Architectural Record - October 2023

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103 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING Inner Calm At the edge of the Catalan capital, social housing is reconsidered from the inside out. BY LEOPOLDO VILLARDI PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSÉ HEVIA BORRASSÀ | BARCELONA | PERIS+TORAL ARQUITECTES

BRICK LATTICE on terraces (above), balconies (opposite), and in stairwells (above, left) stirs airflow. Protruding headers line the entry (left). EL BESÒS I EL MARESME is not what most people envision when they think of Barcelona. The neighborhood lacks the meandering gothic quality of las Ramblas, and it falls outside Ildefons Cerdà’s chamferedsquare-gridded Eixample, which unified the city at the turn of the last century. El Besòs i el Maresme is a working-class community built up in the 1950s and ’60s, and much of the housing stock reflects this—repetitive, bar-shaped apartment blocks with nondescript architecture abound. But a new 54-unit social housing complex on Carrer de Lluís Borrassà, designed by local firm Peris+Toral, shows that apartment buildings can be far more dignified, even on a budget. The seven-person firm, led by the husband-and-wife team of Marta Peris and José Toral, has developed a specialty in social housing, much of it built in Catalonia and on the Balearic Islands. Borrassà, a commission 104 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

won through a competition in 2016, is part of a longstanding effort dating back to the 1990s to reinvigorate the surrounding area, with such projects as Parc Diagonal Mar (2002) by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue, and the Fòrum Building by Herzog & de Meuron (2004), only a few blocks farther south. Built for the Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation, Borrassà’s massing—a five-story bar with a tower rising out of it—was predetermined by zoning. “We asked ourselves: do we treat this building as a block that grows into a tower, or as a tower that morphs into a block?” says Toral. With the surrounding context and environmental factors in mind, the architects opted for the latter. Beginning with the top six stories, Peris+Toral pinwheeled four apartments—each roughly 29½ feet by 23 feet in dimension—around a shared landing, giving each unit a corner of the building and, with it, two exposures for cross ventilation. A pair of circulation cores is sandwiched between them, providing access and egress. This general layout continues downward through the bar-shaped midsection, where Peris+Toral mirrored the pinwheeling arrangement on the opposite end of the building. Stitching the two groupings together is an unexpected top-lit atrium. “It’s atypical to find these kinds of spaces in social housing,” Toral says, pointing to a few significant examples that informed the design of Borrassà. In particular, an 1851 familistère in Paris proved influential— at Cité Napoléon, two parallel buildings are connected by floating pedestrian streets under a clear glass canopy. At Borrassà, polycarbonate roof panels diffuse sunlight, bathing brick walls and curving walkways in a luminous glow. With grayish white terrazzo and river stones underfoot, and even larger round pebbles (to sit on) designed by indus105

0 15 FT. 5 M. 10 9 9 7 1 3 8 11 12 1 SIDEWALK ENTRY 2 ELEVATOR 3 CHANGING ROOM 4 FIELD ENTRY 5 GARAGE RAMP 6 APARTMENT 7 ATRIUM 8 GARAGE 9 TERRACE 10 ROOF TERRACE 11 ATRIUM INLET 12 ATRIUM OUTLET trial-design duo Los Díez, the space carries a certain aura of tranquility. It isn’t all just for looks—the cavity is designed as a habitable solar chimney. As air warms inside, it rises through the atrium, venting through a series of louvered openings at the top. This causes the atmospheric pressure to fall slightly, forcing in cooler, denser air via an inlet at the bottom of the atrium. The effect is perceptible, and pleasant—on a still, hot August afternoon, the gentle breeze made for a refreshing welcome. An anemometer on the roof closes the louvers when gusts become too strong, preventing the atrium from becoming a wind tunnel. When the weather is cooler, the louvers close as well, holding on to the heat. Around the atrium and throughout the building, a handful of units have been sacrificed to make way for social areas. Terraces on the top and the fifth floors offer expansive views of the city and the sea. These can be accessed via elevators or open-air stairwells that spiral around a ribbon of 6-gauge metal plates, folded once at the top to create handrails. On the ground floor, there are locker rooms for people playing sports on the fields abutting the building to the north. Even the below-grade parking garage, through some sectional dexterity along the sidewalk, has access to natural daylight and ventilation. “These elements are important to us, no matter what we’re designing,” Toral says, arguing that it makes such spaces easier to adapt for new uses in the future. It’s clear in walking around the building that environmental and social considerations were foundational, and not an afterthought. Barcelona is historically a city of stucco and stone—Borrassà stands out for its buff-brick construction. Flush joints with a white mortar keep the walls flat and bright; texture instead derives from the systematized patchwork of solid and permeable walls, windows, and balconies created from four different apartment layouts. 6 7 6 6 6 SECOND-FLOOR PLAN 0 15 FT. 5 M. 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 5 GROUND-FLOOR PLAN 106 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING AXONOMETRIC

AIR ENTERS the atrium through an inlet (right), rises toward polycarbonate roof panels (above, right) and vents at the top (above). Within each unit, two bedrooms (9 feet by 11¾ feet), a bathroom, and a balcony (10¼ feet by 4½ feet) slide around one another, forming a kitchen and a living room from the space left over. The strategy is similar to the one explored in Peris+Toral’s 85-unit mass-timber social housing complex in Cornellà (record, September 2021), although at Borrassà the bedrooms and the living spaces are not the same size. The apartments are low-key and understated, like the simple white-metal thresholds leading into them—but the architects’ deft use of a simple palette and emphasis on bioclimatic principles add special moments. Some bedrooms look out onto balconies, which are partially shaded by brise-soleils of so-called “hit-andmiss” brickwork, while others have windows that cut through the main facade. Units that share a wall with the atrium peer into it, with inward-swinging windows allowing tenants to cash in on the additional airflow. A short list of active technologies supplement the heavy-hitting passive-design moves. Photovoltaic 107

1 BEDROOM 2 LIVING AREA 3 KITCHEN 4 BATHROOM 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 UNIT PLANS 108 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

Credits ARCHITECT: Peris + Toral Arquitectes — Marta Peris, José Toral, principals; Guillem Pascual, Ana Espinosa, Maria Megias, Izaskun González, Cristina Porta, Miguel Bernat, design team ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT: L3J — Jaime Pastor Sánchez ENGINEER: L3J Tècnics Associats (m/e/p) CONSULTANTS: March-Rius Arquitectes Tècnics (survey); Societat Orgànica (environmental) GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Copisa Constructora Pirenaica CLIENT: Institut Municipal de L’Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona SIZE: 66,100 square feet COST: $6.9 million COMPLETION DATE: October 2022 Sources MASONRY: Cerámica PIERA (brick); JULIÁN ARUMÍ (precast concrete) WINDOWS: Cortizo, UIN2 (metal frame); Vidresponent (glazing); Aislux Catalunya (skylights) DOORS: Andreu (metal); Bamar Puertas (wood and fire-control) LIGHTING: Hep Tech, Novalux Lighting, Lluria Lighting System, Mean Well Enterprises FINISHES: Financiera Maderera (millwork); REVETÓN (anti-carbon paint); Invicto Química (anti-graffiti paint); Topcret Tecnología en Revestimientos (microcement); Pavimentos URBINA (terrazzo) HARDWARE: Tesa (locksets); JNF (closers/pulls) ENERGY: Antylop (energy-management system); LONGi (solar panels) A NOTCH with steel bracing accentuates the fifth-floor terrace (right). Each apartment has its own balcony (opposite, both). arrays on the roof help power water heaters, and graywater is used to flush toilets. There isn’t a single air-conditioning unit in the building. Despite its scant budget and predetermined massing, Borrassà packs a lot of architectural punch. “Current sustainability standards are too heavily based on point systems. You can do something very, very wrong and then compensate for it by, say, planting trees,” says Toral. “Sure, that might offset some carbon, but it’s not the way to make better and more impactful buildings from the start.” A short walk away, Peris+Toral is wrapping up its largest project to date—a 140-unit apartment building on Carrer de Veneçuela, with dedicated housing for the elderly and refugees. There, an eight-story atrium scales up, and will no doubt repeat, the successes of Borrassà. n 109

Going for Gold A novel housing model paves the way for Australia’s first operationally carbon-neutral residential precinct. BY DILLON WEBSTER PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM ROSS PARKLIFE | MELBOURNE | AUSTIN MAYNARD ARCHITECTS MULTIFAMILY HOUSING 110 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 POPS OF YELLOW dot ParkLife’s shared spaces (this image) and balconies (opposite). “HOW DO YOU FEEL about all that yellow?” is often the first question asked of residents living in ParkLife, a new apartment building in the colorful Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, known as much for its blend of historic multiculturalism as it is for the young creatives who flock there. Designed by local firm Austin Maynard Architects, the building—along with five simultaneously constructed adjacent complexes—comprises the Village, one of the most sustainable residential precincts in Australia. Here a novel housing model, aiming to address affordability and provide environmentally conscious housing, puts architects in the shoes of developers. Over the last decade, housing provider Nightingale has been pioneering a new approach to the housing crisis in Melbourne, which, by some estimates, will require the construction of 1.6 million new homes in the next 35 years to keep up with demand. With an eye for designforward solutions, the not-for-profit organization partners with architects who are willing to bear some financial risk and, in a sense, operate as their own client. Nightingale, on the other hand, manages site acquisition, construction delivery, community engagement, and even the handing over of keys to tenants. The model has allowed units to sell for anywhere between 5 and 20 percent less than market value.

