Archinect - News

SO – IL and OSD to overhaul Detroit marina for new waterfront district

2024-04-30T11:45:00-04:00

SO – IL and OSD have designed a new waterfront district for Detroit’s Little Village. The marina overhaul, named Stanton Yards, will see the existing storage and service-based site transformed into a 13-acre cultural destination with 80,000 square feet of commercial and creative space, 85 boat slips, and waterfront parks.

Image credit: bloomimages

SO – IL will lead the adaptive reuse of four existing pre-war industrial buildings, which historically housed a former theater, marina showrooms, service ships, and a navy shipyard used during World War II. Select demolition and the addition of “unifying elements and upgrades to accessibility” will create a campus for arts organizations, retail, artist studios, and hospitality.

Image credit: bloomimages

“The ethos that 'new ideas must use old buildings' guides our transformation of Stanton Yards into a thriving, multifaceted community,” said Florian Idenburg, Co-founding Principal of SO – IL, about the scheme. “Our design ingrains four histo...

Mecanoo revives Scotland’s past into a new source of community pride

2024-04-08T17:26:00-04:00

Mecanoo has shared the news of its completed transformation of the Perth Museum in central Scotland.

The three-year construction yields 37,700 square feet worth of new public space inside of the Edwardian-style former City Hall that serviced the community from 1914 on. A specially carved Vennels-inspired intervention connects the two separate halls, framed by two new portals made from Black Isle timber and finished with a bronze casing.

Image credit: Greg Holmes Photography

Visitors will be welcomed into the brightly-lit new Main Hall archives space by a dramatic oak box container for the mythical returned Scottish Stone of Destiny. The adjacent Lesser Hall is thereafter recreated as a new communal space with larger windows and replete with a café and events venue.

Image credit: Greg Holmes Photography

This creates new panoramic views of the St. Johns Kirk church outside. Artifacts taken from the Jacobite period are on display within, including the silver broadsword used by Bonnie Pr...

Peterson Rich Office transforms former church into an inviting new cultural center in Detroit's East Village

2024-03-12T18:18:00-04:00

The adaptive reuse design for the Shepherd Gallery and Art Center inside the new Little Village in Detroit has been revealed ahead of its public opening on May 18th.

The project from Peterson Rich Office (PRO) transformed a 110-year-old former church into a new cultural center for the local Library Street Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to presenting art in the city's revitalized heritage spaces. It was executed at 16,000 square feet and culminates in two new galleries with a small library, classrooms, and workshop included for local community endeavors.

View of the Charles McGee Legacy Park and the Shepherd. Photo by Jason Keen. Courtesy of Library Street Collective.

In terms of its interior redesign, the architects chose to place an exhibition area in the transept mezzanine while making the altar below into another gallery open for performance and public gatherings. The church's other transept now houses a curated Little Village Arts Library space from Asmaa Walton. A landscaped...

OMA overhauls 1970s modernist building for Singapore cooking club and campus

2024-03-06T10:47:00-05:00

OMA has completed the AIR CIrcular Campus and Cooking Club in Dempsey Hill, Singapore. The scheme saw the overhaul of an existing modernist building and surrounding green space into what the team calls “a place for novel dining experiences, inviting broader thinking and discussions about food and the environment.”

Image credit: Kris Provoost

Designed in collaboration with entrepreneur Ronald Akili, and chefs Matt Orlando of Amass and Will Goldfarb of Room4Dessert, the scheme includes open kitchens, research space, and a cooking school for visitors.

Image credit: Kris Provoost

“It has been an inspiring journey to join Ronald, Will, and Matt on this platform to address the topic of sustainable hospitality from different perspectives,” said OMA managing partner David Gianotten about the project. “We are convinced that architecture and design can maximize impact through active engagement with different disciplines.”

Image credit: Kris ...

