As a refresher, the 19,000 Sf Power House stood as a vacant landmark in the city’s downtown for 30 years. Although the building’s exterior shell and original structural steel were fundamentally sound, significant imagination and rigorous design analysis were required to convert the building for workplace use. New floors were cantilevered within the building’s massive volume to create a total of 32,000 sf of office and conference space. The floors are set back from the building’s spectacular windows to maintain the sense of transparency and volume. Exterior improvements included creation of a 3,500 sf urban garden and historically accurate replacement of windows in their original masonry openings.
The full St. Louis Magazine story is available online and our David Polzin and Tom Bergmann are quoted extensively throughout.
“The Power House spoke to us for its civic value and its potential,” explains Bergmann in the article. “We saw a building that had mattered deeply to our city and could matter again in entirely different ways. We were inspired by the building, and we sought to create a design solution that would inspire others.”
Added Polzin, “We are architects and engineers here, and we’ve always had a collaborative model (so in this building) you end up with microcultures on each floor. People have to make the effort to go to other floors to visit people. And people do, and the building works.”