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0 15 FT. 5 M. 112 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING 1 ENTRY 2 RETAIL 3 BIKE STORAGE 4 GARDEN/LIGHTWELL 5 ELEVATOR 6 SERVICES 7 ONE-BEDROOM UNIT 8 STUDIO UNIT 9 TWO-BEDROOM UNIT 10 ONE-BEDROOM DUPLEX 11 TWO-BEDROOM DUPLEX 12 CIRCULATION 13 AMPHITHEATER 14 LAUNDRY 15 COMMUNAL SPACE ParkLife is the second housing project that Austin Maynard Architects has undertaken in this role of architect-developer, its first being Terrace House, also in Brunswick. “This time around, we were better prepared to make early decisions, to evaluate cost savings during the design process, and to know which areas of sustainability to focus on,” says director Mark Austin. The designers refined facade elements, such as thermal bridges, coming up with a simple skin of vertically ribbed high-performance insulated steel panels in bright white—a color chosen for its high reflectance to reduce heat gain in summer. Most Australian residences have mechanical heating and cooling, but here the firm opted for an Energy Recovery Ventilation system that continuously provides fresh air using heat exchangers, ensuring comfortable living conditions and reducing long-term environmental impacts. The eight-story building is divided into 37 units, primarily one- and two-bedroom, with occasional three-bedrooms and studios. Five of those units have been allocated to subsidized housing, making it the first residential precinct in Australia to do this without a government partnership. There is a strong 1 2 2 3 5 6 6 6 8 8 GROUND-FLOOR PLAN 9 12 5 7 9 9 9 FOURTH-FLOOR PLAN 11 10 5 EIGHTH-FLOOR PLAN 0 15 FT. 5 M.

113 focus on sustainable outcomes, as well—the Village as a whole claims to be carbon-neutral in operation, and ParkLife uses no gas, features a 28.8kW photovoltaic array on its roof, and collects graywater. Although planning provisions would normally require an apartment building the size of ParkLife to provide over 40 parking spaces, this requirement was waived with support from the local council, given its proximity to public transportation—a busy train line and cycling path act as conduits to downtown Melbourne. “When we first moved in, we owned a car and rented a parking space nearby. But we realized that we slowly stopped using the car,” says Claire Ward, an architect at Austin Maynard who decided to buy an apartment in the building. “We got rid of the car and invested in four bikes to get around.” By eliminating parking, and thus the need to excavate and build a below-grade garage, significant savings were passed on to the firm. BIKE STORAGE on the ground floor is easy to access (opposite and right). Netting encloses circulation (above) and balconies (above, right).

114 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING APARTMENT INTERIORS feature yellow accents (above), but are more muted than shared spaces (left). Communal areas on the roof include an amphitheater (opposite). And, with less traffic, the street became a pedestrianized extension of the apartments. In fact, just beyond the main entry, residents have access to storage for 95 bikes. It’s a location that isn’t tucked into a hardto-reach niche—rather, it is “easy, convenient, and therefore used,” as frankly put by Ray Dinh, another architect at Austin Maynard who has taken up residence at ParkLife. The rooftop has a communal garden, shared laundry, an outdoor dining space, and—in response to a sight line height restriction—a sloped southern portion forms a functional amphitheater. While the design of social spaces is often idealistic in execution, Dinh comments that these actually work. Those living in ParkLife have a dedicated Slack channel, which they use to organize and maintain the shared areas of the building. The simultaneous construction of the Village’s buildings allowed the six architecture teams to design in tandem and mutually benefit from each other. For example, ParkLife shares a lightwell and courtyard with the adjacent structure, Evergreen (by Clare Cousins Architects), and then mirrors this lightwell on the other side to create the H shape of its plan. This configuration allows for completely external circulation

Credits ARCHITECT: Austin Maynard Architects — Andrew Maynard, Mark Austin, principals; Mark Stranan, associate ENGINEERS: WSP (structural, civil, m/e/p); Arup (acoustical) CONSULTANTS: Access Studio (access); Openwork (landscape); Leigh Design (waste); Steve Watson & Partners (survey); WT (cost consultant) GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Hacer Group CLIENT: Austin Maynard Nightingale Development SIZE: 45,300 square feet COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: May 2022 Sources FACADE: Askin Volcore, Jakob Webnet (netting), National Masonry ROOFING: Lysaght, Klip-lok WINDOWS: Bucalu LIGHTING: Ambience Lighting BIKE STORAGE: Erain (stacker); Cora (rails) INTERIOR FINISHES: Recycled Timber Innovations, Terrazzo Australian Marble (floors); Classic Ceramics (tiles); Dulux (paint); United Products (basins); Sussex (faucets); Caroma (toilets); Britex (tubs) 115 enclosed with a simple wire netting. Many residents have spilled out into these communal areas, with open doors signaling to neighbors that they’re welcome—fulfilling a core design intent that these spaces act as an extension of their living rooms. It’s clear that the residents of ParkLife are committed to, and remain engaged by, the economic, environmental, and social sustainability principles behind the Village. Most units were procured through a balloting system before permits were granted; apartment owners then joined community meetings that helped refine the final design. To navigate budget constraints, a base level of finishes was applied to all units, with optional upgrades made available in the early stages of the construction process. Small but potent touches from Austin Maynard’s single-family residential work are incorporated, making the apartments feel custom, such as slightly shorter door openings, which seem to heighten internal spaces, and recycled timber flooring. So, what do they think of all that sunny yellow? Those vibrant bursts have become a collective point of pride for Claire, Ray, and the rest of the residents of ParkLife, which has earned a reputation for being the party building of The Village. In Australia, there is a cultural aversion to multifamily high-rise living—the sustainabilityminded and social-centric tactics, like shared laundry facilities or ditching a long-held car, fall outside the established comfort zone. The success of any deliberately built community-oriented apartment building relies on residents to be all-in—to become just as invested in it as the designers. At ParkLife, where those two groups overlap, Austin Maynard Architects’ financial risk, as well as its cultural one, seems to have paid off. n Dillon Webster is an architectural-heritage consultant and freelance writer, currently residing in Melbourne.

Minding the Gap Materiality and variety of scale ease the shift between old and new buildings in London’s Vauxhall neighborhood. BY CHRIS FOGES PHOTOGRAPHY BY RORY GARDINER KEYBRIDGE I LONDON I ALLIES AND MORRISON 116 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

UNTIL THE turn of this century, London had only a smattering of high-rise apartment buildings. In recent years, however, the pursuit of density has seen hundreds mushroom. Most appear as alien interlopers, out of scale and sympathy with the townscape. Keybridge, designed by Allies and Morrison, is an exception. Comprising 598 apartments, along with an elementary school, shops, and workspace, the development in Vauxhall, southeast of the city center, nests three brick-clad towers among a riotous jumble of mid-rise apartment blocks and diminutive rowhouses. Seen from any direction, the layered ensemble seems to extend the texture of its low-rise neighborhood even as it ascends into the sky. When Allies and Morrison was appointed in 2012, the three-acre site was occupied by an ugly Brutalist telephone exchange. Its owner, who intended to sell the land with approved plans in place, was keen to leave a positive legacy, says partner Alfredo Caraballo. Although the brief sought high density, there was also a commitment to make a good piece of city and a pleasant place to live. The site sits between two distinct urban conditions. To the northwest, beyond a railway viaduct, lies a 500-acre regeneration zone stretching along the River Thames. Former industrial land is now peppered with glassy residential towers that set expectations for height at Keybridge, but otherwise exemplify what not to do. “I call them perfume bottles—designed to be seen in isolation,” says Caraballo. “We wanted tall buildings that could be ‘background,’ woven into the ordinary fabric.” Cues were instead drawn from the patchwork variety of the site’s immediate environs. Its principal frontage is on South Lambeth Road, where modern warehouses mingle with redbrick Victorian rowhouses and mansion blocks—a loosely defined type of grand 19th-century apartment building. All contributed to the firm’s typological mix and architectural imagery. In plan, the whole 690,000-square-foot scheme comprises three buildings, but many more are suggested by their configuration as complex agglomerations of disparate parts. By the viaduct, three towers (18, 22, and 36 stories) rise from podiums, cranked in plan, that recreate the familiar scale and irregularity of surrounding streets. One sits above the school, encircled by rooftop play spaces, while THE DENSE DEVELOPMENT replaces a Brutalist telephone exchange with a cluster of largely brick buildings in tune with their context. 117