Google NYC's new adaptive-reuse HQ design by Gensler and COOKFOX opens at Hudson Square

2024-02-27T12:52:00-05:00

Google’s brand new New York City headquarters inside St. John’s Terminal at Hudson Square has opened following the completion of a five-year and $2.1 billion project designed by COOKFOX Architects and Gensler.

The renovation of the two-block-long former rail terminus yields a total of 1.3 million square feet of new offices. Another nine stories were added above the existing structure. The building will house some 3,000 employees of the tech giant, who said in a blog post that its design is responsive to a research-driven office strategy and supports a new workplace model that’s meant to foster greater collaboration, creativity, and growth.

Image: courtesy of Google

After restoring the original three floors remaining from its peak usage in the 1930s, the design team created a welcoming space defined by an exterior cut facade detailed on its northern side with reused rail beds that had been leftovers and are kept semi-exposed to create a visible linkage between past and present.

Image...

London’s BT Tower to be converted into a hotel by Heatherwick following MCR purchase

2024-02-22T11:39:00-05:00

London’s iconic BT Tower is to be purchased by U.S. hotel owner-operator MCR. Partnering with Heatherwick Studio, the company is to explore the tower’s adaptive reuse as a hotel.

Standing at 620 feet in height, the BT Tower is one of London’s tallest buildings. Opened in 1965, the tower is covered by a Grade II historical importance listing, though such a listing does not prohibit a change of use within the building.

MCR has noted that the tower will not undergo any immediate changes, with current owners BT Group expected to take several years to vacate the premises due to the complexity involved in moving technical equipment. The design process is also expected to include time for community engagement in advance of the proposal’s reveal.

Related on Archinect:The TWA Hotel at JFK is officially open. Photo courtesy of TWA Hotel/David Mitchell

MCR was previously known for its overhaul of the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport which has since become the TWA Hotel. T...

MVRDV begins construction on overhaul of old Shanghai cement factory

2024-02-12T11:16:00-05:00

A team led by MVRDV has begun construction on a leisure and cultural district in Shanghai on the site of a disused cement factory. Named Gate M West Bund Dream Center, the project will transform a collection of buildings of different styles and time periods, “adapting a former industrial zone while making use of the existing structures and thus minimizing carbon emissions,” according to the team.

Image credit: Ucharm

Under the MVRDV scheme, developed with co-architect AISA, landscape architect Field Operations, and interior architects CL3 and Xu Studio, a series of disused buildings will be linked in a “cohesive whole” by a network of bright orange paths, stairs, ramps, and bridges. The site is organized around key landscaped axes including a central spine linking both ends of the district, while a “three-dimensional promenade” is created by a series of landscaped rooftops, elevated riverbank terraces, and a network of staircases and elevators finished in a defining orange color.

Ima...

Looking at the potential for adaptive reuse in the St. Louis market with HOK’s Eli Hoisington

2024-02-08T12:38:00-05:00

Over the past two decades, St. Louis has gained recognition for its growing bioscience sector. In its 2030 STL Job Plan, Greater St. Louis Inc. identified bioscience (and related fields of agtech and life sciences) as critical to the continued success of our region. To continue to fuel research and innovation in this sector, St. Louis needs talent, capital and partner institutions. It also needs the right labs and buildings.

More and more universities and colleges are pursuing adaptive reuse projects of the kind Hoisington and his team at HOK’s local office completed recently for Washington University in St. Louis in the West End Cortex Innovation Community. As he described, the method is also an increasingly preferred solution for the biotech and life sciences industries. St. Louis has joined Dallas in competing with established hubs like Boston-Cambridge and Pittsburgh for a larger share of the market for both.

Looking to the future, studies have suggested the global markets for adaptive reuse and biotechnology to reach $47 billion and $1.3 trillion, respectively, USD by the end of this decade.

HOK has published a primer on adaptive reuse and laboratory design.

Four edgy California remodelling projects by JENSEN Architects: Your Next Employer?

