Office to Housing Construction Conversions
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Why Converting Vacant Office Space to Housing Isn’t So Simple

Societal shifts following the COVID-19 pandemic—namely the rise of remote work—have left millions of square feet of office space vacant. But converting those buildings to housing and other potential uses comes with several building complications (from 2023)
Art Deco Calcutta

How Calcutta Became a Hub for Art Deco Architecture—And Why It’s at Risk

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While the Indian megacity’s Art Deco structures captivate locals and tourists, demographic shifts and modernization threaten their survival

When you think of the beauty of Art Deco architecture, there are likely a few cities that spring to mind. Miami, of course, with its historic Deco district, and the stunning historic apartment buildings of Paris’ 16th arrondissement.

But what you might not know is that the Indian megacity Calcutta is home to some of the most interesting examples of vernacular Art Deco architectural style, blending influences of both traditional Indian and European style.

Bluebeam spoke to writer and Art Deco architectural enthusiast Parni Ray about her attachment to her hometown’s Deco style—and why this often-overlooked example of Deco excellence is garnering attention both at home and abroad.

An emotional connection

Ray said she’s always felt drawn to the built environment of the city she grew up in.

“My connection to architecture began young,” she said. “Calcutta, many would tell you, is a walking city. As a young person I walked around the city a lot and got lost a bunch, and buildings I admired were my markers to find my way back. In that sense you can say my introduction to my city, my individual claim on it, was through the built environment.”

But it was only when she left her hometown to study that she began to develop a deeper understanding of Calcutta’s built world.

“Since I was studying “Arts and Aesthetics,” an interdisciplinary liberal arts course rooted in the social sciences, I got interested in their history,” she said. “Then I worked in contemporary art for about a decade and later moved to London to do a research degree, where I was introduced to design history and design research. All of this added to my interest and understanding of architecture.”

Returning to her hometown to live and work as a writer, Parni found herself discovering more inspiring examples of Deco design.

“As a resident of South Calcutta, I am most familiar with Art Deco buildings in my neighborhood,” she said. “Despite the houses not being designed by the same people, and the recent intrusion by very ugly apartment buildings, the design language feels very cohesive. It feels like people were looking at what was being built around them and responding in accordance, and that creates a sense of style and community.”

Modern style for the modern era

So when did Deco come to Calcutta?

“Art Deco buildings in India started being built during the 30s and well into the 60s,” Ray explained. “Perhaps the most famous among them, the most regal ones, were film theaters—Roxy, Elite, Metro. With the slow demise of the single standing cinema halls in the country, these have become almost redundant today. Elite was demolished, the latter two are somehow holding on. There are several other buildings, and the Instagram account Art Deco Calcutta, which I love, is a great place to see and know about them.”

Ray said, in her opinion, the most influential of the cinemas was the Metro, which she said “clearly made an impression on cinema goers of the time and appears to have inspired so many residential buildings here in South Calcutta. So taken were people with everything it represented—the magic of cinema, the decadence of the moviegoing experience and a luxurious ‘modernity’—that they built homes inspired by its design and the term ‘Metro bari,’ or metro house, became a common code for builders.”

One thing that makes these buildings so unique is their deeply personal roots. “In my conversations with the owners of some of these houses, I have found that several of them were built by the homeowners who were structural or civil engineers,” Ray said. “India had about three architectural schools at the time of its independence, and the modern architect figure emerges as important much later here. In fact, even today most residences in India are ‘designed’ by mistris, or builders.”

While architecture is a more recent arrival, engineering has had a long history in the nation after its introduction by the British. “Perhaps it is this long history, which earned engineers considerable reverence—a status they still enjoy in communities, especially in Calcutta,” Ray said. “The reverence, I think, translated to considerable confidence, which can be both good and bad. I think this is what allowed some of them to just design a whole house for their families, alongside their day jobs. Engineers today aren’t doing the same, I assure you.”

Preserving history

Unfortunately, Ray said shifting demographics make the future of Calcutta’s Art Deco homes uncertain.

“The city is changing and shrinking in size as the number of people increase, and space, like in most big cities in the world, is getting sparse,” she said. “The Art Deco houses with their balconies, their gardens and two-story structures have, to many, started feeling like a waste of space. The area they cover can often accommodate multiple tall, narrow, claustrophobic buildings, so many of the old buildings are being pulled down to make space for these.”

As the owners of these houses age, buildings are often sold by the younger generations, who arrange for their relatives to have a floor of their own in the new construction that will replace them, while maintenance challenges mean that even owners who want to keep these structures in use often struggle to keep them functional. Ray also said movements to preserve these buildings, which aren’t recognized as “heritage” by the government, find themselves limited by the power of the real estate industry and red tape.

Ray said the fact that so many of these structures were built by the people who inhabited them means that documentation about their history and construction can be hard to come by.