1 TOWNHOUSES 2 SCHOOL 3 TOWER COMMUNAL AREA 4 BICYCLE PARKING 5 BAKERY 6 RETAIL 7 PARKING LOT ENTRANCE 8 ROOFTOP TOWNHOUSES 9 MANSION BLOCK APARTMENTS 10 TOWER APARTMENTS 11 COMMUNAL TERRACE 12 PRIVATE TERRACE the other two have a shared base containing facilities for residents, including a club lounge. The tallest appear to twist as they rise in a series of steps, with angled sides that lend an everchanging appearance to the cluster. It’s a deft piece of scenography, evoking the haphazard informality of places that evolve over time. “Their structure is actually very rational, with orthogonal column grids and rectangular plans with chamfered ends,” says Caraballo. “The aim was to make simple buildings but complex spaces in between.” Two new mansion blocks facing South Lambeth Road create a foreground to the towers and are also articulated in a way that belies an underlying order, with varied rooflines and slight folds in the facades. Their bulk is softened by a constellation of smaller structures. Most visibly, the two-story penthouses picked out in white terra-cotta resemble rows of ordinary London houses, with pitched roofs and gable ends. A small stretch of apartments, presented as rowhouses, remakes the edge of quiet Wyvil Road to the south MILES STREET SOUTH LAMBETH ROAD WYVIL ROAD St Anne & All Saint Church Vauxhall Griffin Pub RAILWAY VIADUCT 0 100 FT. 30 M. EIGHTH-FLOOR PLAN 7 2 6 3 3 2 RAILWAY VIADUCT MILES STREET SOUTH LAMBETH ROAD WYVIL ROAD St Anne & All Saint Church Vauxhall Griffin Pub GROUND-FLOOR PLAN 118 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

KEYBRIDGE (opposite and below) eases the transition between Victorian homes and the Battersea Opportunity Area to its north (right). and brings the height of the development down to that of its neighbors. From surrounding streets, the elaborate collage does create the impression of heterogeneous buildings jostling in harmonious disorder. The whole mass is inescapably tall, but the gradations in height soften the impact, recalling the cascade of buildings in an Italian hill town. An equally important driver of the “weird” plan was the public realm, says Caraballo: “It’s a very human-centric place, designed around the experience of moving through.” One-third of the site is open space, composed in a consciously picturesque manner to expand and contract, and to draw nearby heritage buildings into the architectural conversation. A “piazza” on one corner is flanked by a 19th-century church previously obscured by the telephone exchange. From within the central garden, the buildings frame a view of Georgian townhouses across South Lambeth Road. A curved lane running between these two spaces narrows to just 29 feet, but, since buildings are not parallel, residents’ privacy is preserved. Lined with trees and trickling rills, the meandering route makes an easeful end to the journey home. 119

THE MIX is arranged across the site to carve out fluid public and private spaces (opposite). Residences feature gracious lobbies (bottom) and daylight-filled interiors with a variety of balconies (left and below). 120 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING PHOTOGRAPHY: © TIM CROCKER (OPPOSITE); ANNA STATHAKI (TOP, RIGHT); COURTESY MOUNT ANVIL (BOTTOM)

Credits ARCHITECT: Allies and Morrison — Alfredo Caraballo, partner; Neil Shaughnessy, Laurie Hallows, directors ARCHITECT OF RECORD: Stockwool ENGINEERS: Waterman, WSP (structural); Waterman (m/e/p) CONSULTANTS: Townshend Landscape Architects, Planit-IE (landscape architecture); Sense (cost); GL Hearn (planning); JSM Engineering (balconies); GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Mount Anvil CLIENT: BT Property/Mount Anvil OWNER: Mount Anvil SIZE: 690,000 square feet COST: withheld COMPLETION DATE: August 2020 Sources MASONRY: Vandersanden CURTAIN WALL: Reynaers Aluminium RAINSCREEN: James and Taylor (terra-cotta tile) MOISTURE BARRIER: Tyvek ROOF: Prima Porcelain Pavers (tile) GLAZING: Central Units; Sky Glass Facades that appear at oblique angles on all sides are clad in reddish brick, tying the development to its context and unifying its diverse parts. Historically inflected variety in the details relieves monotony and tunes every facade to its setting. One soaring face is a simple grid, with brick piers that narrow subtly as the building rises. Another is stubbled with projecting headers. Masonry arches distinguish the school as a civic building, and rustication dignifies double-height storefronts. Deep reveals to the warehouse-style windows of the mansion blocks lend a reassuring sense of weight and solidity, as does a giant-order brick loggia veiling two-story terra-cotta-clad penthouses in the towers. There’s variety among the apartment types, too, from mansion-block penthouses with vaulted ceilings that are entered via roof terraces to residences that open onto private gardens at ground level. “Choice encourages diversity among residents,” says Caraballo. Most floor plans are typical of new-build housing in London, with eight or so apartments on each level accessed from a central elevator core, but there’s differentiation even among the more regular residences—some have enclosed winter gardens, others have projecting balconies. Ranging in size from 425-square-foot studios to 1,900-square-foot three-bedrooms, they are more generous than London’s miserly minimum space standards dictate, allowing some flexibility in use. It is at the urban scale, though, that Allies and Morrison’s work is really exemplary. It recognizes the fact that housing comprises the lion’s share of the city and therefore bears special responsibility for its character, and skillfully reconciles market-driven development with the public good. After the city’s shaky start with tall buildings, Keybridge shows how London might aim higher. n 121

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THE COLORFUL, patterned tile called azulejo that adorns the facades of buildings across Lisbon has, like cod, port wine, and all things nautical, become a cultural signifier of Portugueseness—a marker of local authenticity so significant as to be the subject of an entire museum, the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, and the prime offering in countless souvenir shops. But, like those other signifiers, azulejo is a cultural hybrid, the product not of local isolation but of global interconnection. It reached Portugal from North Africa via Spain; it subsequently evolved under Chinese and Dutch influence; and, during the colonial era, it made its way as far afield as Brazil, India, and lusophone Africa. It seems only fitting, then, that the tilecovered Vale Pereiro apartments, located not far from the Avenida da Liberdade in central Lisbon, were designed some 900 miles away in Geneva by the firm Nomos, which has additional offices in Lisbon and Madrid. Here the tiling is hardly traditional—it consists of 5½-inch squares hand-glazed locally in a deep cobalt blue and placed in a uniform grid—but nonetheless the association with its historical counterparts is apparent, especially since the building it faces across the narrow Rua Vale do Pereiro is adorned with the more typical blue-and-white azulejos. Both the street and the facade of Vale Pereiro are kinked, and so the new tiling, when seen from a distance and in the oblique, becomes a shimmering focal point—a gesture toward Portuguese identity, elevated, by its location, into an urban marker. Before it was the Vale Pereiro, and before its facade was enameled in blue, this building was a drab 40-year-old block of offices fronted with glass and painted concrete. After acquiring the structure along with a permit to Out of the Blue An aging office building gets a new lease on life—and a tiled facade—in a residential conversion. BY IZZY KORNBLATT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADRIANO MURA VALE PEREIRO I LISBON I NOMOS ARCHITECTS VALE PEREIRO stands at a kink in the street (opposite). A new stair, added at the back of the building, is rendered in cheery yellow (right). 123

