka Allen. Allen, a director of analytics for a consumer goods company and student of interior design purchased the building for under $500,000 in September 2021 after it spent nearly two years on the market.

According to Allen, the building was in rough shape and in need of some love. She got right to work; turning the space into both her home and a future Airbnb, while paying homage to the building`s history as Smart Studios....