“It is one thing to learn from merely seeing existing structures, walking past them, taking their pictures, but a culture of informed appreciation, criticism and further development of thought about a subject is possible only when creative endeavors are discussed in the community,” she said. “And in this I think the home designers of the past have failed the city; they didn’t share their knowledge with the coming generations like they should have, only left us examples of their work to admire and enjoy. Perhaps if they saw how the city is changing now they would reconsider and be more forthcoming about sharing their design choices and experiences. We would have all benefited.”

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Church Conversions Bluebeam

Reviving Abandoned Churches: The Challenge and Opportunity of Adaptive Reuse

  • Projects
As more churches fall into disuse, architects and community leaders face unique obstacles in preserving these historic structures while giving them new life

Over two decades ago, the late Rev. Wendell Williams and his wife Donna purchased the abandoned 40,000-square-foot St. Agnes Church in Cohoes, New York. They bought the 1890s Gothic Revival cathedral for $50,000 in the high-poverty area that was once a bustling textile manufacturing center.

Initially a home for their congregation, it also now houses the Connect Center, a youth-oriented community center. When purchased in 2001, it immediately needed a $1.1 million roof renovation. Five years later, the ceiling plaster, as high as six stories, began falling in.

Work is about 75% complete and more renovations on the building are needed, ranging from steeple repairs to rotting window frames housing 132-year-old handcrafted stained-glass windows. But progress is slow because of funds and challenges associated with repurposing old churches.

“It’s been a journey to renovate this church and create these safe spaces for youth,” said Ben Williams, Rev. Williams’s son. Ben now serves as the director of the Connect Center for Youth. “It is important to me to preserve the legacy, and it is very important, and it’s part of our story even though it’s a pain in my wallet most of the time.”

Look around any neighborhood, and chances are you’ll see at least one, if not more, abandoned churches as congregation populations decline. Experts predict that as many as 100,000 churches in the United States will close in the coming years.

“Most communities don’t want the buildings themselves torn down but adaptively reused rather than replaced with something new, and that is where people run into design challenges,” said Andrew Torres, a licensed architect in New York City working with Gemini Rosemont Development.

But there are success stories. In St. Louis, skateboarding enthusiasts converted St. Liborius Church, a 150-year-old church, into an indoor skating park. Other abandoned churches are now roller rinks, bars or restaurants, professional offices, Airbnbs and even a future cultural arts facility for a public school.

A look inside the offices of Overit.

Repurposing churches presents unique architectural and building-related challenges even though it offers the opportunity to preserve a historic structure. Steeples, soaring ceilings, outdated plumbing and heating, and cooling system repairs are costly. Often, the materials and expertise needed to fix features like stained glass windows and steeples are hard to find.

“A lot of churches have deferred maintenance and neglect by the congregations selling them. It is a lot of work to bring these back to life,” Torres said. “Churches are highly customized, not repeating designs or details existing conditions to contend with, and with that people can run into many challenges, especially when converting a church to residential use.”

Meeting Americans with Disabilities Act standards can also be a challenge depending on the church’s design. Williams had to build a new egress and install ramps, but so far, he’s only had the funds to do so on one floor.

“There’s a time cost too. I’m spending money and energy fixing my space and not working on the mission of my organization,” Williams said. “I love that we saved this building and can give it back to the community, which provides more safe space and safer streets, but I would only get into something like this again if I knew I had the bankroll behind me.”

Transforming churches into modern use spaces is capital-intensive and requires vision. But for the right customized project, it’s an opportunity to preserve a community landmark and architectural style that a new build can never replicate.

Michelle Dinsmore sees it as her mission to transform historical buildings with architectural history into modern-day spaces. So far, she has transformed two churches—one into a vacation rental and the other into offices for the marketing studio she co-owns with her husband.

A look inside the offices of Overit.

Comparatively, the church Dinsmore purchased was better maintained than the one the Williams family purchased. With a good roof and structure, they could focus on the interior, which included reusing pews for molding, desks and conference tables. Their adaptive reuse won a Historic Albany Merit award.

One of the biggest challenges in transforming the church was designing the agency’s recording studio. The couple needed to identify architects with expertise in insulating and isolating sections of the 12,000-square-foot church and updating the air conditioning and heating system so that its operation doesn’t interfere with recording.

“You have to have a very clear purpose and understanding to get a budget to create a plan that honors the lineage of the building,” she said.

Repurposing churches may be more viable for private owners than commercial developers. Torres points to the ancient notion of spolia, the idea of repurposing cut stones or decorative elements from old buildings in new construction, as a potential opportunity. One example he points to is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, once a Christian church, then a mosque, a museum and now again a mosque.

“Many churches have column capitals in carved marble that need to be removed for spaces to be opened up. You can save some of those stone elements and use them elsewhere in a different format,” he said, adding that it’s great “when people take what was there before and put it in a new context and celebrated instead of having it be hidden or demolished.”