0 15 FT. 5 M. 0 15 FT. 5 M. SECTION A - A 7 7 3 4 4 4 6 4 4 5 demolish and replace it with a residential building in 2016, the developer, Capvest, brought in Nomos to study alternative possibilities. For several reasons, sustainability benefits not least among them, the architects preferred retaining the existing structure. “We tried to keep the building’s soul,” says Katrien Vertenten, the Nomos partner in charge of the project, noting that its siting was effective and its concrete structure sound. Nonetheless, converting the five-story structure into 13 for-sale apartments of varying sizes was no easy undertaking. Its low ceiling heights presented a particularly difficult obstacle—Capvest aimed to create spacious, luxurious apartments that could command premium prices—and one that became the basis for one of Nomos’s most radical interventions: cutting into the slabs to create double-height spaces in many of the 1 LOBBY 2 NEW STAIR 3 GARDEN 4 APARTMENT 5 BALCONY 6 ROOF TERRACE 7 PARKING GROUND-FLOOR PLAN 1 2 4 4 3 3 A A FIFTH-FLOOR PLAN 0 15 FT. 5 M. 5 4 4 5 2 5 5 AXONOMETRIC 6 6 5 3 2 3 124 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

units. As a result, the 39,000-square-foot building is in section something of a Tetris screen, the various apartments forming vertically interlocking room arrangements. The aesthetic interest of these moves then also becomes the basis of the composition of the facade, where tiled bump-outs mark the double-height spaces in each unit, and existing yellow-painted beams indicate where the slabs have been cut directly behind them. Vertenten and her colleagues moved the building’s entrance from one side to its center, where they inserted a small common area and elevator lobby. Because the remainder of the ground floor now houses two apartments, the architects created a set of buffer spaces shielded by gridded trellises and glass block along the remainder of the street frontage. These “winter gardens,” as Vertenten refers to them, provide the occupants of the units with a measure of privacy while still allowing for cross ventilation. Throughout the interiors, the sharp contrast between the low-ceilinged and doubleheight rooms imbues the units with the spatial drama of compression and release; each type of space becomes more interesting in relation to the other. The interior finishes— terrazzo floors, painted cabinetry, dark wood paneling, and, especially, textured paint on all surfaces above the lowest overhead beams— serve to highlight the building’s distinct spatial qualities while providing an understated backdrop for the lives of its occupants. There is lightheartedness here too, primarily on the rear elevation, which is rendered in a sky blue with balustrades on each floor and a sculptural outdoor stair—all added in the renovation—painted a cheery yellow. This elevation serves as an informal, private counterpoint to the buttoned-up public-facing front, and its design enables all of the units to have dedicated outdoor spaces. At grade, the land behind the building is split into private gardens for the two groundlevel units; the balconies above adjoin each of the upper-level units. There are additional balconies on the building’s front, and the two fifth-floor penthouses each have both a balcony and a roof deck. No one who strolls down the street and glimpses Vale Pereiro for the first time will suspect that it is a work of adaptive reuse. But this is exactly the point. The preexisting structure was retained not for its historicity DOUBLE-HEIGHT SPACES (below, right) are expressed on the facade as bump-outs. Balconies or gardens are incorporated into each unit (right). 125

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but for its usefulness—and what is perhaps most intriguing is that it proved useful both pragmatically, as a means of saving money (its two floors of underground parking helped with this) and reducing environmental impact, and aesthetically. “When you’re working within an existing structure, the forms you create are almost a necessity,” says Nomos partner Lucas Camponovo. “They’re logical, but also expressive, and even glamorous.” The design of Vale Pereiro preceded the pandemic, but there’s nonetheless a lesson here for architects and developers planning to convert disused office buildings to new uses in the age of remote work. Vale Pereiro, then, is a hybrid on several levels. Like the azulejos for which Lisbon is famous, it straddles the divides between old and new, between invention and tradition, and between the local and the global. Almost all of its apartments have now sold, but, so far, few of the buyers have been Portuguese—a reflection of the extent to which central Lisbon has, for better or worse, become the territory of tourists and expatriates. This state of affairs is “a bit sad,” Vertenten concedes, but it may help to keep in mind an observation made by the late cultural geographer Doreen Massey, who argued against what she termed “internalist and essentialist” notions of place: “places,” she wrote, “are always already hybrid.” n Credits ARCHITECT: Nomos Architects — Katrien Vertenten, Lucas Camponovo, Massimo Bianco, Ophélie Herranz, Paul Galindo, design leads; Verónica Pires, Gabriela Pratas, Jorge Paquete, architects ENGINEER: Engsol CONSULTANTS: Joaquim Pedro Silva Carvalho (electrical); Jorge Manuel Inácio Paixão (ventilation, insulation) GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Tecnorém Engenharia e Construções CLIENT: Capvest Group SIZE: 39,000 square feet COST: $4.8 million (construction) COMPLETION DATE: July 2023 (occupancy) Sources EXTERIOR TILE: Aleluia Cerâmicas GLASS BLOCK: Seves Glassblock WINDOWS: Reynaers Aluminium INTERIOR FINISHES are sleek (opposite, bottom and opposite, top right). A new stair at the rear, and smaller stairs leading to two roof decks, add playful notes to the design (this page and opposite, top left). 127

Pushing Limits Amid changing regulations, Moreau Kusunoki completes a singular wood tower in Paris. BY ANDREW AYERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIS MEZULIS TIMBER TOWER I PARIS I MOREAU KUSUNOKI LOCATED in rapidly and densely developing Bruneseau (opposite, top), the tower consists of joined 14-story and nine-story volumes (left). A landscaped terrace for all residents (opposite, bottom) tops the shorter one. MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

PLANNED IN the 1980s and officially launched in 1991, Paris Rive Gauche is the French capital’s biggest redevelopment program since Haussmann’s transformation of the city in the mid-19th century. Stretching eastward along the Seine from the Gare d’Austerlitz to the city limits, it concerns over 320 acres of partly obsolete railroad infrastructure in the 13th arrondissement. Thirty years on, the final and most difficult sector, in Bruneseau, is rising from the ground, on the strip of land running alongside Paris’s notorious boulevard périphérique, the eight-lane highway that rings the city. But traffic noise and infrastructure are not the only obstacles to redeveloping this part of the city, for it is littered with sundry industrial facilities and is also the point where the railroads fan out. Indeed so “hostile” did Yves Lion, Bruneseau’s coordinating architect, consider the sector that he advocated towers as the only building type capable of providing the density needed to satisfy developers’ profit margins in a context requiring costly foundations. For Lion’s proposal to be adopted, the Conseil de Paris had to vote in favor of abolishing the 121-foot height limit that had governed construction in the capital’s outer arrondissements since the mid-1970s—which it did, controversially, in 2010, only to reverse the decision just this April. In the 13 years between, two monumental towers have climbed toward the sky—Renzo Piano’s 525-foot-high courthouse in the 17th (2017) and Jean Nouvel’s 590-foot Tours Duo in Bruneseau (2022). Ground has also been broken on a third, Herzog & de Meuron’s much-contested 590-foot Tour Triangle in the 15th (due 2025). But the past 13 years have also seen completion of a good number of 164-foot-tall residential buildings—just below the legal limit that would require onsite fire personnel 24/7—of which this 77-apartment scheme by Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki is one. Organized by SEMAPA, a publicly owned company that is overseeing Paris Rive Gauche, the 2018 design competition was “a race among developers, each of which teamed up with an architect, to see who could propose the most original project,” says Nicolas Moreau, one-half, alongside Hiroko Kusunoki, of the Franco-Japanese duo that won fame in the 2015 Guggenheim Helsinki contest. “The city was strongly represented on the jury and, as with the Réinventer Paris programs, was expecting innovation,” he continues, referring to the 2014 and 2017 129

