Magazine

The 104-year-old Obama Building in Detroit's Old Redford neighborhood takes its name from a mural that used to grace the building's exterior and depicted Barack and Michelle Obama's "First Dance." The restored mural is now inside the Obama Building, which was renovated by Lorcan O'Herlihy... Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects

Originally built as a gatehouse for the Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, the century-old Schiff House now serves as daycare center for the City College of New York. Stone outside and wood inside, the small building was renovated by Michielli + Wyetzner Architects and opened in 2020.... Michielli + Wyetzner Architects

Fourteen residential units and two retail spaces now fill the former Columbia City Abbey, a 1924 building at 39th and Ferdinand in Seattle. Allied8 handled the adaptive reuse, making each apartment unique from the rest. The Seattle studio answered a few questions about the project. Allied8

Optimist Hall is a former textile mill and pantyhose factory that was recently transformed into a food hall with indoor and outdoor seating. Many parts of the existing building outside of its structure, walls, and floors were salvaged and incorporated into the project. Square Feet Studio,... Square Feet Studio, Perkins&Will

BNIM describes West Bottoms Flats, their adaptive reuse of four historic warehouse and manufacturing buildings in Kansas City's West Bottom District, as "designing with a light touch." Now home to 265 residential units, the architects preserved many existing elements to make the project "feel... BNIM

Songyang has a new poetry museum. The Beijing-based architect Xu Tiantian received the commission for this. With her office DnA_Design and Architecture, she has already completed many small interventions in... Eduard Kögel

On July 28, 2004, IKEA opened a new store in New Haven, Connecticut, a store that controversially cut up Marcel Breuer's 50-year-old Pirelli Building. A decade and a half later, architect and developer Bruce Redman Becker bought the empty office building, with plans to convert it into a hotel.... Becker + Becker

Public space in China developed completely differently than it did in European cities of the twentieth century. In imperial China there was no open public space that had been fought for and defended by the citizens. Cities were shaped by streets and alleys, markets and temple courtyards, as... Eduard Kögel

In June 2020, in some of the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic, the Mayor of New York City executed the Open Restaurants Program, which enabled storefront restaurants to provide seating in shelters that occupy parking spaces next to the curb. Maiden Korea is an exceptional example of one... Dash Marshall LLC

Imperial 400 Motel was a chain of motels that started in Los Angeles in the late 1950s and subsequently expanded into other parts of the United States. One of their locations in Washington State was recently transformed into a boutique hotel called Civic Hotel. The architects at Wittman Estes... Wittman Estes

From asphalt to apartments: 83 Gardner Street, in Boston's Allston neighborhood, is an apartment building that replaces a former parking lot and further connects to a Victorian house that was renovated as part of the project. Hacim + Associates answered a few questions about the restoration... Hacin + Associates

People can be excused for mistaking this house in Manhattan Beach, California, as a building at Sea Ranch: the homeowners were inspired by the the famous residential community along the Pacific coast in Sonoma County. In turn, the architects at Blue Truck Studio remodeled the client's existing... Blue Truck Studio

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission often requires that rooftop additions to landmarked buildings are invisible from the street. Such is clearly not the case with this building overlooking Union Square Park. BKSK Architects added a glass dome to the historic home of Tammany... BKSK Architects

Located in an industrial area in West Oakland, 1901 Poplar is the interior transformation of a warehouse into a start-up innovation hub aimed at creating tech opportunities for underserved communities. Custom furniture and partitions that are easy to move and reconfigure give the large space... Medium Plenty

The new home of Dick Clark + Associates in Austin, Texas, occupies a portion of a building that formerly served as a pawn shop. The architects admit the tilt-up concrete building was pretty "drab," but in their hands it has been transformed into a light-filled building that illustrates how... Dick Clark + Associates

The Algin Sutton Pool opened to the public last month in Los Angeles's underserved Vermont Vista neighborhood. The design by Lehrer Architects LA reimagines the existing Palladian building through the addition of dynamic forms and colorful surfaces. The architects answered some questions about... Lehrer Architects LA

The highlight of Form4 Architecture's modernization of an office complex in the San Francisco Bay Area is a sculptural installation made from weathering steel, aptly called Corten Ribbon. The architects answered a few questions about the project. Form4 Architecture

The youngest mega-city in China is Shenzhen. Since its designation as a special economic zone 40 years ago not only have many immigrants found a new home here, but also an innovative atmosphere has established itself. This is reflected in the Shenzhen College of International Education... Eduard Kögel