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Australian Cabins

These Australian Hiking Cabins Are a Sight to Behold

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Roughing it in the great outdoors is a little more luxurious in these cabins, which underwent a painstakingly detailed and complex design and construction process (from 2023)

When it comes to roughing it in the great outdoors, most of us would be excited to spend the night in a simple log cabin or lean-to. But in Australia, which boasts thousands of miles of hiking and camping trails throughout its many national parks and wilderness areas, they do things a little differently.

So when it came time to design and construct the campsites along the challenging 13-day Grampian Peaks Trail route, planners knew they needed something special to match the natural scenery. But how could they create breathtaking structures in remote areas, many of which are unreachable by road?

Nick Griffin, Melbourne Co-Studio lead and associate director at McGregor Coxall, and Justin Noxon, architect and studio partner at Noxon Giffen, were ready to rise to the challenge.

An unmatched location

For Griffin and Noxon, the natural beauty of the site inspired an expansive creativity in the team’s approach to the design process. Also known by its aboriginal name, Gariwerd, Griffin described the area as “a significant landscape,” adding, “The environmental and cultural significance of Gariwerd drew us to the project.”

A look inside one of the cabins. Photo: Adam Gibson.

One of the most biodiverse places in Victoria and home to about a third of all native area plant species, there’s a reason this remote trail has been so perennially popular with ambitious hikers from all over the globe. “With such diverse terrain and unique natural resilience, the landscape and its systems form the primary inspiration for our design response,” Griffin said.

For Griffin and his associates, taking the time to truly immerse themselves in this landscape was an essential part of the design process. “The design team made multiple trips out to Gariwerd to spend time observing and documenting site conditions,” he said. “Immersion in each individual site took place to gain a holistic appreciation for and knowledge of the landscape in different weather conditions and at times of day.”

After spending time within each site, Griffin said the team created structures that mirrored the natural landscape that surrounded them, drawing both visually and materially from the park. “The form and placement of the architecture were inspired by the large-scale sandstone uplift evident throughout the Grampians; this is echoed in the single pitch of roof elements,” Griffin explained.

A cabin overlooks the local scenery. Photo: Adam Gibson.

Each structure even makes use of materials drawn naturally from the landscape. “The design vision included a robust and natural materials palette, considered in response to each individual site’s nature, colors and textures,” Griffin said. “For example, all rock was sourced from within each campsite.”

Designing with hikers in mind

The team knew how its structures needed to respond to the landscape—but what about the people who would be using them? Griffin said that throughout the project, the design team kept the specific experience of hikers at the forefront of their processes.

“The experiential design of all campsite elements was mindful to be specific to that of a hiking experience, therefore the comfort target for architectural elements sought to elevate only slightly from that of a tent,” he explained. “The aim was to feature architecture that would grow in parallel with the nature that surrounds it, minimizing harm to environments and keeping Gariwerd’s stunning landscape as the hero.”

Noxon said this commitment was clear from the moment the team read the key parameters that would define the project. “The brief called for the campsites to ‘touch the ground lightly,’ minimizing the impact on the environment and maintaining Gariwerd’s iconic, biodiverse landscape as the hero,” he said. “The structures were built to provide comfort and amenities for hikers, using materials that would blend into the landscape over time. Structures provide the essentials of weather protection and basic shelter, collect water, treat wastewater on-site and provide solar-powered battery charges for hiker safety for mobile phone navigation and safety within the context of a remote hiker trail experience.”

Photo: Adam Gibson.

Where and how the cabins were constructed was as important as the amenities they contained.

“Off-grid campsites are designed with mindfulness to guidelines and tracks—intuitive circulation allows for more sustainable campsites that minimize public access to dense vegetation,” Noxon said. “Accommodating to a variety of users, abilities and intensities, the walk will conserve and protect Gariwerd’s beauty, achieving the highest possible grade of environmental sensitivity through the protection of site-specific conditions such as biotope preservation, overland flow management and microclimate.”

Construction complexities

Once construction began, Griffin said the complexity of the project became clear. “The remoteness of the 11 sites represented a lot of obstacles,” he said. “One of the major challenges was to ensure a consistent quality was achieved across several sites under construction concurrently.”

Collaborating closely with their contractor and Parks Victoria, which backed the project, Griffin and his team made regular visits to the Gariwerd sites throughout the construction process, which used a modular approach that allowed for the prefabrication of all of the elements, which could then be transported via airlift or vehicle to their designated sites.

Several sites were constructed concurrently as part of a prototyping process whose lessons would be applied to the next batch of sites—a unique method that allowed the team to meet their timing and budgetary goals. When lockdowns made in-person site visits challenging, the team figured out how to do virtual inspections from afar, so construction could stay on track.

Photo: Adam Gibson.

Now that the project is open to the public, Griffin and Noxon say the response has been enthusiastic. “The feedback that the project team have received on the project has been largely positive,” Griffin said. The campsites provide a great level of amenity for hikers without inhibiting the sense of nature. The campsite interventions are true to the brief of being subservient to the natural landscape; they simply add a layer of comfort to those seeking to immerse themselves in the magical Gariwerd landscape.