2024-01-29T12:08:00-05:00

Following last week's visit to San Francisco-based Edmonds + Lee Architects, we are keeping our Meet Your Next Employer series in the Bay Area this week to explore the work of JENSEN Architects.

From their studio in downtown San Francisco, the firm has built a portfolio specializing in cultural, educational, residential, and workplace projects. The studio describes its ethos as “valuing a critical design approach, contemporary culture engagement, and innovative construction techniques for elegant, effective, and environmentally sensitive solutions.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for several positions to join their San Francisco office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning about the firm’s output, we have rounded up four intriguing California-based remodel and renovation projects by JENSEN Architects that exemplify the studio’s ethos.

Stanford Residence. Image credit: JENSEN Architects

Stanford Residence, Stanfo...

Zooco creates ‘Brutalism over the sea’ with Spanish restaurant inside renovated 1970s concrete structure

2024-01-11T13:55:00-05:00

Madrid-based studio Zooco has completed an extensive renovation and extension of a 1970s concrete structure in Santander, Spain. The Cantabrian Maritime Museum restaurant has been constructed inside an architectural complex that also includes an Oceanographic Center designed by Vicente Roig Forner and Ángel Hernández Morales, built between 1975 and 1978.

Image credit: David Zarzoso

The original concrete structure sees two square forms connected by a canopy. The interior spans three floors with a central courtyard covered by a vault of paraboloid membranes, while a 2003 renovation and extension saw the addition of a pyramid-form aluminum structure to the western facade and roof.

Image credit: David Zarzoso

For their 2023 overhaul of the scheme, Zooco inserted a new space on the second floor to house a restaurant and terrace. To facilitate the restaurant, a new volume was constructed to resolve issues with the roof and facade, while ...

NYC will convert JFK Hilton hotel into supportive housing

2023-12-28T13:44:00-05:00

A plan to transform the former Hilton Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City into supportive housing has been announced as the inaugural effort of the important new Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act (HONDA) program by Mayor Eric Adams.

Aufgang Architects will be in charge of overhauling the 350-room hotel into the renamed Baisley Pond Park Residences, a 318-unit residential development aimed at low-income and formerly homeless individuals with rents ranging between $784 per month for studios to $1,493 for two-bedroom apartments. They say their work will be completed in just 21 months thanks to the hotel’s compatible layout, which allows for a minimally invasive slate of amendments to its internal wall structures.

The result will be a life-changing space for residents, complete with all-electric heating and cooling systems, multiple community/computer rooms, space for the RiseBoro Community Partnership’s on-site support staff, a kitchen serviced by the ...

Four adaptive reuse projects by 3North: Your Next Employer?

2023-12-11T14:07:00-05:00

Following last week’s visit to New York-based Architecture Research Office, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Richmond, VA this week to explore the work of 3North.

From their studios in both Richmond and San Francisco, the firm has built a portfolio across twenty years along a principle that “great design only happens when multiple disciplines collaborate without walls or silos.” As a result, the studio contains a mixture of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, and graphic designers, working on projects spanning hospitality, cultural, multifamily, corporate, and single-family residential.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for a Technical Director to join their Richmond office. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning about the firm’s output, we have rounded up four adaptive reuse projects by 3North that exemplify the studio’s ethos.

American Civil War Museum. Image courtesy: 3North...

MVRDV completes colorful HAUS 1 office conversion in Berlin

2023-12-04T14:24:00-05:00

MVRDV has completed work on a vibrant new conversion project in Berlin called HAUS 1 that reworked an aging office building from 1997 into a new hub for innovation and community.

Other than the eye-catching canary color finish, the project is visually dominated by an extended grand external staircase. A new terraced timber pavilion space is enacted on the rooftop, completed by an arrangement of native plants and constructed using a palette of bio-based materials. Inside, floorplans are altered to maximize flexibility. Other important aspects of the design include low-temperature underfloor heating and a rainwater harvesting system that will help the building to function sustainably year-round.

