Walk down Congress Street in Boston’s Seaport District and your pace may be slowed at some point by the pitter patter of Stride Rites, headed for that famous milk bottle and the city’s Children’s Museum. Turn the corner to Sleeper or Farnsworth streets and you might just run smack-dab into a techie, rushing off to work at a brand new startup. Head down Northern Avenue and you’ll notice young and old standing in queue for the latest restaurant opening. Add in the local artisans, condo buyers and hotel guests, and you’ve got the diverse crowd that has come to work, live and play along the South Boston waterfront. Matching the diversity at ground level is diversity extending several stories up.
Many blocks in the Seaport District feature new construction, but also a great number of renovated warehouses. Several recent projects in the neighborhood illustrate how warehouse challenges have been transformed into new opportunities for workplace design.
Margulies Perruzzi Architects (MPA) helped Interaction Associations (IA) and its not-for-profit sister organization, Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), relocate to an 11,460 square foot former warehouse in the Seaport District. One thing IA and other companies don’t need to look for in raw warehouse space is raw charm. Large windows, high ceilings, exposed brick and beams, and a deep sense of Boston’s past provide instant character.
Design Challenge
Still, in IA’s case, those windows initially posed a design challenge. The window sills were set at five feet above the original floor, and that meant only a Boston Celtic would have been able to enjoy the views of Boston Harbor. Rather than raising the entire floor, MPA used raised flooring to elevate 5,000 square feet of work area around the office perimeter to a finished floor height of 18 inches, offering sweeping views of the surrounding harbor from associates’ work areas and offices.
Once the floors were raised, there was one remaining area of the office that was lower than the others. This became an opportunity for a centrally located collaborative work area. MPA created a “sunken living room” of sorts to accommodate both planned and impromptu meetings. Two ramps and three staircases transition the elevated workspaces to this collaboration space. And in an effort to keep things true to the warehouse aesthetic, the overhead mechanical, electrical, and sprinkler components remain exposed. Suspended acoustical “clouds” were installed to absorb sound typically addressed by a conventional acoustical tile ceiling. Overall, the office environment has not only transformed the way IA works, but also serves as a marketing tool for the building’s owner.
Modern Workspaces
When converting warehouse to office space in the Seaport District, there is typically a need to provide a common lobby for multiiple tenants. In the early part of the 20th century, these industrial spaces weren’t receiving people, but rather raw materials like wool and leather for local textile factories. For a 21st century office space, the lobby, staircases, and elevators are all major considerations when transforming a former warehouse to a modern workspace for one or more companies.
A building owner will need to consider the cost of adding an elevator and a separate, enclosed stairway to meet current egress codes and ADA regulations. Many existing warehouse buildings employed fire escapes for egress, or have egress stairs that wrap around the elevator shaft without any separation. Although these elements can frequently be “grandfathered” into code compliance, they are not particularly desirable and can make the space less appealing to prospective tenants. Having an architect on hand is helpful when first looking at a warehouse for alternative uses.
Once again though, with a challenge, comes opportunity. Converted warehouses in the Seaport District with new elevators can extend access to the roof, providing the chance for a building owner to offer outdoor deck space, often with spectacular views.
Up On The Roof
MPA moved into a similarly-converted warehouse space in 2008 – the LEED Gold certified Children’s Museum building overlooking Fort Point Channel. MPA’s roof deck, an opportunity that was presented by the addition to the building, is a popular space for informal meetings with clients, a quiet coffee break, and sometimes, another look at the mix of people on the pathways below, enjoying the Seaport District just as much as we do.
When converting these old industrial buildings into office space, a prospective owner or tenant should consider hiring an architect first. The trusty “pro and con” list will inevitably come into play during the process, but an architect can show you ways to turn warehouse challenges into new opportunities for workplace design.
Janet Morra is a principal at Margulies Perruzzi Architects in Boston, www.mp-architects.com.