Noxon added that he hopes the structures will enhance hikers’ appreciation for the beauty of the region. “The campsites are designed to support the hiker experience of Gariwerd; to become part of the landscape; to promote connection and understanding of Gariwerd,” he said. “The architectural response fosters a slow, gentle and quiet interaction, an elemental experience of place.”

Stanley "Dirt Monkey" Genadek

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Marcus Performing Arts Center Milwaukee

Mass Timber Soars: Milwaukee’s New Landmark Aims for Sustainable Sky-High Record

  • Projects
The Marcus Performing Arts Center redevelopment is set to redefine eco-friendly architecture with the tallest mass timber building in the world

It’s safe to say that mass timber is having a moment.

As building teams strive to create more sustainable and faster-to-build projects, with reduced costs and less environmental harm, this earth-friendly and aesthetically pleasing favorite is gaining ground on traditional construction methods.

Now, mass timber is reaching new heights in a project by Michael Green Architecture in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Once completed, the structure will be in the running for designation as the tallest mass timber building in the world—an ambitious feat of earth-first design and engineering.

MGA Principal Michael Green walked Built through the redevelopment of the Marcus Performing Arts Center, sharing his enthusiasm for mass timber and providing the details about what this ambitious redevelopment project will entail.

Why laminated timber matters

Laminated timber has been an environmental darling since the introduction of its predecessor, cross-laminated timber, in Australia in 1995. Not only does mass timber require less energy to create than other building materials, but it could also absorb carbon from the atmosphere—a huge advantage over traditional materials like cement, steel and concrete with a huge carbon footprint. “Wood is the best principal material available for building structures when considering total energy use, carbon emissions and water usage,” Green said.

Mass timber construction can also be considerably more affordable than its conventional counterpart, with some claiming it’s as much as 5% cheaper than steel and concrete construction. Additional cost savings can also be realized through a shorter construction time, thanks to the use of prefabricated panels, less labor needed for the installation process and savings on foundation costs thanks to mass timber’s reduced structural weight.

So what actually does this material consist of?

“Mass timber construction utilizes large solid panels of wood engineered for strength through laminations of layers,” Green explained. “These cross-laminated timber—or CLT—panels are layers of solid wood set at 90-degree orientations.”

A rendering of the plaza at the base of the Marcus Performing Arts Center (right).

As the name implies, these panels are considerable in size. “They can range upwards of 64’0” x 8’0” and be of any thickness from a few inches to 16 inches or more,” Green said. “These very large, very dense solid panels of wood are ideal for construction, meet or exceed all safety regulations and provide a warm and healthy environment for living and working.”

An ambitious undertaking

According to Green, the Marcus Performing Arts Center redevelopment project might feature the world’s tallest mass timber structure once completed, in addition to being the tallest building in the state of Wisconsin at up to 55 stories and 1.2 million square feet across the development.

Green said the project “aims to set a new global benchmark for mass timber construction,” representing an investment of more than $700 million.

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The project will include multiple mixed-use buildings, which will be completed in several phases of construction. Once completed, it could include up to 750 residential units; 190,000 square feet of office space; 40,000 square feet of retail space; 300 hotel rooms; parking spaces; and a variety of public plazas and walkways, each designed to bring energy and a sense of public ownership to the reimagined center.

Green said that this project represents the way that smaller cities like Milwaukee are leading the way when it comes to innovation and sustainability in construction. Some industry observers have recommended America’s smaller- and mid-sized cities use environmentally inspired projects like this one to bring together climate resilience, environmental justice and equity, as well as green economic development in a process called green regeneration.

Another rendering of the building (left) that includes an outdoor cafe.

“This ambitious development underscores Milwaukee’s capability, alongside other smaller US cities, to lead in innovation and sustainability,” Green said. “Smaller cities have unique opportunities to embrace cutting-edge technologies and sustainable practices, setting examples for larger urban centers.”

Green’s hope is that the completed project will inspire other cities to tackle greener redevelopment projects of their own. “By pioneering projects like this, [cities] can become hubs of economic growth, cultural vibrancy and environmental stewardship, demonstrating that transformative urban development is possible regardless of city size,” he said. “Milwaukee’s commitment to sustainability and innovative construction techniques highlights its potential to inspire similar initiatives nationwide.”

Partnering with purpose

To complete the project, MGA will partner with The Neutral Project, a regenerative development company that, Green said, “crafts financially responsible, sustainable living spaces that foster healthy lifestyles and friendly neighborhoods.”

Green was drawn to partnership with Neutral due to their shared belief that “the traditional model of endless growth at the expense of the environment is unacceptable. It’s time for a differentiated and thoughtful approach.”

Instead of endless, mindless expansion, MGA and the Neutral team strive to create what Green calls “thriving ecosystems”—living spaces that actively improve the environment. Whereas traditional construction can create structures that have a net negative impact on their environments, Green said he hopes to create buildings that regenerate and renew their surroundings.

