Conaway: Let’s give all these crazy ideas a name — Lauren Crews
Developer Lauren Crews led a tour of the apartments at the old Marine Hospital before they were finished in 2020. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Dan Conaway
Dan Conaway was a freelance columnist with The Daily Memphian from 2018 to 2025.
The Daily Memphian welcomes a diverse range of views from guest columnists on topics of local interest and impact. Columns are subject to editorial review and editing for length and clarity. If you’re interested in having a guest column considered by The Daily Memphian, email Eric Barnes.
Lauren Crews in 2010 in front of the Marine Hospital nursing quarters prior to restoration. (Courtesy Lauren Crews)
I’m writing about Lauren Crews and his crazy ideas. Again. Maybe we’re both crazy.
Maybe so is the state of Tennessee. Maybe so is the mayor of Memphis.
They’re both using Crews’ crazy ideas, and neither is giving him any credit.
Crews and I first talked about all of it while sipping whiskey years ago at sunset on the bluff behind the Metal Museum, gazing out on the river’s big, bold bend south of the Harahan Bridge, the most dramatic river view in Memphis, dramatic enough to accommodate big, bold vision.
At that first meeting, Crews told me that people think he’s crazy.
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