Rue Jean-Baptiste Berlier Périphérique SEINE Boulevard du Général d'Armée Jean Simon SITE PLAN 0 100 FT. 30 M. 1 RESIDENTIAL ENTRY 2 RESTAURANT 3 UPPER GALLERY 4 LOWER GALLERY 5 SHARED TERRACE 6 SHARED KITCHEN 7 STUDIO 8 TWO-BEDROOM 9 THREE-BEDROOM 10 DUPLEX 1 DRYWALL 2 INSULATION 3 CLT 4 CONCRETE 5 ACOUSTIC FELT 6 WOOD FLOOR 7 GLUE-LAMINATED WOOD BEAM 8 ROLLER SHUTTER 9 DOUBLE-GLAZED WINDOW 10 CHARRED WOOD CLADDING 11 GLUE-LAMINATED WOOD COLUMN 12 STEEL GUARDRAIL 13 PRECAST CONCRETE BALCONY 14 BAMBOO DECKING 15 LARCH PLANK BALCONY SECTION 5 M. 0 20 FT. 1 2 3 8 13 14 15 9 10 11 12 4 5 6 7 5 A A 1 3 2 4 GROUND-FLOOR PLAN 5 6 9 7 10 8 0 30 FT. 10 M. NINTH-FLOOR PLAN 9 9 9 5 SECTION A - A 130 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 MULTIFAMILY HOUSING

open calls to find inventive yet commercially viable redevelopment schemes for various municipally owned sites. For French property giant Emerige, which has previously worked with Pritzker laureates David Chipperfield and RCR, Moreau Kusunoki proposed an experimental mass-timber tower that would push expression of the material about as far as it could go. Located in the shadow of Nouvel’s off-kilter towers, Moreau Kusunoki’s building occupies a wedgeshaped site where the rue Jean-Baptiste-Berlier meets the Boulevard du Général-d’Armée-Jean-Simon, at a point where the latter takes the form of a bridge that spans the railroads and links to the river crossing. One of three mass-timber towers planned for Bruneseau, the project piles up two levels of underground parking, a ground and second floor containing a future art gallery and a restaurant, and, on the boulevard, 14 floors of apartments that range from studios to five-room duplexes, while the rear part of the building, also containing apartments, is articulated as a nine-floor volume. The architects considered using structural cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, “but, to ensure full future adaptability, we opted for a mass-timber frame, with wooden floors and facades too,” explains Moreau. Their initial intention was to expose the frame externally, but they soon realized that would be impractical with respect to water penetration. Indeed, they admit, the project entailed a steep learning curve concerning the limits and pitfalls of timber construction. Rather than the structurally pure object Moreau Kusunoki was aiming for, the result is a clever hybrid, dressed up to resemble the initial intention but actually involving three different construction logics. As in many mass-timber towers, the base and core are concrete. A complex piece of civil engineering, the four-story base (garage and levels 1 and 2) cantilevers over the boulevard bridge at the front, is reinforced to bear the loads of a planned metro extension at the rear, and incorporates measures to eliminate train vibration. Featuring spruce glulam columns, as well as glulam beams at its perimeter, the mass- timber frame also incorporates steel, which spans the interior. This is because, for fire resistance, the glulam members are oversized, which would have made ceiling heights too low had they been used throughout. To prevent water penetration, the frame is enclosed behind facade panels—a prefabricated sandwich of CLT and timber-shaving insulation. But, just as at Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram building, in New York, the structure is expressed outside in decorative form—instead of Mies’s bronze, we find larch-clad string courses and pilasters. Finally, the precast concrete balconies are carried by exoskeletons that THE CONCRETE BASE, on the ground floor, will house an art gallery with a dramatic spiral stair (right), the residential lobby (bottom), and a restaurant. 131

MULTIFAMILY HOUSING THE STRUCTURAL frame is expressed on the exterior as a grid of glulam members clad in weather-resistant larch. rise up the building like scaffolding, their glulam members clad in hard-wearing larch for weather protection. Except for the glulam columns, the interior mass-timber elements are concealed, wrapped in protective layers of concrete, insulation, and plasterboard. But, on the exterior, the prefabricated facade panels put wood on display, since they are clad in a layer of charred timber, a traditional Japanese technique the architects first proposed for the Guggenheim. For Moreau, this is a stable, fire-resistant finish whose darkness will hide modifications, while for Kusunoki it is part of a philosophy of wabi sabi, a worldview based on the acceptance of transience and imperfection, expressed here in the symphony of grays that make up the elevations: differently colored and textured concrete, charcoal, and pre-aged larch. Frustrated by the compromises they faced in Bruneseau, the architects devised workarounds, including setting columns back from the facade, to achieve an all-timber exposed frame for a competition in Montpellier. But it now seems unlikely that they will achieve their dream in France. Construction of their Bruneseau building began just days before the French fire service issued a circular, on January 1, 2020, prohibiting exposed external wood until further notice. Along with the recently reinstated height limits, these new restrictions mean that nothing quite like this timber tower will be seen in Paris again. n Credits ARCHITECT: Moreau Kusunoki — Nicolas Moreau, Hiroko Kusunoki, principals; Nastassia Nasser, project manager, competition and design development; Chiara Munari, Maxime Aupiais, Elise Niogret, assistants, design development; Seyfedine Bentili, project manager, construction CONSULTANTS: C&E (structure and facade); Edeis (m/e/p); MOZ Paysage (landscape); ACOUSTB (acoustics); Citae (sustainability); Athlance (timber); BTP (code and security); Yann Kersalé + BOA (lighting) GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Bouygues CLIENT: Emerige SIZE: 70,200 square feet COST: $21 million (construction) COMPLETION DATE: June 2023 SOURCES WOOD-STEEL STRUCTURE: Gustave, Arborsphere, KLH, JPF Ducret, Binderholz, Pollmeier WOOD FACADES: Techniwood, Ligne alpes WINDOWS: MC France DOORS: Prometalic, Legallais, Malerba DOOR HARDWARE: Moreau Kusunoki with Izé 132 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023

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PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY BEDROCK The High Life Can adapting empty commercial towers revive business districts and allay the housing shortage? BY JAMES S. RUSSELL, FAIA EMERITUS WITH HYBRID and remote work schedules leaving millions of square feet of empty office space, “private owners are suffering,” says Eran Chen, a founder of the New York architecture firm ODA. “They may lose buildings to their banks; cities are losing realestate tax dollars,” he adds. “And nobody likes an empty office district.” Given the urgency of filling all the empty space, converting offices to residential use is seen as a twofer: making obsolete buildings useful again and allaying a national shortage of housing. Also, conversions can put units online quicker than new construction. Downtowns diversified by housing—and supplied with ample cultural and recreational amenities—draw more people. They extend 9-to-5 commercial monocultures to 18-hour “live/ work/play destinations,” in real-estate shorthand. Some architects advocate office-to-residential conversions as a climate-responsible solution, taking advantage of transit-rich neighborhoods and conserving the substantial embodied carbon of existing buildings, compared to new construction. (Estimates vary widely, but a building’s frame and its foundations alone can account for 30 percent of a building’s embodied carbon.) As SOM Adaptive Reuse Practice leader Frank Mahan puts it, “With a stagnant office market, a housing shortage, and climate change, we could address all three existential crises of our time at once.” Several European countries and cities have regulations aimed at reducing emissions from building materials. In London, for instance, a requirement for building life cycle assessments of carbon intensity is tilting the playing 135 CEU OFFICE CONVERSIONS

THE BOOK TOWER (previous page) in Detroit has a generous number of windows, making ODA’s conversion of the 1927 office tower into apartments (above) and hotel rooms relatively straightforward. _ _ + + rates—and uncertainty over where these are headed—make projects riskier and developers reluctant. “Everyone’s waiting for incentives,” says Adam Yarinsky, principal at Architecture Research Office (ARO), which can include some combination of tax abatements, relaxed building codes, and zoning bonuses. A 10- year tax abatement and a mixed-use zoning district have been in place in Philadelphia since 1996. “It has led to the conversion of 180 buildings of all sizes to residential use, including 9 million square feet of office space,” explains Levy, of the Center City District. After the 9/11 terror attacks, New York incentivized dozens of conversions of buildings in Lower Manhattan that had long languished. The current mayor, Eric Adams, hopes to bring such incentives to additional parts of the city that have underused office buildings, but so far these efforts have been thwarted by the need for state legislation that would enable them. CONVERSION CANDIDATES Some kinds of office structures are easier to adapt than others. Since the late 1980s, many modest commercial buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been handsomely converted to residential use. These loft-style structures were built to be flexible, accommodating offices, wholesalers, and small industrial uses, and therefore often come with high ceilings, regular (if columnstudded) floor plans, and tall windows. Slim early 20th-century towers, many among the most famous buildings in their cities, have also proved desirable for residential conversion, particularly at the higher end of the market. Their shallow exterior wall-tocore distance and high ceilings bathe their field toward retaining and adapting buildings “because you have to compare the carbon footprint of the existing building to what you would build new,” explains Russell Fortmeyer, global sustainability leader for architecture firm Woods Bagot. In the U.S., Fortmeyer points to California’s recently instituted code limits for embodied carbon which apply to the construction and renovation of commercial buildings larger than 100,000 square feet. He maintains that the new regulations could make conversion the more affordable path, since project teams opting to build new will be competing for the limited supply of lowcarbon materials, such as mass timber or green concrete, and thus paying a premium. Though opportunistic politicians have harmfully vilified downtowns in older cities as hotbeds of crime and violence, the appeal of in-city living is largely undimmed, with many metro areas luring back those who left during the pandemic. Philadelphia has seen most of its housing growth in recent years in the downtown core and surrounding neighborhoods, according to Paul Levy, president and CEO of the Center City District, a business-improvement organization, and his city is hardly alone. Office building conversions are not new, of course. However, a widely expected boom in such projects post-pandemic has not yet materialized, even as large-scale remote work persists. It turns out that the volatile financial and regulatory environment has made developers skittish. Conversions that could alleviate the dire shortage of affordable housing in the U.S. are even more daunting. These factors not only affect the viability of projects but also architectural approaches to them, as well as technological tactics. Higher construction costs and interest 1633 BROADWAY — ADAPTATION DIAGRAMS RETAIN CARVE ADD 136 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 CEU OFFICE CONVERSIONS