These regenerative developments are designed to go “beyond sustainability,” balancing the needs of their human tenants and users with design decisions that benefit the natural world, enabling the art of living well with minimal environmental impact. With increasing numbers of consumers making more environmentally focused decisions about where they live, work and spend their time, these types of structures will doubtless become more common in years to come.

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WHBC Architects

Viral and Visionary: WHBC Architects’ Bold Approach to Eco-Inspired Architecture

  • Projects
From recycled telegraph poles to community-driven design, WHBC Architects crafts eco-conscious buildings that capture the imagination of millions

Although based in Malaysia, WHBC Architects has garnered attention from fans of design and building around the globe. Shared on social media from Instagram to TikTok and beyond, the firm’s viral approach to design tells a compelling story.

Whether it’s a house on a tropical island constructed from reclaimed telephone poles, a design-forward dog hotel, a durian collecting shed or a communal bath built for the indigenous people of Malaysia, the structures the firm completes are always as unique as they are inspired.

But WHBC’s work goes beyond the viral moment. Drawing on local vernacular techniques and inspired by nature, its work uses unconventional materials and eco-inspired design choices to create structures that are truly one of a kind.

A background in building

“I grew up watching my dad repairing and making all kinds of things at home, from toys to giant clocks,” said BC Ang, who runs the firm with his partner, fellow architect Wen Hsia Ang. “I guess that naturally made me want to be a maker/inventor.”

Born, educated and married in Malaysia, the Angs were inspired to found WHBC Architects around 2007. Although their ambitions are lofty, the pair completes their impressive slate of projects from a tiny two-person office.

“We believe design is an act of balancing—utility, technology and emotions in its specific place,” the pair wrote in a joint statement. “All condensed as a problem-solving idea in equilibrium.”

In practice, Ang says this means creating design that truly feels holistic. “It is my belief that good design should not only have a good idea, but it should be also built well; therefore, the conversation with materiality and its accompanying building techniques are very important.”

Ang says the firm’s flexible, open mindset means it’s ready to take on any creative challenge, no matter what the client needs. “We have completed a number of works the past few years which we have not had the time to share yet,” he said, “including a timber farm building and quarters built with a single module of reconstituted timber, a few houses, a meditation hall, a toilet and EV charging highway rest stop.”

Grounded in client conversations, the inspiration the natural world provides and a commitment to thinking differently, the firm’s designs are often founded in that homegrown, ranging curiosity that Ang found so inspiring in his childhood. Perhaps this is why, when asked to name the most inspiring projects of his career, he said, “It was actually a short teaching stint at SUTD in Singapore; it was a chance to guide young adults to see design and making differently.”

Creating new ways of seeing and responding to the world, Ang aims to design structures that illuminate and inspire.

Unconventional materials, striking results

One of WHBC’s most striking social media successes is a house the firm built on the Malaysian island of Langkawi, which was constructed in its entirety from reclaimed wood—including a framework made from recycled telegraph poles.

Ang says he’s unsure why the house has resonated so deeply with audiences around the world. In addition to its success, the house was one of the signature projects that got the duo behind WHBC nominated for the prestigious Royal Academy Architecture Prize. Years after its construction, the structure continues to inspire conversations around creative reuse and materiality.

But when asked about the sources of inspiration for this creative home, Ang was pragmatic. “We just had to make projects (residential or otherwise) that come into the office the best we can,” he said.

That pragmatic approach ended up being the key to that fascinating project. “In Malaysia, we noticed old timber telegraph poles were being replaced with concrete poles,” Ang shared. “When our client requested to build a timber house on the island of Langkawi, we explained that if we were to use freshly logged timber, we could not guarantee the source of the timber or whether it is dried enough.”

Seeking a creative solution, the Angs came up with the idea of reclaiming the materials from those discarded telegraph poles. “We proposed the idea to build with these old poles,” he said. “Compared to freshly logged timber, the durability of the poles is time tested, dry, stable and has a beautiful patina, which only time can give.”

Together, the two visited timber recycling yards to collect hardwood poles that would pass their structural performance tests while also having their preferred aesthetic qualities. They then drove a steel pin into groups of four poles, which acted as a termite shield while turning the poles into a column.

Using the poles as a frame, they created a striking modernist take on a traditional Malay house, honoring the time-tested timber architecture the region is known for—which is becoming increasingly difficult to build due to material constraints.

The result is a building both striking and simple, a perfect marriage of history and modernity.

Where nature and culture meet

Ang says the telegraph pole house is emblematic of the duo’s open-minded approach to creating new spaces. “The source of material, the weather and our culture shape all vernacular building … it’s all around us; we are inspired by all these then and now,” enthused Ang. “We always consult our clients on the most important matters, but our clients appreciate that we are there to make clear decisions on their behalf.”

