All of us have been witness to the slow erasure of a once legendary building. Often these structures appear to have been resuscitated by their inevitable transition into something vapid like a boutique dental office, a pet grooming salon, or a chain restaurant, when really, they ve entered the Sunken Place. The building at 1449 S. Michigan, once the headquarters of the groundbreaking recording company Vee-Jay Records, had indeed seen its share of dark days; but now it s home to the not-for-profit Overflow Coffee. For this edifice, the arrival of the coffee shop came with a renovation of its structure and a restoration of its soul.