(RICHMOND, VA)
Type: Commercial, Renovation, Tenant Fit-out
Location: 2700 East Cary Street, Richmond, VA.
Size: 18,000 SF
Description: 2700 E. Cary street was a renovation of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant to create a modern office space for a leading branding and creative company, Arts & Letters. The power plant once generated the power for the Lucky-Strikes production facility. The structural work involved creating two new buildings within the building to take advantage of the soaring ceiling space once occupied by the furnaces. In order to avoid costly lateral and gravity upgrades to the original building, we managed the added weight and structural footprint of the new “buildings” to work within the framework of the turn-of-the-century steel and concrete structure. Coal and its byproducts are highly corrosive elements, so we prescribed an exploratory demolition phase to investigate the existing conditions. Not surprisingly, we found extreme corrosion of both the structural steel and reinforced concrete slabs. We worked in concert with the contractor and landlord to repair the critical elements while making safe other elements that represented no hazard after stabilizing in-place. The end result was a modern high-end office space outfitted with novel collaboration spaces blended with an authentic industrial aesthetic.
Partners:
Architect: ArchitectureFirm
Contractor: DPR
Completion: May 2020