Photo © Lukas Drobny

MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs says: “The newly transformed HAUS 1 is more than a gateway to this unique campus devoted to impact. It is a representation of the Atelier Gardens community and their commitment to chart a different vision of society...

An updated study led by Gensler tracks progress of office-to-residential conversion data

2023-12-04T10:15:00-05:00

Gensler Principal Steven Paynter shares an update announcing important statistical findings related to his firm’s work surrounding the adaptive reuse and conversion of office buildings worldwide.

The data report has been updated to reflect changes in office conversions. The firm shares that an estimate of only 25% of buildings (from Gensler's original assessment) are suitable for conversion. This is a decrease from the 33% figure that was reported in January as Gensler began marketing its proprietary metric of office conversions.

The new study was expanded to cover some 1,000 buildings, an increase from their previous analysis of 300 buildings. Paynter and his team now report that conversion is "an unprecedented opportunity to create new residential stock quickly, sustainably, and at a 30% lower cost than new construction."

Previously on Archinect: Gensler Principal Steven Paynter further details office conversion algorithm in podcast sit-down

The assessment also provided some intere...

Glazed extensions flank Montreal’s historic Maisonneuve Library following major EVOQ renovation

2023-11-24T16:15:00-05:00

Montreal’s Maisonneuve Library has reopened to the public following a major restoration and expansion of the historic building. Dating from 1912, and once serving as a city hall, the building’s transformation was led by Montreal-based EVOQ Architecture and Dan Hanganu Architects, now part of EVOQ, following a 2017 competition win.

Image credit: Adrien Williams

At the center of the project is the original 1912 building, which was rehabilitated to restore its “original splendor.” The building’s stone facades and oversized doors were restored, as were original plaster moldings, wood paneling, and mosaic floors. Meanwhile, anchoring elements of the interior such as the piano nobile’s marble staircase and its two imposing stained-glass features were repaired.

Image credit: Adrien Williams

The existing building is flanked by two contemporary extension wings. The alignment of the extension’s curtain walls, as well as the rhythm of its...

White House announces new guidebook to funding office conversions nationwide

2023-10-28T08:00:00-04:00

The Biden Administration has announced a new initiative aimed at financing office conversions in an effort to combat the growing problem of high vacancy rates and housing affordability in markets large and small across the country.

The announcement comes as vacancy rates have skyrocketed to 30-year highs, according to the White House. Some cities like Washington, D.C. have seen rates as high as 50% in their CBD areas, prompting desperate appeals from politicians to enact wholesale changes to the built environment that’s backed up by funding from the federal level. Now, in unison with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Transportation (DOT), the government has officially published its guidelines for obtaining available funding through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing, and other programs.

The White House press release says: “Converting commercial real estate to housing a...

MAD to renovate Shanghai cement warehouse with floating metal ‘ark’

2023-10-27T11:33:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled its design for the renovation and adaptive reuse of an old cement factory in Shanghai. The ‘Wanmicang’ warehouse sits on the south side of the Shanghai Zhangjiang Cement Factory grounds and has been reimagined by MAD as a “three-dimensional hierarchy of time and physical dimensions through the juxtaposition of old and new structures.”

Image credit: MAD Architects

Having ceased production in 2013 after decades as one of Shanghai’s largest cement factories, the site has been the subject of several commissions by architects aiming to preserve and reuse historical buildings while repositioning the site for research, cultural, commercial, and creative uses. Subsequently, MAD’s approach to the Wanmicang warehouse was to preserve the site’s industrial fabric while repurposing the site as a multifunctional public waterfront space holding culture, creativity, commercial, and office functions.

Image credit: MAD Architects

“Industrial heritage is preserved and utilize...