Inspired by fishing shacks found in Scandinavian coastal villages, architect Malcolm Davis renovated an old, dilapidated residence into a contemporary beach house with a home studio. The architect answered a few questions about the house located in Pacifica, south of San Francisco. Malcolm Davis Architecture

Many adaptive reuse projects turn old buildings, many of them industrial, into entirely different uses: offices, residences, even museums. In this regard, an appealing aspect of AutoHaus is the way it retains part of its original function. KUBE architecture answered a few questions about the... KUBE architecture

Old buildings need not be grand or architecturally significant to be reused. Take a diminutive machine shop in Seattle's trendy Ballard neighborhood that was transformed into a cannabis shop. Graham Baba Architects answered a few questions about their transformation of an industrial building... Graham Baba Architects

Ozark Natural Foods Co-Op opened last fall inside a former grocery store that sat empty for years. Instead of simply renovating the interior, Modus Studio also put a new facade on the old building, reoriented the entry, and gave Northwest Arkansas the largest porch around. The architects at... modus studio

Across the street from Archi-Tectonics' earlier 497 GW apartment building, the 512 GW Townhouse similarly reuses an old warehouse, transforming 19th-century industry into 21st-century residential luxury. While the predecessor used undulating glass to make a statement, the new townhouse is... Archi-Tectonics

The Gruss Center for Art and Design is the renovation and expansion of the existing Gruss Center of Visual Arts on the campus of The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, located about halfway between Princeton and Trenton. Sasaki answered some questions about the project, which adds a maker... Sasaki

The New Mexico School for the Arts in Sante Fe occupies no less than ten buildings that served as a lumber mill, bookstore, and mini-mall, among other uses. A variety of facades, outdoor spaces, and exposed structural systems remind students of the site's history. Lake|Flato Architects... Lake|Flato Architects + Studio SW Architects

"In designing the Neilson Library, I envisioned a dance between old and new," Maya Lin writes in her artist's statement on the recently completed project. "The design... Maya Lin Studio

Seen from the street, Chapman Stables is an old — if lovingly restored — two story brick building in Washington, DC's Truxton Circle neighborhood. Behind the brick is a two-story addition and a new five-story building whose massing preserves the appearance of the century-old historic stables... Studio Twenty Seven Architecture

One of the most anticipated adaptive reuse projects this century opened on January 1, 2021, more than 20 years after it was first unveiled. Although Skidmore Owings & Merrill's design for Moynihan Train Hall went through numerous design iterations, a dramatic skylight over the main hall... Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Omega Yeast was founded in 2013 to provide freshly made yeast to professional brewers and homebrewers in and beyond its Chicago home. Rapid growth led to the need to expand its facilities, which were designed by Valerio Dewalt Train to fit well into the residential area on the city's Northwest... Valerio Dewalt Train

Our focus on adaptive reuse projects for this year's US Building of the Week feature takes us to the Bronx and a charter school housed in an old industrial building. KSS Architects renovated the building and added a gymnasium, the latter of which gives the school a strong presence in the... KSS Architects

From cheese to culture: The Momentary is a new contemporary art space housed in a former Kraft factory in Bentonville, Arkansas. The cultural venue with galleries, theatre, and dining spaces is a satellite of the popular Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Wheeler Kearns Architects

The first Avenues: The World School opened in 2012 inside a former industrial building next to the High Line in New York City, setting a precedent of adaptive reuse for the international system of schools. The first piece of the Avenues Silicon Valley Campus transforms part of an old office... Efficiency Lab for Architecture

The Shanghai office Scenic Architecture was commissioned to design a rowing club for young people at an inner-city wetland park in Shanghai. The park is located in the Pudong district planned by Arte Charpentier in 1999 and ends an urban development axis that begins in the Lujiazui financial... Eduard Kögel

Anonymous Hall is the new name for Dartmouth College's former Dana Biomedical Library, which was stripped down to its steel-and-concrete frame and transformed by Leers Weinzapfel Associates into a sleek four-story building wrapped in terra cotta and glass. The architects answered a few... Leers Weinzapfel Associates

This aptly named townhouse stands out from its neighbors in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood by way of a bold color choice. The same blue covers the rear elevation that faces a minimalist patio in concrete and corrugated metal, while the interior spaces are bright and white. LOT office for... LOT office for architecture

Made up of new construction and the adaptive reuse of an old warehouse and church building, the Rabbit Hole Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky's East Market District (aka Nulu) is truly a campus, with retail, dining, office and event spaces, in addition to those for manufacturing bourbon, rye,... pod architecture + design