ulx june09

32 U r b an La nD j u n e 2 0 0 9

ulx r o n n y r e n

Refitted for Work

Ten adaptive use and

renovation projects turn

even unlikely candidates

into modern office space.

Converting industrial ware-houses, manufacturing facilities, train depots, power stations, and similar building types into office space for contemporary businesses is not an easy task. Even buildings initially designed for office use only a few decades back can be outmoded for the modern workplace, with its emphasis on plenty of natural light, open-plan offices, spaces that foster the exchange of ideas, flexible infrastructure for chang-ing needs and technologies, and strong connections with their sur-rounding contexts.

Turning to adaptive use and renovation of older structures, rather than relying on new con-struction, can have multiple benefits. Older buildings convey a sense of their community’s his-tory and provide a workplace with a distinctive identity. Oftentimes, these structures have the kind of distinctive craftsmanship that new construction cannot match. If the original architecture is undistinguished—or even down-right plain—it can serve as a blank canvas for creative architectural intervention. In heavily built-up urban environments, reusing an

older building can be a way to snare a prime downtown location.

Adapting old structures is also inherently sustainable: every wall and floor that is reused saves mate-rial resources. In some cases, con-tractors, architects, and other real estate professionals have retrofitted buildings for their own headquarters as a way to showcase their capa-bilities and demonstrate innovative approaches to transforming the unlikeliest of old structures into workplaces for the future.

Ron nyRen is a freelance architecture and urban design writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

1. 355 11th StreetSanFranciSco,caLiFornia

San Francisco–based general contractor Matarozzi/Pelsinger Builders decided to turn a derelict industrial warehouse, des-ignated a historic resource by the city, into a multitenant mixed-use building to house its new headquarters as well as office and ground-floor commercial space for lease. The architect, Aidlin Darling Design of San Francisco, inserted metal and glass aper-tures into the original structural frame to provide access points and bring in natural light. The largest aperture extends as a bridge across the double-height lobby,

leading to the reception area.A new perforated metal skin on the east and west facades

blocks solar heat gain, with the small holes enabling cross-ventilation and daylight penetration while maintaining the original structure’s industrial character. As night falls, the his-toric timber frame gradually becomes visible through the perfo-rations. Original timber was retained or reused on the interior as well, and sandblasted to add warmth. The building was completed last year; Gold certification in the U.S. Green Build-ing Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system is pending.

UL June 09 ULX.indd 32 6/10/09 1:39:38 PM

32 U r b an La nD j u n e 2 0 0 9

ulx r o n n y r e n

Refitted for Work

Ten adaptive use and

renovation projects turn

even unlikely candidates

into modern office space.

Converting industrial ware-houses, manufacturing facilities, train depots, power stations, and similar building types into office space for contemporary businesses is not an easy task. Even buildings initially designed for office use only a few decades back can be outmoded for the modern workplace, with its emphasis on plenty of natural light, open-plan offices, spaces that foster the exchange of ideas, flexible infrastructure for chang-ing needs and technologies, and strong connections with their sur-rounding contexts.

Turning to adaptive use and renovation of older structures, rather than relying on new con-struction, can have multiple benefits. Older buildings convey a sense of their community’s his-tory and provide a workplace with a distinctive identity. Oftentimes, these structures have the kind of distinctive craftsmanship that new construction cannot match. If the original architecture is undistinguished—or even down-right plain—it can serve as a blank canvas for creative architectural intervention. In heavily built-up urban environments, reusing an

older building can be a way to snare a prime downtown location.

Adapting old structures is also inherently sustainable: every wall and floor that is reused saves mate-rial resources. In some cases, con-tractors, architects, and other real estate professionals have retrofitted buildings for their own headquarters as a way to showcase their capa-bilities and demonstrate innovative approaches to transforming the unlikeliest of old structures into workplaces for the future.

Ron nyRen is a freelance architecture and urban design writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

1. 355 11th StreetSanFranciSco,caLiFornia

San Francisco–based general contractor Matarozzi/Pelsinger Builders decided to turn a derelict industrial warehouse, des-ignated a historic resource by the city, into a multitenant mixed-use building to house its new headquarters as well as office and ground-floor commercial space for lease. The architect, Aidlin Darling Design of San Francisco, inserted metal and glass aper-tures into the original structural frame to provide access points and bring in natural light. The largest aperture extends as a bridge across the double-height lobby,

leading to the reception area.A new perforated metal skin on the east and west facades

blocks solar heat gain, with the small holes enabling cross-ventilation and daylight penetration while maintaining the original structure’s industrial character. As night falls, the his-toric timber frame gradually becomes visible through the perfo-rations. Original timber was retained or reused on the interior as well, and sandblasted to add warmth. The building was completed last year; Gold certification in the U.S. Green Build-ing Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system is pending.

j u n e 2 0 0 9 U r ban La nD 33

2. Alberici Corporate HeadquartersoverLanD,MiSSoUri

A metal manufacturing plant in Overland, Missouri, has found new life as headquarters for Alberici Corporation, corporate parent of a variety of construction subsidiaries. One major challenge facing the designer, Mackey Mitch-ell Architects of St. Louis, Missouri, was how to address the building’s southwest orienta-tion, which made solar control difficult.