IMAGES: COURTESY BEDROCK (OPPOSITE, TOP); © SOM (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM; TOP; BOTTOM, LEFT & RIGHT); © SOM/MIYSIS (BOTTOM CENTER) FOR AN EARLY 1970s office building (above, left) in New York’s Times Square, SOM has proposed removing building volume (opposite, bottom) and stacking it to create a stepped tower (above, middle). Strategically stiffening the frame (diagrams top and right, above) would limit drift. interiors in daylight from windows that are often appealingly oversize. The $400 million transformation of the long-abandoned 1926 Book Tower in Detroit (Louis Kamper, original architect) into a combination of hotel rooms and rental apartments was “a simple conversion,” says ODA’s Chen, since the floor plates matched a residential-building depth, and it had an ample number of windows. In addition to designing the apartment layouts, his firm restored the exterior and extensively renovated a spectacular domed and vaulted art-glass lobby ceiling. In New York, recent conversions of early 20th-century towers include such trophy properties as Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building (1912), and the 1932 headquarters of Irving Trust, designed by Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, with its elegantly slender silhouette and its restrained fluted-limestone surface. Frank Woolworth had dubbed his 792- foot tower, for a time the tallest building in the world, “the Cathedral of Commerce,” but in 2018, the late Thierry W. Despont, with 1633 BROADWAY — GRAVITY LOADS & LATERAL-STIFFENING DIAGRAMS BASE REACTION PLOT — EXISTING BASE REACTION PLOT — PROPOSED BASE REACTION PLOT — LATERAL STABILITY 1633 BROADWAY — FRAMING DIAGRAM 137

IMAGES: © DAVE BURKE (LEFT); DARRIS LEE HARRIS (ABOVE); SCB (OPPOSITE) AT CHICAGO’S Tribune Tower (left), SCB cut a courtyard (above and opposite, top) from the base to create floor plates suitable for apartment layouts (opposite, bottom). SLCE Architects, converted its top 26 floors into 33 luxury apartments. The design team also fit a six-level penthouse within the building’s copper-clad pyramid-shaped roof. The lower 29 stories remain in use as offices. The recently completed luxury conversion of Irving Trust, now called One Wall Street, was designed by an extensive team that included SLCE, MdeAS Architects, Ashe Leandro, and Deborah Berke Partners (now TenBerke) for Macklowe Properties. According to MdeAS principal, Dan Shannon, One Wall Street’s proportion of wall surface to oversize windows eased the task of laying out the apartments. (Highperformance replacement windows were curved to match the fluting as the originals did.) Freestanding, it opens to views on all sides. “The quality of the architecture is part of the attraction, for people who don’t want cookie-cutter design,” he says. As with Irving Trust, the famous neoGothic architecture of Chicago’s Tribune Tower (John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood)—with sweeping views from its upper floors and relatively shallow floor plates (ranging from 13,000 on lower levels to 1,800 square feet near the top)—made the 1925 skyscraper well suited to luxury-apartment layouts. Architects SCB transformed the tower into 162 condominiums of 50 unique layouts. Since the building’s population is lower in its residential incarnation, the architects shaped a more compact core, removing six of nine elevator shafts and replacing some with a relocated exit stair. Conversion of the Tribune Tower’s base— a 65,000-square-foot assemblage of three buildings, erected between 1920 and 1950, in heights ranging from four to eight stories— required a different approach. There, SCB carved an 80-foot-wide landscaped courtyard out of the structures, stiffening steel columnand-beam connections to make up for the loss of lateral support. The courtyard left behind two wings on either side, narrow enough to host desirable residential layouts. The foundation’s load-bearing capacity allowed the addition of four floors on one of the wings, creating what SCB associate principal Steve Hub - bard refers to as “very valuable” units. DEEP-FLOOR DILEMMA Large office structures with deep floor plates are particularly challenging to convert, because so much of their floor space is too far from windows to be desirable (or, in many jurisdictions, legal). These buildings, mainly from the 1950s through the 1980s, may have deteriorated fixed-glass curtain walls, unlike older towers that came with operable windows. If their potential can be unlocked, they can deliver a great number of units and take some of the least desirable buildings out of the office inventory. Such conversions can entail removing 138 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 CEU OFFICE CONVERSIONS

building volume to provide more perimeter for capturing daylight, breezes, and views, as was done at the Tribune Tower’s base. In a speculative project in this vein, ARO proposed removing square footage from the bulky base of a 21-story wedding-cake setback tower completed in 1952 in Manhattan by Sylvan Bien. ARO placed the removed square footage atop higher floors, shaping new setbacks and terraces to add value to the apartments. Such radical reshaping is not as daunting as it sounds, says Yarinsky. “We proposed to add new loads where we assumed the load capacity already existed, in this way minimizing burdens on the foundations and structure.” A similarly theoretical scheme was created by SOM for an ideas competition sponsored by the trade organizations the Steel Institute of New York and the Ornamental Metal Institute of New York. The brief called for the conversion of 1633 Broadway, a 48-story, 2.5 million-square-foot tower with deep floor plates designed by Emery Roth & Sons in Manhat tan’s Times Square. “The sponsors selected about the toughest building for conversion they could find,” says Mahan. But its great size “also justifies significant massing and structural modifications.” The firm’s entry opened up the monolithic rectangular slab of the 1971 tower by cutting six courtyards in, strategically reinforcing the structural frame, and stacking the removed square footage in a stepped volume atop the building. The scheme diversified the incomes of residents by dividing the building vertically into adjoining condo, affordable housing, and co-living towers atop a base of commercial, walls will probably warrant replacement with thermally efficient envelopes that include operable windows, a requirement for living spaces and bedrooms in many jurisdictions. But such retrofits, if the new exterior walls are highly insulated, can also allow mechanical systems to be considerably downsized, slashing energy costs, points out ARO’s Yarinsky. TRIBUNE TOWER — COURTYARD DIAGRAMS institutional, and cultural uses. Like other competing projects, its ideas are speculative, but they broaden the spectrum of buildingreuse possibilities. Especially when converting buildings constructed since the 1950s, the exterior walls represent a particularly difficult problem. With expanses of fixed tinted glass and substandard energy performance, their curtain EXISTING CARVING OUT THE COURTYARD COURTYARD & 4-STORY ADDITION 0 30 FT. 10 M. TRIBUNE TOWER - LEVEL 7 PLAN 139