He said that centering nature and building structures that respond to their surroundings remains essential to the duo’s work. “Respect nature, like how we would respect an elder, understand its power and wisdom, try your best to make appropriate decisions even if it’s not popular, and try not to make nature angry,” he said.

In the past, adhering to these lofty ideals had been easy. But now the Angs find themselves facing their greatest challenge yet. “We are currently building a home for ourselves,” he shared. “I think building your own house is the most difficult job an architect can do. Like a surgeon who tries to operate on themselves. I wished I had an architect with no unnecessary baggage to make a clear decision for me!”

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From Blight to Bright: The $134 Million Transformation of Detroit’s Fisher Body Plant 21

  • Projects
Century-old Fisher Body 21 has been a plant without a purpose for more than 30 years—but it could become the poster child for repurposing industrial buildings around Detroit and elsewhere

Nailhed, a website dedicated to exploring abandoned and decrepit buildings, once described Fisher Body Plant 21 as “one of the coolest hangouts on the Detroit ruin porn circuit.” Trespassers gain a firsthand view of the factory’s decay but also of the city’s manufacturing past in a structure included in the Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District. Since 2004, this hub for automobile body production in the early to mid-20th century has been on the National Register of Historic Places.

Now, Fisher Body 21 is taking on new life. The plant often described as “blighted” and “eyesore” is the focus of a $134 million redevelopment to create the multi-use Fisher 21 Lofts, combining mixed-income apartments with retail and co-working space.

The development team sees the project as a way to transform an emblem of Detroit’s decline—located at the can’t-miss intersection of Interstates 75 and 94—into a symbol of the city’s revitalization. The metamorphosis of the 600,000-square-foot plant fell to McIntosh Poris, an architectural firm with a long history in Detroit and a wealth of experience in adaptive reuse.

Pursuing place-saving as well as place-making

Finding new purpose for Detroit’s old structures has been on McIntosh Poris’ radar for more than 30 years. Although rebuilding the city has moved slowly, the firm has completed several notable projects, including recasting a 1925 bank building into the techno nightclub Panacea and the Detroit Fire Department headquarters into the boutique Detroit Foundation Hotel.

Southside Aerial view, Rending courtesy of McIntosh Poris Architects.

“We work to keep these buildings intact and delay the wrecking ball as much as we can,” said John Skok, principal at McIntosh Poris. But he cautions against starting adaptive reuse with a rigid idea. “You have to do the due diligence to analyze the building’s condition, place and context before you impose a new use on it. We also engage in a community benefit interaction with the city’s planning department to ensure a project will be a catalyst for development in the neighborhood.”

From custom-crafted to steel-stamped

A look back at the plant’s history shows it was one of the first poured concrete structures in Detroit, with walls of windows that brought natural light to deep recesses. Soon after its 1919 completion, the auto industry shifted from using wooden bodies meticulously assembled by skilled carpenters to steel bodies stamped out by unskilled laborers working a hydraulic press.

During the Great Depression, the plant served as a soup kitchen and homeless shelter, then retooled to build artillery and airplane components for World War II. From 1956 until General Motors closed the factory in 1984, the plant produced Cadillac limousine bodies. After a few paint companies used the structure, it sat empty for decades.

The façade crumbled, vagrants broke out windows and a fire partially collapsed an elevator shaft. Although numerous potential developers considered the building for everything from a manufacturing facility to a nightclub, it took a perfect storm of city, community, developers and architects to find a reason for the structure’s existence that would pencil out. The financing relies, in part, on historic tax credits that require Fisher 21 Lofts to retain the building’s original character.

Slicing up a 3D grid to add a fourth dimension

The redevelopment started with structural testing and environmental reviews—along with remediation to remove lead and asbestos—to ensure the plant can be safely converted into housing. When this phase is finished, the team will have an open canvas in three dimensions, with huge concrete slabs, ceilings and columns creating a rigorous geometry. But a fourth dimension comes into play as well.

“In multifamily, you really can’t have long, deep units, so a key was bringing light and air into the building,” Skok said. That led to the decision to insert three atriums to break the massive floorplates into more accessible pieces. Cutting holes in the building required permission from the historic district and National Park Service, but fortunately, there was precedent in other projects that used historic tax credits to finance an adaptive reuse project.

 West Atrium View, Rendering courtesy of McIntosh Poris Architects.

Design that improves lives

In 2015, Detroit was named the first North American City of Design by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, making it one of more than 40 cities worldwide recognized for using design to improve the lives of everyday people. That includes ensuring a more equitable and sustainable future for residents.

Fisher 21 Lofts reflects these goals. For example, 20% of the units will be offered to income-eligible residents at below-market rates. And adaptive reuse is inherently sustainable given the carbon embodied in the original structure. Revitalizing the Fisher Body Plant represents an enormous reduction in emissions compared with constructing a new building of the same size.

