New Life For Old Buildings
Remarkable Residences in Unlikely Places
From Chesapeake Home
By Walter Schamu, FAIA
Photography by Randy Foulds
April 7, 2005
This article brought to you by AIA Baltimore, The Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
In architecture, design, and preservation circles, the term “adaptive use” has a sustained buzz. Everywhere you look you see old industrial spaces, libraries, schools, warehouses, barns, churches, railway stations, and other neglected structures transformed into exciting residences inhabited by creative individuals with a vision who weren’t afraid to take a risk.
One obvious reason for this continuing trend is that the Chesapeake area has a lot of history, and there’s plenty to adapt and re-use. In Baltimore, especially, one of the nation’s oldest cities, we see enormous energy channeled into making neglected or obsolete buildings into eye-catching places for working, living, and simply enjoying.
Architect Sarah Schweizer, AIA, transformed a stone barn
into an informal guest house and entertaining space.
Photography by Anne Gummerson
In my own case, I caught the bug early, and it’s fair to say that I’ve lived the adaptive use life ever since. My wife and I live in a former Volkswagen repair garage in Baltimore’s Federal Hill. My office in the city’s Mt. Vernon neighborhood is a former carriage house. Our firm, SMG Architects, always has some challenging adaptive use project underway. It’s also true that nearly every architect I know in this area is engaged in some type of adaptive use enterprise. And of all of the projects they have on their boards, these are often the ones that excite them the most.
Clearly, more and more people are willing to look at unconventional possibilities and, luckily, have the resources to make them happen. A big lure is the chance to have more space…a lot more space. You get the kind of big volume in an old industrial or public building that you would never find in a conventional house.
Library…Pipe Organ Repair Shop…Home
One of the best regional examples of “big volume” seductiveness is the transformation of the old Enoch Pratt Free Library building in southeast Baltimore’s Jonestown neighborhood. This was accomplished under the fine hand of Baltimore architect Mahendra Parekh, AIA.
Architects Archer and Allen originally designed the building, with Charles Reeder as the consulting engineer. It served as Branch 11 of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and it is near other historic Baltimore landmarks such as the Lloyd Street Synagogue, The Issac McKim Fee School, and the Shot Tower.
The library served as the hub of a lively community through the 1940s, but as the city changed and the exodus to the suburbs began in earnest, library patronage dwindled, and the building was closed in the 1950s.
The solid old building remained shuttered until the mid-1960s, when it was re-opened and used as an overflow classroom area for a local school. Eventually, the building was no longer needed for this purpose, so it was once again closed. In 1979, it was slated for condemnation, yet a reprieve came as broad-based community activism led to the urban renewal of Jonestown. In 1983, an individual purchased the building for $1,000 and fitted it out for use as a pipe organ repair shop (one wonders at the size of the market for this service). In 1999, the property’s current owner purchased the building with the intention of converting the warehouse-sized space into a single family residence.
The building offered the possibility of flexible spaces and a more open environment than a conventional house. It also posed a tremendous renovation challenge. The building was very run down with deteriorating exteriors, boarded windows, peeling paint, and rusted soffits. A chain link fence surrounded the blacktop yard, which had become something of a campground for homeless people. Despite this neglect, the building’s wonderful architecture shone through.
Plans called for converting the building’s vast interior into a living room, dining area, and kitchen space and adding a loft for bedrooms and lounge spaces. Parekh notes that a channel grid attached to four massive steel beams actually “floats” the loft to achieve the feeling of a totally free space below.
“We initially planned to have a cupola with a small deck, yet this evolved into a glass-walled rooftop observatory room with a cantilevered, wrap-around deck, which is now the building’s most distinctive feature,” says Parekh. “Everywhere you look you can see Baltimore’s evolving cityscape from this unusual vantage point.” The entire cupola/observatory was assembled on the ground and raised into place with a crane.
“A main reason for the project’s success,” Parekh says, is that the owner played an active role as general contractor and construction administrator. “As a result, this grand old building has a new incarnation as a stunning residence with vast and flexible space, an abundance of natural light, and a distinctive personality.”