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY MACKLOWE PROPERTIES: EVOLUTION VR (LEFT), EVEN JOSEPH (RIGHT) CONTINUING EDUCATION To earn one AIA learning unit (LU), including one hour of health, safety, and welfare (HSW) credit, read “The High Life,” review the supplemental material found at architecturalrecord.com, and complete the quiz at continuingeducation.bnpmedia.com. Upon passing the test, you will receive a certificate of completion, and your credit will be automatically reported to the AIA. Additional information regarding credit-reporting and continuing-education requirements can be found at continuingeducation.bnpmedia.com. Learning Objectives 1 Discuss the economic, environmental, and social arguments for converting vacant office buildings into housing. 2 Describe different office-building typologies and discuss the conversion challenges they pose. 3 Discuss structural retrofit measures that may be required to convert an office building into housing. 4 Outline code, zoning, and other regulatory changes that could hasten transformation of vacant office towers into housing. AIA/CES Course #K2310A To enable a greater number of conversions, cities may need to alter building codes and zoning regulations. New York is looking at reducing the size of required operable bedroom windows, as well as a currently mandated clear area around them, says Yarinsky, because many candidates for adaptation are unable to comply. Developers maintain that making such openings optional would render conversions more affordable. There’s pushback, however, from those who argue that rooms dependent on mechanical ventilation become uninhabitable in the event of power failures, and that the wellness benefits of light, air, and views of greenery should trump the cost consideration. “Must we return our buildings to Dickensian horror?” asks Ian Lomas, a principal at the Los Angeles office of Woods Bagot. Other policies under consideration in New York, aimed at spurring more conversions of office buildings into housing—especially affordable housing—include changes that would allow residential development in parts of the city currently zoned only for office space and manufacturing, and the launch of an Office Conversion Accelerator program to help owners expedite projects. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed’s administration has issued a Request for Interest, asking downtown building owners and developers for conversion ideas for their underutilized building stock. The hope is to identify projects where the city could speed up or enhance such projects through zoning or regulatory changes. Similarly, in Chicago, the LaSalle Reimagined initiative, whose goal is to revive what was once considered Chicago’s Wall Street, includes incentives to hasten the transformation of office towers into residential buildings. Five developers and five properties (all but one built before World War II) were selected as finalists earlier this year. According to the city, the conversion projects represent nearly $1 billion in investment and will create 1,600 units, 600 of them affordable. The Chicago program also has a retail component that would support street-level businesses serving the LaSalle corridor’s new residents while also addressing the postCovid loss of foot traffic. Qualifying businesses can receive grants for such projects as storefront upgrades, interior renovations, and design fees. Of course, converting underutilized commercial properties not only has the potential to reinvigorate once-lively downtowns and satisfy a huge need for housing, but, as Lomas, the Woods Bagot principal (who also worked in London), points out, there’s an importance to history. “In Europe, there’s always an assumption that what’s gone before has value,” he says. “There is an emotional connection. You add the layering you need to that.” n ALONG WITH a 1960s annex, the 1932 tower, built as the headquarters of Irving Trust (left), is now known as One Wall Street and houses 566 condominiums (above). 140 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 CEU OFFICE CONVERSIONS

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From a new generation of digital tools to harnessing the power of AI to advance the built environment, the architectural field is facing a gravitational shift in the way we approach the business of design and construction. Industry professionals are having to navigate monumental challenges such as labor shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, economic instability, privacy concerns, and the climate crisis. At the same time, design professionals have never had so many advanced tools at their disposal, whether cloud-based platforms that facilitate intensive communication and collaboration or sophisticated virtual modeling capabilities and new software for reducing waste and carbon emissions on their projects. Focus On: Business and Technology of Architecture ACADEMY OF DIGITAL LEARNING ce.architecturalrecord.com/academies/Businesstechnology Brought to you by Become an expert on Business and Technology of Architecture through Architectural Record’s Academy of Digital Learning. Upon successful completion of the Business and Technology of Architecture Academy, you will earn 2 AIA LU/HSW + 6 AIA LU/Elective + 0.8 ICC CEU + 8 IIBEC CEH + 3 GBCI CE Hours + 2 IDCEC CEU and a digital badge that demonstrates your mastery and achievement. Earn your digital badge and showcase your expertise! CREDITS: 2 AIA LU/HSW + 6 AIA LU/Elective + 0.8 ICC CEU + 8 IIBEC CEH + 3 GBCI CE Hours + 2 IDCEC CEU

143CONTINUING EDUCATION CATEGORIES BE BUILDING ENVELOPE DESIGN IN INTERIORS LS LIFE SAFETY AND CODES PM PRODUCTS AND MATERIALS CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 0.1 ICC CEU; 1 IDCEC CEU/HSW IN PM RR Photo courtesy of © Mark Herboth; CRL p144 CONTINUING EDUCATION Courses may qualify for learning hours through most Canadian provincial architectural associations. What Are the Current Trends in Interior Design? Sponsored by ASI Group, CRL, Inpro and Tamlyn CREDIT: 1.5 AIA LU/HSW PM RE SU Photo courtesy of Engberg Anderson Architects p154 Growing Good Homes Sponsored by Think Wood In this section, you will find four compelling courses highlighting creative solutions for tomorrow’s buildings brought to you by industry leaders. Read a course, and then visit our online Continuing Education Center at ce.architecturalrecord.com to take the quiz free of charge to earn credits. PMD PRACTICE, MANAGEMENT, DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY RE RESIDENTIAL RR RENOVATION AND RESTORATION SI SITE INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN ST STRUCTURAL SU SUSTAINABILITY CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/HSW; 0.1 ICC CEU; 1 PDH; 1 IDCEC CEU/HSW LS PM SI Photo courtesy of Forms+Surfaces p156 Designed to Protect Sponsored by Forms+Surfaces CREDIT: 1 AIA LU/ELECTIVE; 0.1 ICC CEU BE PMD ST Photo courtesy of CRL - © Trent Bell p157 BIM and Communication Sponsored by Graphisoft

144 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 CONTINUING EDUCATION What Are the Current Trends in Interior Design? S ocial and economic conditions often change. Interior design often evolves based on those changes as a response to emerging needs or desires. As such, designers, owners, consultants, and many others need to be aware of the changes and formulate appropriate design approaches. Product manufacturers are particularly keen on keeping up with such changes so they can stay ahead of the curve and be positioned to provide the materials, colors, textures, patterns, or other attributes that are being sought for construction and renovation projects. In this course, we will look at some of the current situations that Photo courtesy of ©Mark Herboth; CRL Building owners and users want both good design and functionality Sponsored by ASI Group, CRL, Inpro and Tamlyn By Peter J. Arsenault, FAIA, NCARB, LEED AP CONTINUING EDUCATION 1 AIA LU/HSW 0.1 ICC CEU 1 IDCEC CEU/HSW Learning Objectives After reading this article, you should be able to: 1. Explain the ways that different interior products can help improve interior designs that not only elevate the human experience but also provide for health and safety. 2. Identify and recognize the signifi cance of color, texture, and sustainable design as part of an interior design strategy to promote health and wellness in buildings. 3. Assess some products and materials that can enhance interiors while contributing to the welfare of building occupants and users. 4. Determine ways to incorporate advanced principles of commercial restroom design for higher appeal, safer use, and improved cleanliness. To receive AIA credit, you are required to read the entire article and pass the quiz. Visit ce.architecturalrecord.com for the complete text and to take the quiz for free. AIA COURSE #K2310K are driving trends in interior design. We will also look at some of the responses and offerings from manufacturers that design professionals and others need to be aware of in order to create relevant, current, and successful building interiors. DESIGN TRENDS Building interiors are becoming more sophisticated overall, balancing aesthetics with sustainability, visual impacts with health and wellness, and contemporary styles with solidity. In the following sections, we take a look at how some of these design aspects play out in commercial buildings of all types. The current trends in commercial interior design are varied, reflecting more sophistication in design and greater functionality in materials and products. EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT

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146 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 WHAT ARE THE CURRENT TRENDS IN INTERIOR DESIGN? EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT CONTINUING EDUCATION INTERIOR WALL DELINEATION A general trend in modern interior design includes the use of minimalist lines and the intentional absence of traditional wood moldings for doors, windows, ceilings, and base conditions. With the modernization of such projects, comes the need for sleek and modern detailing of interior wall and ceiling surfaces and their junctions. Recessed reveals, for example, are often used to separate adjoining wall panels or to isolate those wall sections from the floor or ceiling. The design issue becomes how to create the desired look in a consistent, predictable manner that is readily buildable and budgetfriendly. The answer lies in the use of extruded aluminum interior trim pieces fabricated in stock or custom profiles. Such aluminum trim products have been used on building exteriors to hold and surround exterior cladding panels for quite some time. This same basic technique is available for use on interior surfaces and has worked quite well in all types of buildings. Aluminum Trim Attributes Aluminum interior trim is available in a variety of traditional, contemporary, and modern looks to create subdued, elegant looks or emphatic three-dimensional appearances. The profiles of aluminum trim are varied but seamless across its full length. Complex shapes can be realized in one-piece extruded aluminum sections without having to employ mechanical joining methods. The resultant profile typically is stronger than a comparable assemblage and less likely to loosen over time. A common misconception is that aluminum interior trim profiles can only be utilized in plain drywall applications. The truth is, however, that these profiles can accommodate any type of wall material the designer may be implementing into a design. Whether it's glass, tile, veneered panels, or wallpapered panels, these products can pair up with all of them, and others besides. This is true whether the project is a hospitality, residential, education, healthcare, or retail new building or renovation. There is also the ability to create custom profile details specific to a particular project or group of projects where desired. Manufacturers can offer design assistance and continuing education to help designers understand the capabilities and possibilities of such custom trim work for any type of wall material. Though most have a catalog offering diverse standard options, they also understand that sometimes the need for a small change to an existing profile or an idea “from scratch” would make all the difference for a project. It is possible that they can support high volumes or short lead times and still work within project budget constraints. Of course, the color and finish of the trim is an important design consideration. Fortunately, there are many different finish options available. Extruded aluminum trim can be specified in anodized aluminum in standard colors such as clear, champagne, bronze, and black. Factory prefinished trim can include liquid paint (i.e., acrylics, alkyds, polyesters, and others) or powder coatings. At least one manufacturer can provide custom pattern matching on the aluminum to include logos, match wood panels, match stone walls, or even create a wood grain look. Alternatively, it can be specified simply with a paint primer ready to receive final finish coats in the field of virtually any color. With this variety of choices, the trim can appear to blend in with the adjacent wall panels or it can be used to highlight all or some of the visual lines it creates. This flexibility in using familiar and long-lasting finish options means that both the design and the performance level can be controlled. Aluminum Trim for Design and Durability Places that need to achieve good interior looks with a lot of durability, such as retail, hospitality, educational, or other settings, quickly see the benefit of using extruded aluminum trim in conjunction with prefinished wall panels or site finished gypsum board. For example, many fast-food restaurants often go through cycles of renovating and updating their locations to remain appealing to customers and competitive in the marketplace. The current trend among many of them, such as McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, and others, is to move to a sleeker and more modern motif replacing some prior looks that are more visually cluttered and outdated in appearance. In the process, many are using pre-finished wall panels with a selected wood grain or color as their primary wall surface. Then they incorporate aluminum trim in coordinated finishes to provide durable corner and wall base conditions. They may also use aluminum trim pieces to create intentional reveals in the walls between the panels or at interior corners. Along the ceiling line, some incorporate an extruded aluminum trim piece that acts as a ceiling molding to complete the overall look and design intent. Other settings may similarly require durability but may have a different aesthetic in mind. In these cases, extruded aluminum trim may be used with gypsum board to create defining lines along a wall surface or at the intersection of wall elements. Reveals are particularly popular in that regard and can be provided in a thin, minimalistic manner to simply reinforce vertical or horizontal lines, or to create an artistic accent on a wall. For a bolder, more three-dimensional profile, two-piece assemblies are available that allow a squared, rounded, or oblong shape to be inserted into a reveal that protrudes past the wall surface and creates a different shadow line and overall look. INTERIOR GLASS PARTITIONS In many cases, interior designs are enhanced by an alternative to opaque interior walls, specifically the use of interior glass partitions to create a sense of openness and transparency. This works quite well to connect adjacent spaces or for the free passage and sharing of daylight and views between spaces. The benefits of daylighting have been well-documented in many different studies. In workplaces, it has been shown to improve productivity and morale by having a connection to the exterior compared to working in a windowless enclosure. In healthcare settings, it has been shown to improve recovery times and aid in healing. When daylight can be used to replace electric lighting, then energy Photos courtesy of Tamlyn Aluminum trim can be fabricated in custom shapes, profiles, and colors to suit the needs of a particular project including a variety of recessed base trims with a reveal as shown here.

Project: Seyfarth Law Offices Architect: TVA Architects Products: Cascade Glass Partition System CRL offers a comprehensive line of glass partition systems that can transform interiors to improve daylighting, transparency, acoustic privacy, and aesthetics. • Framed, semi-framed, and frameless systems • Bifolding, sliding, and stacking movable walls • Double-glazed systems with high STC ratings • Full selection of doors and door hardware • Multitude of finishes including matte black 800.458.7535 • crlaurence.com [email protected] Seamlessly Define Interiors ©Benjamin Benschneider

148 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD OCTOBER 2023 WHAT ARE THE CURRENT TRENDS IN INTERIOR DESIGN? EDUCATIONAL-ADVERTISEMENT CONTINUING EDUCATION savings can also be realized. Hence, interior glass partitions are a design tool that can be used to foster all of these benefits. Architects and designers considering the use of interior glass partitions in commercial buildings can select from three basic types, discussed as follows: • Framed Partitions: The common means to support a glass partition is to use an aluminum framing system. Some can be thick and noticeable and make their own design statement. Others can use a low-profile frame and vertical extrusions, which set them apart from traditional framed partition systems by providing greater visibility and daylight diffusion. Such systems can be designed with an all-vertical panel appearance with a top and bottom rail. Alternatively, they can incorporate a free-positioning grid system to create both horizontal and vertical framing configurations to be visually consistent with the building design. The nature of this framing system, when attached to the adjacent walls, floor, and ceiling, allows for greater acoustic privacy and strength, particularly if one-inch insulating glass panels are used. This may be particularly important in government buildings, law firms, executive offices, human resource departments, conference rooms, and similar situations. Framed partitions can be specified with low-profile framing (e.g., 1-7/8”) to minimize the appearance of the frame. The framing itself can be finished in a choice of standard or special-order colors such as matte black, satin anodized, brushed nickel, or powder coat colors. The glazing can be selected from standard choices of monolithic, insulating, or laminated glass and installed readily using a dry-glazed system. Doors can be incorporated that are either made from glass or wood and installed in a pivot style. Doors can be sized up to 10 feet in height and 36 inches wide. • Frameless Design: Many contemporary office interiors can benefit from all glass partitions with minimalist designs. Concealed glass channels with no vertical extrusions can produce expansive glass spans that are conducive to dynamic workspaces and be customized to the specific needs of a project. Such systems are ideal for conference rooms, office fronts, study rooms, waiting rooms, and lobbies. Frameless design offers greater transparency and facilitates daylighting being spread throughout building interiors. Frameless glass partitions can be used up to 12 feet in height using 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", or 3/4" thick tempered glass. The perimeter framing is minimized and available in a variety of finishes to blend in with the surroundings including matte black, bronze anodized, satin anodized, polished brass, polished stainless, brushed stainless, and black powder coat. Depending on the type of frameless system selected, doors can be provided in a variety of ways. Standard-height doors (up to 9 feet tall) can be pivoting or sliding using a variety of door handles and hardware. Some systems are designed to accommodate full-height doors (up to 10 feet tall) using full-length door rails for a cleaner, more contemporary look and less interruption of views. • Freestanding Partitions: In some cases, the space where a glass partition is desired has a high ceiling or no adjacent walls to attach to. In that case, configurations are possible using a combination of stainlesssteel end posts, center posts, and corner posts in standard and custom sizes. They are commonly available in 5-foot, 6-foot, and 7-foot post heights. The posts are available in shaped depths and narrow widths with as little as ¾” face trim. This provides an expansive all-glass look with no top rail required. The glass can be as tall as 8 feet and doors can be installed that are sliding or swing style. Such systems are ideal for commercial interiors with high or exposed ceilings or large open areas such as transportation hubs, education, sports stadiums, healthcare, and government buildings. Overall, the use of interior glass partitions is an effective and appealing option for creating dynamic and vibrant spaces that allow for better daylighting and visual connectivity. DURABLE INTERIOR DESIGN Interior designs that are valued for their quality and visual appearance need to be durable to withstand the rigors of everyday use. It has been said that “exteriors face the elements; interiors face the occupants." While architects are familiar with designing exteriors to withstand the weather and other aspects of “the elements”, the design of interiors similarly needs to consider the effects of building occupants using, and sometimes abusing, that interior. That means designing spaces with materials that are appropriate to their level of use and anticipated conditions. Might some of those materials cost a bit more than others? Of course, they will, but investing in quality products at the outset of a new or renovated building project will most likely reduce maintenance and operational costs later. This not only saves money for the building owner or operator, but it also helps to curb carbon emissions by not requiring the removal and replacement of materials and systems later on. The good news about durable interiors is that style and aesthetics don’t need to be sacrificed to achieve good performance. That has led to the trend of selecting from materials and systems that achieve both good visual appeal and long-term durability. This is manifest in a number of ways, with two examples discussed as follows: • Wall Protection: Protection of walls in buildings is not limited just to foot traffic and people, but also needs to address protection from moving equipment, cleaning equipment, deliveries, and Photo courtesy of © Lawrence Anderson; CRL Interior glass partitions are available in systems that are framed, frameless, or free-standing to suit the needs of a particular interior design.