Flatiron Building developers announce residential conversion plans

2023-10-26T20:08:00-04:00

The building’s future as housing began to take shape this week when the Brodsky Organization, a residential developer, bought a stake in the 22-story, triangular-shaped tower on Fifth Avenue. Brodsky will lead the conversion, carving out units — either for sale as condominiums or as rentals — from the notoriously awkward space. The exact layout and the number of new residences have not been determined.

The project will take about three years to complete once plans finally clear the lengthy approval process. Developers told the New York Times they are considering multiple schemes but have yet to determine the total number of residential units the conversion will create.

The saga began with a botched auction sale in March and has implications as the Flatiron, which was one of New York’s first skyscrapers, is now the most historically significant structure included in the city’s push to create 40,000 housing units out of its existing office stock by the end of the decade.

In BRUTAL DC, Brooks + Scarpa proposes adaptive reuse of Marcel Breuer's landmark 1968 design

2023-10-25T13:49:00-04:00

Brooks + Scarpa has proposed an adaptive reuse renovation of the Marcel Breuer-designed Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in Washington, D.C. in an effort to address the chronic issue of empty office space plaguing the city’s economic growth and downtown core.

The proposal is included in a new exhibition at the Southern Utah Museum of Art that examines Brutalism’s past and future potential through seven key structures and Metro station designs. The exhibition includes Diller Scofidio + Renfro's scrapped 'Bubble' reimagining of the Hirshhorn Museum and other schemes from Gensler and students from the UNLV School of Architecture.

Image courtesy Brooks + Scarpa

The inclusion of the 55-year-old Weaver Building is significant as it is the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which wants to position itself in line with industry pushes to build a “just and equitable future for all citizens.”

Image courtesy Brooks + Scarpa

After the p...

Atelier L’Abri completes Passive House retrofit of 1970s garage in rural Quebec

2023-10-19T12:43:00-04:00

Montreal-based Atelier L’Abri has completed a Passive House retrofit in the southern Quebec village of Frelighsburg, Canada. Named Maison Melba, the project saw a former 1970s car garage transformed into a living space that is also open to the community for collaborative projects.

Image credit: Alex Lesage

The project brief and program were inspired by the fertile ecosystem of Frelighsburg, resulting in a scheme where, as Atelier L’Abri puts it, “beauty is in harmony with performance.” Outside, an Écomestible-designed landscape holds a greenhouse and a garden dedicated to small-scale vegetable production, while inside, the main building houses a residence, work studio, workshop, and a culinary production and meeting space.

Image credit: Alex Lesage

The exterior of the building is defined by a “noble and timeless look that blends with the countryside.” A steel roof is paired with wood plank cladding that gradually shifts from brown to g...

MVRDV completes transformation of communist-era Tirana Pyramid monument in Albania

2023-10-17T20:11:00-04:00

The transformation of an aging brutalist monument to communism into a new tech education center geared toward teenagers in the capital city of Albania has been officially inaugurated following a three-and-a-half-year revitalization effort led by MVRDV.

The project remade the 127,000-square-foot Pyramid of Tirana, first established as a museum dedicated to the legacy of dictator Enver Hoxha in 1988, into the centerpiece of a new cultural hub and park space located in the heart of the city.

Brightly-colored boxes are stacked within, around, and on top of the original structure, providing areas for education and events programming, while the addition of outdoor steps to its sloping beams creates intriguing new public space possibilities for visitors. Some see it as a testament to the country’s dogged ability to overcome the collective memory of the Hoxha regime. MVRDV hopes it will turn into a “carrier” for the cult...

Closed school buildings offer a silver lining through adaptive reuse nationwide

2023-10-12T11:56:00-04:00

Amid the backdrop of a national trend of tumbling enrollments, brutal pandemic-era learning losses and an ongoing flight of young families from urban centers, the dilemma of how to repurpose empty schools is that many cities face. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 2,200 public schools closed from 2019 to 2022. Chicago’s experiences offer some insights into what can happen to these spaces, and the communities around them, after the students get sent home.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative Associate Principal Max Komnenich tells Bloomberg the other side to the growing problem of school closings can offer a “beacon for reinvestment” given the proper incentives.