In addition, the project achieves a long-held idea of what historically and culturally sensitive restoration in the city should be. Back in 1995, Michael Poris and then-Mayor Dennis Archer met to discuss downtown development strategies. Their second agenda item described “an environment that tells not only where Detroit is going, but where it has been, and why this is important to who we are today.” Fisher 21 Lofts is the embodiment of that vision.

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China Folk House

How a Yunnan Courtyard House Found a New Home in Harpers Ferry

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The China Folk House in Harpers Ferry showcases traditional Chinese architecture, bringing together a diverse community through a remarkable preservation project

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is the last place you’d expect to see a traditional Chinese homestead. But that’s just what you’ll find at China Folk House, a traditional structure that a team of preservation-minded students brought over from Yunnan province and rebuilt in their own backyard.

Built spoke to educator John Flower, vice chair and co-founder of the China Folk House, about this monumental endeavor and the surprising ways the house is bringing a diverse community together.

A Surprising Encounter

Flower first encountered the house on a trip to China with his students. “I was doing a semester-long program in Dali, in northwest Yunnan,” he said. “We lived in an old courtyard house, and we would just study local architecture and temples, and we had the kids apprentice with craftsmen. It was pretty amazing.”

As part of the trip, Flower and his students would travel throughout the region. Passing through an area by the Mekong River that would soon be covered by flooding due to the construction of a new dam, they met a local.

“I said to him, ‘Oh man, it’s a shame your house is going to be flooded. I wish I could just take it home with me,’ just being polite,” Flower explained. “And he said, ‘OK, well, we can do that.” It was a surprising idea, but Flower was immediately on board.

The house being rebuilt in West Virginia.

While the house was hand built using traditional construction techniques, it wasn’t as it seemed. “It’s a beautiful thing, but it’s very folky. It’s real folk architecture, folk craft, but it’s not old,” Flower said. “So the wood is in really good condition, and it’s typical. I’ve had people from Yunnan come and they’re like, ‘Oh my God—this is walking into my grandmother’s house. It wasn’t anything special and that’s what I liked about it. It was just an ordinary house of an ordinary person.”

Bringing Down the House

Flower used to work as a stonemason, moving old log cabins across Virginia, so he knew it was possible. He also knew that in China, traditional architecture was designed to be disassembled and moved as needed.

“Every generation or so you would rebuild your family house, usually on the same site,” he explained. “You would recycle what you could, and then expand it to accommodate a growing family. That was their tradition.”

Flower got together a group of colleagues and former students, one of whom was an architecture student who made a 3D model of the house. “I did lots of interviewing about the process of building, and how it was done originally, and different aspects of the community history and the family history,” Flower said.

The group also hired four workers from the Bai ethnic group, which had a long tradition of mortise and tenon construction. The group disassembled the house in just four days.

“Everything is done by either floating panels or mortise and tenon, so you just got to take it apart and do it step by step,” Flower said. “First we took out all the walls and the floors, and then we took the tile roof off and then all the rafters. Then all that was up were these four post and beam bents. We lowered them down and took them apart, wrapped everything up, and it all fit into one truck.”

Packed into a shipping container along with the house’s traditional furniture, the structure was ready to make the long trip to the United States. But would they be able to put it back together once it arrived?

Putting the Puzzle Back Together

One of the reasons that Flower and his team were able to reassemble the house was that it was built using traditional mortise and tenon construction methods.

“In traditional Western timber framing, there are lots of diagonal braces, and there are pegs that go and secure tenons that are slipped into mortises,” Flower said. “Here, they don’t have any diagonals. They have a double mortise. They have a mortise inside the mortise that has a kind of dovetail flange inside the joint. So there’s no diagonal braces at all in the structure, which makes the whole thing fit together like a puzzle. No pegs, just joinery.”

When the house got back to West Virginia, it was met by volunteers from the West Virginia Timber Framers Guild, who spent two weeks putting the frame back together.

“They thought it was fascinating,” Flower said. “It was just exactly what they do, but a different method, and the West Virginia guys had never seen anything like it. They were thanking me. They were volunteering for two weeks, but they were thanking me the whole time for bringing them such a cool kind of project.”

The original house.

Once the frame was in place, Flower’s students got in on the action. “Most of the work, honestly, was done by kids,” he said. “We did a building camp for five years, and they absolutely loved it. They learned how to do stone masonry. We had guys from the Timber Framer Guild who taught them how to do timber framing. It just kind of grew by word of mouth, and we’d have 90 kids coming over the course of a summer.”

Flower said his students loved working on the house. “All year round, all they get is external affirmation of grades and working on computers. It’s great for them to do something with their hands, and they get to be part of something bigger than themselves. Some of them come back year after year and they’ll point to stuff and say, ‘I built that.”

A Community Endeavor

Flower said that one of the best parts of building the house is how it’s been received by the community.

“That’s really been the most gratifying thing,” he said. “Local people just wander up there. And then it’s just all these people from China who are just so moved that we cared enough about a piece of their culture that we would go to the trouble of moving it, and they’ve been awesome.”