The solution was to add a wall of offices angling out from the building in a sawtooth fashion so that they face south with extensive glazing, while masonry walls block low western sunlight. A long outdoor courtyard was inserted into the center of the building. Transforming a portion of the facility into structured parking eliminated the need for surface parking. Completed

in 2004, the LEED Platinum–rated building relies on natural ventilation, under-floor air distribution, an on-site wind turbine, a solar water heat-ing system, and on-site stormwater retention and treatment, among other sustainable strategies.

4. Christman BuildingLanSing,Michigan

Balancing the requirements of the LEED rating system with the preservation standards required to make use of federal tax credits for historic preservation is a difficult task. In converting a 1920s insurance building in downtown Lansing into a modern corporate headquarters for the Christman Company construc-tion and development firm, Detroit, Michigan–based architect SmithGroup had to navigate such challenges as preserving original windows while still ensuring an energy-efficient building envelope; the solution was to insert a second layer of insulated windows behind the historic ones.

SmithGroup reused 92 percent of existing walls, roof, and floors, preserving historic elements such as limestone detail-ing, tile, and mica shade light fixtures. Large perimeter win-dows illuminate almost all occupied spaces, aided by a new skylit atrium enclosing a former light well. Completed last year, the building received a LEED Platinum rating for both core and shell and interiors.

3. Arcus DepotKaLaMazoo,Michigan

The train stopped coming to the Whistle Stop Depot in Kalamazoo long ago, but the two-story building is once again a hub of activity. The Arcus Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to social justice and conservation, acquired the 1874 Italianate-style passenger station and accompanying warehouse in 2002 in order to transform them into workspace for itself and other progressive nonprofit groups.

Cambridge Seven Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts, drew on historic photographs and documentation to restore the buildings, preserving features such as turned-wood canopy columns, decorative brackets, sandstone window sills, timber trusses, and exterior brickwork. A new 1,500-square-foot (139-sq-m) glass and steel winter garden inserted between the two older structures serves as a multi-function space. A closed-loop geothermal system cuts greenhouse gas emissions while avoiding the need for bulky mechanical equipment, which would have been visible on the exterior. The revived depot opened in 2005.

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ulx5. Independence ParkDowney,caLiFornia

Once home to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aerospace manufacturing facility, 160 acres (64.7 ha) in Downey, California, are being redevel-oped for a variety of uses, including a shopping center, film studios, a park, a science learning center, and a campus for health care provider Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. Kaiser brought on Frank R. Webb Architects, Inc., of Los Angeles to make an office building out of an abandoned aeronautics factory, a basic concrete box type of structure built during the 1970s with secrecy in mind.

The design team exposed the interior’s concrete ceilings and columns, replaced sections of the concrete walls with curtain wall glazing, and added a two-story interior courtyard atrium with clerestory windows. To break up the regularity of columns within the open-plan office, the main cir-culation path cuts diagonally through the building, and dropped ceilings and sloping walls add spatial variety. On the exterior, new curving sunshades and entrance canopies provide a sculptural quality. The building was completed in 2004.D

6. Ministry of FinanceThehagUe,TheneTherLanDS

Erected in 1975, the Ministry of Finance in the Hague is one of the best-known Brutalist-style buildings in the Netherlands. Seeking to renovate the structure for modern use while preserving its original character, the Dutch government engaged Consortium Safire of Maarssen, Utrecht, the Netherlands, in a public/private partnership to handle design, construc-tion, financing, maintenance, and operations.

Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten of Amsterdam reconnected the building to its surroundings, opening up one of its two inner garden

courtyards to the outside and adding a two-story glazed winter garden at the street corner. The second courtyard was covered, with a conference center inserted beneath the garden. An aquifer provides thermal energy storage, and the original concrete balconies support a new second skin that helps modulate temperatures. Inside, new movable walls and raised floors allow for flexibility, while the original load-bearing structure and rough concrete surfaces remain visible. The renovation was com-pleted last year.