His firm’s Aspire Center conversion took advantage of a $12.5 million TIF that’s included in the larger Community Development Grant program overseen by the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. Projects geared towards workforce development are another popular solution besides the obvious need for residential conversions. According to the website Yardi Matrix, 2.9% of all newly converted housing units were created from former school buildings nationwide in the last year alone.

Four design teams shortlisted for former KKK site reclamation project in Texas

2023-10-11T17:51:00-04:00

A four-finalist shortlist for Transform 1012 N. Main Street’s adaptive reuse and racial equity project has been announced as part of a multiphase selection process that will eventually deliver the new Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing to Fort Worth, Texas.

The chance at redesigning what was once the Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium will fall on a proposal that best expresses and reflects the group’s reclamatory mission while “[prioritizing] community, equity, and collective healing in the design of the space” above all other considerations of site and material.

“The exceptional quality of the submissions prompted us to expand the initially envisioned shortlist from three to four teams and to extend our selection deadline for a few days,” Ben Crawford, the Chair of Transform 1012’s Design Architect Selection Committee, added. “We are thrilled to welcome these architects to Fort Worth to see how they could be a partner in reimagining the processes for enacting th...

British building firms urge a halt to 'regressive' Tory environmental policy delays

2023-10-10T17:24:00-04:00

Several leading design and construction firms in the UK have signed onto a new appeal urging Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to halt his program of delayed implementations of key environmental building regulations in the interest of protecting a net-zero carbon emissions future in the country.

The Guardian first shared news of the letter, which called these delays “simply reckless,” just days after issuing a damming analysis of the benefits reaped by some builders as the ambitions of the climate movement have been vastly forestalled.

“We are disappointed at your narrative that delaying climate action would reduce costs to households. The longer we delay and the more we see stop-start piecemeal policy making, the harder and more expensive the task becomes,” a portion of the text reads.

SOM, Perkins&Will, and WilkinsonEyre were amongst the 114 signatories, joining AECOM, Buro Happold, and Arup on a docket that was formally organized by the UK Green Building Council. Along with...

MVRDV transforms 1990s Shenzhen tower into ‘vibrant and colorful skyscraper’

2023-10-09T11:56:00-04:00

Construction has been completed on the MVRDV-designed Shenzhen Women & Children’s Centre, transforming an old mixed-use tower in the Chinese megacity into a “vibrant and colorful skyscraper.” The 330-foot-tall tower contains a hotel alongside a range of facilities for the welfare of women and children.

Image credit: Xia Zhi

The original tower was completed in 1994 during a period of rapid growth in Shenzhen. Plagued by two decades of fire safety concerns, the tower remained largely empty until the decision in 2019 to overhaul the building.

Existing tower before MVRDV's commission. Image credit: MVRDV

Image credit: Xia Zhi

MVRDV’s proposal for the tower saw the existing structure reused in an effort to avoid the carbon cost of demolishing and rebuilding. The most visible aspect of the transformation is a new facade featuring a grid of multicolored exterior frames. The new three-foot-deep envelope is designed to provide extra shading while also incorporating openable panels for natural v...

U.S. colleges eye unused office buildings for academic adaptive reuse

2023-10-06T14:09:00-04:00

U.S. colleges are taking advantage of a post-pandemic increase in affordable, unused offices by purchasing such properties for educational use, according to reporting by The New York Times. Since 2018, numerous higher education institutions in the U.S. have been acquiring office buildings, with 49 private and 16 public institutions making such purchases, as per data from real estate services company JLL.

“For schools seeking to expand, or just beef up their real estate portfolios, the purchases can be a bonanza,” The Times explains. “With the office market in a slump, they have bought buildings at bargain prices. Renovations are usually needed, but a makeover is typically not as expensive or as time-consuming as building from scratch."