Flower said the house has won itself some surprising fans. “West Virginia is super red [politically], but even people who come out who normally wouldn’t interact with Chinese culture, they don’t see it as China. They see it as something that’s built by people like them.”

Bringing the community together is, as Flower said, “what we’re all about.”

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Philadelphia Navy Yard

Philadelphia Navy Yard’s $2.6 Billion Transformation Sets New Benchmarks in Diversity, Sustainability

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Ensemble/Mosaic's ambitious master plan for the Philadelphia Navy Yard includes a $1 billion diversity pledge and the creation of a LEED-certified neighborhood

The Philadelphia Navy Yard’s master plan was developed by Ensemble/Mosaic. The plan is taking root across 1,200 acres, with more than 30 acres devoted to park space and 6.3 miles of a waterfront habitat that is home to more than 2,000 trees and wildlife.

The development is called AVE Navy Yard, and it is comprised of two buildings, AVE Normandy and AVE Constitution. Currently the development has two residential buildings going up which will be home to more than 1,000 residents, with plans upon full build out to have approximately 4,000 residential units which will be home to more than 6,000 residents

In 2023, the Navy Yard’s first speculative multi-tenant research and development lab building opened. Designed to be the most advanced building of its kind in the Philadelphia region, at four stories and 137,000 square feet, 1201 Normandy is optimized for cell and gene therapy companies and has the flexibility to accommodate a variety of life science and biotech users. 

Brian Cohen, managing director, Ensemble Investments, said the company wanted to ensure that what it was doing was going to be impactful for the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding neighborhoods. The company focused on a robust strategy and thought about which firms and individuals were designing, engineering, constructing, operating and managing its projects, as well as which firms and individuals would be occupying the site. 

$1 billion diversity pledge

Ensemble/Mosaic rooted its master plan in a $1 billion diversity pledge, including a promise to use minority-owned or women-owned enterprises for 20% of its equity investment.

“It was really looking at real estate as its whole lifecycle and thinking about how we could be inclusive and create opportunities for minorities, women and veterans in all aspects of our project,” Cohen said. “We committed to 40% of the companies that we engage with in the design and preprofessional services of our developments would be minority owned, woman owned, veteran owned disabled in construction.”

Ensemble/Mosaic’s goal is that 50% of those companies that are working on and constructing its buildings would be minority women and veteran owned disabled companies. 

It is likely to become more challenging to put some of those requirements in place once tenants arrive, however. “What we’ve committed to is that related to our retail space on the ground floors of our building, we would reserve 25% of our retail space for retailers that are owned by minority women or veterans,” Cohen said. “And we’d offer those at subsidized lease terms so that we could provide opportunities in a prime location for companies and individuals that might not otherwise have the opportunity to locate in a new neighborhood location.”

Since Ensemble/Mosaic started that program in the middle of 2020, it has committed in contracts to approximately $100 million to minority women and veteran-owned companies.

Ensemble/Mosaic also created a foundation that has surpassed $1 million. Met Foundation is dedicated to the education and empowerment of minorities, women and veterans. “Two percent of the net cash flow of everything we develop at the Navy Yard gets donated to that foundation,” Cohen said. “It has an ongoing sustainable source of revenue for everything from workforce training to low-interest loans, grants for minority women and veterans that either live, work, locate at or work on projects at the Navy Yard.”

Ensemble/Mosaic extended that into ownership as well. Mosaic is a minority- and woman-owned company. “When we look to our investors and how we capitalize and finance projects, we are taking that into account,” Cohen said. “On our residential project—a $285 million project—we had $110 million of that that was a minority-led investment by Basis out of New York, a minority- and woman-owned firm. They both invested in the project and then identified and led the rest of that investment for $110 million.”

Sustainability and DEI

All this is being done with a foundational value of sustainability and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) that the developers hope will serve as a model for other large-scale developments.

Nine Ensemble/Mosaic buildings at the Navy Yard are Silver-Platinum LEED Certified and the developers intend to create Philadelphia’s first LEED-certified neighborhood, with every building being LEED Silver or above. In addition, Ensemble/Mosaic has pledged that its $2.6 billion investment in the Navy Yard is committed to environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles.

“The environment contributes more greenhouse gases than any other industry that exists, more than the automobile industry,” Cohen said. “We thought about how we have as much positive impact as possible; developing sustainably was really important,” Cohen said. “We also know that it’s important to our customers and our various stakeholders and so we committed to utilizing LEED.”

Every building the company develops has a minimum of LEED Silver, with most of its buildings having achieved LEED Gold or LEED Platinum certification. “Most recently, we’ve embarked on going through LEED neighborhood development and certifying the Navy Yard as a LEED MD project, which looks beyond the building and to the community,” Cohen said. “It looks to infrastructure, public space, and it looks to health and wellness and making sure that we’re developing responsibly; that we’re thinking about the health and wellness of our occupants, and we’re trying to minimize the impact that we have on the environment and reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible.”

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