34 U r b an La nD j u n e 2 0 0 9

ulx5. Independence ParkDowney,caLiFornia

Once home to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aerospace manufacturing facility, 160 acres (64.7 ha) in Downey, California, are being redevel-oped for a variety of uses, including a shopping center, film studios, a park, a science learning center, and a campus for health care provider Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. Kaiser brought on Frank R. Webb Architects, Inc., of Los Angeles to make an office building out of an abandoned aeronautics factory, a basic concrete box type of structure built during the 1970s with secrecy in mind.

The design team exposed the interior’s concrete ceilings and columns, replaced sections of the concrete walls with curtain wall glazing, and added a two-story interior courtyard atrium with clerestory windows. To break up the regularity of columns within the open-plan office, the main cir-culation path cuts diagonally through the building, and dropped ceilings and sloping walls add spatial variety. On the exterior, new curving sunshades and entrance canopies provide a sculptural quality. The building was completed in 2004.D

6. Ministry of FinanceThehagUe,TheneTherLanDS

Erected in 1975, the Ministry of Finance in the Hague is one of the best-known Brutalist-style buildings in the Netherlands. Seeking to renovate the structure for modern use while preserving its original character, the Dutch government engaged Consortium Safire of Maarssen, Utrecht, the Netherlands, in a public/private partnership to handle design, construc-tion, financing, maintenance, and operations.

Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten of Amsterdam reconnected the building to its surroundings, opening up one of its two inner garden

courtyards to the outside and adding a two-story glazed winter garden at the street corner. The second courtyard was covered, with a conference center inserted beneath the garden. An aquifer provides thermal energy storage, and the original concrete balconies support a new second skin that helps modulate temperatures. Inside, new movable walls and raised floors allow for flexibility, while the original load-bearing structure and rough concrete surfaces remain visible. The renovation was com-pleted last year.

8. RiverEast CenterPorTLanD,oregon

A dilapidated concrete warehouse in Portland, Oregon, was purchased by Rivers East LLC, a company formed by Jeff Reaves, president of design firm Group Mackenzie, and Jay Haladay, president of Coaxis software company, who moved both their companies to the location. Long vacant, the 1951 Holman Transfer Building had art deco details and elegant interior columns—as well as a contaminated site, dramatically sloping floors, seismic issues, and not much in the way of windows.

Group Mackenzie cut windows into the thick concrete and added a double wall of glass to the south side to provide warmth in winter and help cool the building via a rooftop vent in summer. The LEED Gold–rated project includes a new pedestrian plaza, which opens up public access to the river, and a stormwater system handling runoff from the building, plaza, parking lot, and nearby city streets. Opened in 2007, the building also houses several other businesses and nonprofit organizations.

7. Montgomery Park baLTiMore,MaryLanD

In 1925, the Montgomery Ward Catalog House and Retail Store opened as Baltimore’s largest mer-cantile building, not far from downtown. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the eight-story complex became vacant in 1985 until it was purchased by local developer Himmelrich Associ-ates, which cleaned up the brownfield site. AECOM (formerly DMJM), headquartered in Los Angeles, converted the structure into office space for tenants such as the Maryland Department of the Environ-ment, restoring historic features such as doors, large steel-framed windows, and the art deco exterior.

Completed in 2003, the building offers 143,000- square-foot (13,285-sq-m) floor plates. New elements include a health club and daycare center. The former train shed was repurposed to house a food court with a skylight and a 500-seat conference facility, topped by a living roof planted with alpine vegeta-tion. Other sustainable design features include high-efficiency mechanical and electrical systems and on-site stormwater retention. D

8. RiverEast CenterPorTLanD,oregon

A dilapidated concrete warehouse in Portland, Oregon, was purchased by Rivers East LLC, a company formed by Jeff Reaves, president of design firm Group Mackenzie, and Jay Haladay, president of Coaxis software company, who moved both their companies to the location. Long vacant, the 1951 Holman Transfer Building had art deco details and elegant interior columns—as well as a contaminated site, dramatically sloping floors, seismic issues, and not much in the way of windows.

Group Mackenzie cut windows into the thick concrete and added a double wall of glass to the south side to provide warmth in winter and help cool the building via a rooftop vent in summer. The LEED Gold–rated project includes a new pedestrian plaza, which opens up public access to the river, and a stormwater system handling runoff from the building, plaza, parking lot, and nearby city streets. Opened in 2007, the building also houses several other businesses and nonprofit organizations.

7. Montgomery Park baLTiMore,MaryLanD

In 1925, the Montgomery Ward Catalog House and Retail Store opened as Baltimore’s largest mer-cantile building, not far from downtown. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the eight-story complex became vacant in 1985 until it was purchased by local developer Himmelrich Associ-ates, which cleaned up the brownfield site. AECOM (formerly DMJM), headquartered in Los Angeles, converted the structure into office space for tenants such as the Maryland Department of the Environ-ment, restoring historic features such as doors, large steel-framed windows, and the art deco exterior.