Related on Archinect: AIA announces $20 billion in grant funding made available for adaptive reuse and decarbonization projects. Image credit: Brian Ferry

Examples cited by The Times include the 1928 Title and Trust Building in Los Angeles purchased b...

PAU-designed The Refinery at Domino reopens Brooklyn's most iconic building to the modern workplace

2023-09-27T15:25:00-04:00

A landmark era of high-profile additions and architectural changes to the historic Brooklyn waterfront has ushered in a new chapter with today’s official public unveiling of the PAU-designed The Refinery at Domino office component at the 11-acre former Domino Sugar Factory site in Williamsburg.

The new, 15-story glass commercial space was constructed inside the building’s old brick masonry shell, offering tenants 460,000 square feet of Class A office space enhanced by carefully-inserted biophilic elements and marked by the firm’s attenuation to ascendant health and wellness considerations typical in modern workplace design.

Photo: Max Touhey

A 12-foot gap left between the new and old structures provides space for Field Operations’s 17-count in-house arboretum while standardizing a misalignment with the floors and helping to flood the bonetti/kozerski-designed office interiors with natural light and expanded access to vegetation throughout the day.

Photo: Max Touhey

A vaulted 27,000-s...

TenBerke selected for Philadelphia Family Court Building adaptive reuse scheme

2023-09-08T18:06:00-04:00

TenBerke has been announced as one of several team members on a major new commission that will deliver a new home for The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) from the city’s former Family Court Building at an important nexus in its expanding cultural precinct.

Located near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, the Rodin Museum, the courthouse building was originally built in 1941. The design from TenBerke will recreate the structure as a 200-room hotel with help from Beyer Blinder Belle, Studio & Projects, and Hood Design Studio. A team including Hood, Morris Adjmi Architects, and Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects will join them in delivering the AAMP’s new facilities at 1901 Wood Street. An expansion of the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Parkway Central branch is a component of the scheme as well.

Rendering courtesy of National/Frontier

The PIDC, Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation, will manage the ...

NYC announces Midtown South office conversion rezoning to combat housing shortfall

2023-08-18T09:00:00-04:00

New York City officials announced plans on Thursday to ease the conversion of office buildings to housing and to open manufacturing areas south of Times Square to new residential development, as part of a broader push to reinvent the struggling business district in Midtown Manhattan and address the city’s housing crisis.

The news comes after the revelation last week that a total of zero new housing starts were approved in Manhattan in the month of July. The Adams administration previously announced its desire to create 40,000 new residential units through the adaptive reuse of office buildings. The rezoned area south of 40th Street to 23rd Street will be bordered by Fifth and Eighth Avenues, respectively, and includes the historic Garment District, Penn Station area, and parts of Chelsea.

They are part of a larger spate of zoning changes that coincide with the development plan, including the addition of structures built as recently as 1990 to the list of those now permittable for conversion schemes.

“The world has changed,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said at the announcement press conference. “We have to be willing to change with it.” He's not kidding. Median monthly rents in the borough are now estimated at $4,400, according to the New York Times.

Gensler Principal Steven Paynter further details office conversion algorithm in podcast sit-down

2023-08-17T14:37:00-04:00

Gensler Principal and Studio Director Steven Paynter sat down recently with financial news service Marketplace.org to detail his firm’s year-old proprietary office conversion metric, a unique tool that has become indispensable as the industry looks to position itself for the mass-scale nationwide surge in the conversion market expected for the coming decade.

Paynter had previously revealed the metric’s surprising findings that only about 30% of commercial buildings have the ideal structural prerequisites (e.g., window depth, floor plates, and ceiling heights), essentially doubling down on his original claims with added details as to the so-called “Goldilocks” zones architects look for when looking at structures for a residential conversion.

“[If] you took a typical floor plate, for example, in those the average unit size for your location or your city, it would divide that unit size by the quarter window depth, so very quickly say, OK, your unit ends up being 25 feet wide and 30 fe...