Adaptive reuse projects come with inherent benefits, such as reduced embodied carbon and the preservation of our architectural history. At the same time, the unique contexts, legacies, and drivers surrounding each existing building demand individual approaches. This is particularly true for two projects recently designed by ZGF’s growing Washington, DC and New York teams: the 5051 Centre for Wexford Science & Technology / University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and 500 North Gulph Road for Brandywine Realty Trust. Characterized by different locations, architectural styles, and programs, both developer-led projects found value in adaptive reuse.
Context: Evolving Urban and Suburban Environments
5051 Centre transforms the historic Ford Motor Building, which was built in 1915 along Pittsburgh’s “Automobile Row” and serves as a landmark of the city’s industrial past, while 500 North Gulph Road repositions a typically suburban 1970s office building. Each of these existing buildings is representative of their evolving contexts, and each project is specifically designed to contribute to the future of their respective environments.
Once known as “Steel City,” Pittsburgh’s deindustrialization in the 1970s-80s led to a sharp decline in jobs and residents. In more recent years, the city began to revitalize by leveraging the strength of institutions like Pitt and Carnegie Mellon and investing heavily in research. It is now a center for medicine and innovation, but preserving the city’s past while adapting it to modernity is key to retaining Pittsburgh’s authentic character, and in turn attracting new residents, companies, and employees. 5051 Centre strives to meet this goal by bringing top talent and industry partners together in a state-of-the-art facility with a strong sense of place.
On the opposite side of the state, four superhighways converge at the center of King of Prussia, which made the suburb a magnet for business in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A seismic shift toward retail occurred in 1963 with the opening of the King of Prussia Mall, which became the second largest shopping mall in the country. The area’s office and industrial buildings remained mostly untouched from the early 1970s onward, and many decayed badly. In 2010, King of Prussia began efforts to align the industrial business district with contemporary needs, rezoning as a live / work / play district and rebranding as a progressive, vibrant community. It worked: 4,000 new residents have moved in, and a development boom is underway with plans for increased housing and a light rail system. The repositioning of 500 North Gulph Road, a late-modernist office building designed by The Kling Partnership, acts as a catalyst in this continued investment, taking previously underutilized building stock and elevating it to attract new tenants to King of Prussia.
Stewardship: Designing Cost-Effective, Sustainable Building Modernizations
Both 5051 Centre and 500 North Gulph Road required efficient, creative solutions to ensure positive stewardship of resources and of the built and natural environments. While adaptive reuse led both projects to minimize their embodied carbon impact and update building stock to suit evolving needs and economies, these two structures have necessitated wholly unique approaches tailored to financial and schedule conditions.
Innovative for its time, the historic Ford Motor Building was one of 31 around the country where Model Ts were mass assembled, sold out of a showroom, and subsequently serviced all in one building. The building now sits on the National Register of Historic Places. To make the project financially viable, Wexford leveraged substantial tax incentives, which were intertwined with ambitious preservation goals. The resulting design of the 5051 Centre sensitively restores and preserves the original character of the building while adapting the vertical crane shed—a unique architectural element where rail cars once entered the building to offload auto components—to provide space for collaboration and social engagement. This strategy gives new purpose to the historic building while retaining its character, transforming it into a modern innovation hub that supports researchers in their efforts to solve some of medicine’s toughest challenges.
At 500 North Gulph Road, Brandywine chose adaptive reuse in large part because it was cost-effective and aligned with the project’s accelerated timeline, providing speed to market to take advantage of current demand. The project’s economical design approach used small architectural interventions to infuse a previously anonymous building with a strong architectural presence. The resulting design celebrates the building’s original features while transitioning it into a sustainable future, minimizing cost to the environment and the client alike. As part of this methodology, the team found creative ways to reuse existing materials, for example, pieces of waffle slab that were cut out to create a series of central, double-height amenity spaces were repurposed as outdoor benches.
Character: Reimagining 20th Century Architecture
Whether a project’s design approach aims to retain as much of a building’s original character as possible while adapting it to a new program, as in the case of 5051 Centre, or to reposition a previously unremarkable building like 500 North Gulph Road, existing buildings can be instilled with new life and purpose while honoring their histories.
5051 Centre balances historic preservation with establishing a distinct yet architecturally respectful addition. Clad in precast terracotta, the addition complements the materiality of the Ford Motor Building without copying it. A green terrace between the original Ford Motor Building and the new tower further demarcates the old and new structures. On the interior, a “main street” unifies the facility as a cohesive whole while providing circulation to all major program elements. The original structure is left exposed throughout laboratory spaces, providing researchers with a tangible reminder of the building’s history.
At 500 North Gulph Road, a series of stacked boxes play on the design composition of the existing building with its centered symmetrical entrance while creating architectural presence. Designed as amenity spaces that enhance functionality for tenants, the boxes complement the nature of the building rather than obscuring it. Exposure of the original waffle slab ceilings provides a solution imbued with historic character while also negating the need for a suspended ceiling. A new curtainwall façade increases the window-wall ratio, flooding the workplace with daylight, while the natural wood cladding of the boxes provides a sense of warmth.
With as many valuable approaches as there are existing buildings worthy of preservation, adaptive reuse allows relics of our architectural past to become active, vital components of our collective future.
References
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Once ‘sleepy’ King of Prussia is booming with development
U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Innovate or Die? Pittsburgh Chose to Innovate
Curbed Philadelphia: Inside King of Prussia’s $1 billion transformation
Philadelphia: Is King of Prussia the New Promised Land?
The Philadelphia Inquirer: King of Prussia Still Evolving
National Register of Historic Places, Ford Motor Building Registration Form