Completed in 2003, the building offers 143,000- square-foot (13,285-sq-m) floor plates. New elements include a health club and daycare center. The former train shed was repurposed to house a food court with a skylight and a 500-seat conference facility, topped by a living roof planted with alpine vegeta-tion. Other sustainable design features include high-efficiency mechanical and electrical systems and on-site stormwater retention. D

36 U r b an La nD j u n e 2 0 0 9

ulx9. Stockland HeadquartersSyDney,newSoUThwaLeS,aUSTraLia

To bring together the three divisions of Stockland’s property business, the com-pany relocated its headquarters to a relatively nondescript 1980s office tower it owned, part of Piccadilly Centre in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. The building had large floor plates, but they were not well connected to each other, and Stockland wanted to encourage interaction and a sense of community among its employees.

In refurbishing eight floors to house the new headquarters, BVN Architecture of Sydney linked them with a “vertical street”: a wide interconnecting stair rising through a void on the building’s eastern edge. Visible around the edges of the void are communal spaces such as meeting rooms, collaboration spaces, and café benches—destinations to get people moving from floor to floor. High-performance glazing, cogeneration, extensive natural daylight, and bicycle stor-age for employees are among the sustainable strategies for the headquarters, which opened in 2007 and received a six-star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

10. Synygy World Headquarters cheSTer,PennSyLvania

A former monument to the age of electricity now serves the digital age. The real estate firm Preferred Unlimited Inc. of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, purchased an aban-doned 1910s-era power station along the Delaware River in 2000. Blackney Hayes Architects of Philadelphia reno-vated the historic shell, while the Princeton, New Jersey, office of RMJM Hillier transformed a substantial portion of the interior for the anchor tenant, the software develop-ment company Synygy.

Completed in 2005, the project had to address the vast turbine hall, with its 100-foot-high (30-m-high) ceiling; the solution was to insert two freestanding trapezoidal structures—made of glass, aluminum, and corrugated polycarbonate to contrast with the historic shell—that contain a data center, a cafeteria, and a conference center. The structures’ roofs support a rooftop plaza, an open patio, and a theater/trade show area. Workstations are open plan throughout. Conshohocken-based Buccini/Pollin Group now owns the building, redubbed the Wharf at Rivertown. UL

Adaptive Reuse, a ULI InfoPacket, is available at www.uli.org/bookstore or call 800-321-5011; outside the U.S., call +1 410 626 7500.

36 U r b an La nD j u n e 2 0 0 9

ulx9. Stockland HeadquartersSyDney,newSoUThwaLeS,aUSTraLia

To bring together the three divisions of Stockland’s property business, the com-pany relocated its headquarters to a relatively nondescript 1980s office tower it owned, part of Piccadilly Centre in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. The building had large floor plates, but they were not well connected to each other, and Stockland wanted to encourage interaction and a sense of community among its employees.

In refurbishing eight floors to house the new headquarters, BVN Architecture of Sydney linked them with a “vertical street”: a wide interconnecting stair rising through a void on the building’s eastern edge. Visible around the edges of the void are communal spaces such as meeting rooms, collaboration spaces, and café benches—destinations to get people moving from floor to floor. High-performance glazing, cogeneration, extensive natural daylight, and bicycle stor-age for employees are among the sustainable strategies for the headquarters, which opened in 2007 and received a six-star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

10. Synygy World Headquarters cheSTer,PennSyLvania

A former monument to the age of electricity now serves the digital age. The real estate firm Preferred Unlimited Inc. of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, purchased an aban-doned 1910s-era power station along the Delaware River in 2000. Blackney Hayes Architects of Philadelphia reno-vated the historic shell, while the Princeton, New Jersey, office of RMJM Hillier transformed a substantial portion of the interior for the anchor tenant, the software develop-ment company Synygy.

Completed in 2005, the project had to address the vast turbine hall, with its 100-foot-high (30-m-high) ceiling; the solution was to insert two freestanding trapezoidal structures—made of glass, aluminum, and corrugated polycarbonate to contrast with the historic shell—that contain a data center, a cafeteria, and a conference center. The structures’ roofs support a rooftop plaza, an open patio, and a theater/trade show area. Workstations are open plan throughout. Conshohocken-based Buccini/Pollin Group now owns the building, redubbed the Wharf at Rivertown. UL

Adaptive Reuse, a ULI InfoPacket, is available at www.uli.org/bookstore or call 800-321-5011; outside the U.S., call +1 410 626 7500.

ulx june09

Real Estate