The surprise of walking in

Every once in a while something happens on a project that stops us the moment we walk on site. These surprises range from a pile of broken saw blades discarded after trying to cut through what was deemed as “the hardest clay tile batch seen to date” or the look on a client’s face that says, I SEE IT!

The second example was our latest “project surprise” experience. When we walked in to meet T, her face said everything. It was like a little kid who can’t wait for you to open your present because she already knows what’s coming. 

Lets set it up first: During our first meetings at T’s house, we had a hard time photographing the interiors in a useful way. It didn’t take us long to realize that the same thing that was preventing them from enjoying their house, was preventing us from to properly documenting it. There was no continuity in the space – every room felt hemmed in and disconnected from the rest of the house.

In our demolition and new construction floor plans above you can see how we were trying to remedy the “hemmed in” problem.

We created a more open floor plan, and increased the number of views to the outdoors. Collaboration with our structural engineer meant the living spaces could be opened to have a more loft-like feel. The kitchen was also updated in order to enhance the connectivity now present in the rest of the house.

The photo below is from our very first meeting: Emily trying to figure out how to “open it all up” and Patri trying to capture it as best as she could.

This was our proposed vision - walls were removed and replaced with wood beams and posts, and the exterior living room wall was transformed into a large window/sliding door wall to bring more of the woods into the interiors and allow more light in.

Finally, we walked in just after the beams and posts were installed. You can see T in the background showing off her new extra-wide sliding doors. We just couldn’t hold our excitement back - the amazing transformation had happened.

The view below looks from the living room into the kitchen.

This was our 3d sketch to help them visualize the change.

And the picture below is the current state of affairs, still under construction.

Even though their entire living space is still in flux, and construction not finished yet, T and her family are very excited because they can finally see it happening. And so can we. For so long – nearly a year – she has stared at those sketches we proposed, and now she and her family will soon be able to enjoy it!

Good Design: A PechaKucha Presentation

We were invited to give a presentation during the fourth installment of the inaugural PechaKucha Night Rapid City series. It was fun for us to present our slides at Murphy’s - a place we are proud to have worked on - since we were planning to speak about design. 

The following images and text are excerpted from our presentation on Good Design.

We want to chat about Good Design - because we believe that good design is everywhere, and it’s affordable. It’s not a luxury and it’s not exclusively for the elites. And good design has to add something - has to have value. So we’ll talk about how and why we see value in Good Design.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, we decided to do what every good designer does - borrow from the people we really admire. Dieter Rams was a German industrial designer who was the head of design at Braun for over 30 years (1961-1995). In the late 1970s, he authored his “Ten Principles for Good Design,” which we will use as the basis for our presentation.

1. Good design is innovative

2. Good design makes a product useful

You know when your office gets shingled with colorful squares of paper? They may be aesthetic (in many ways), but they are useful and innovative at the same time. The not-so-permanent glue was initially a useless innovation, until a 3M scientist used it as a bookmark, discovering a practical and new idea - The Post-It Note.

3. Good design is aesthetic

4. Good design makes a product understandable

5. Good design is unobtrusive

6. Good design is honest

The qualities of design affect our person and our well-being. Something pleasant is appealing and it affects our mood - in a GOOD way! Something unpleasant is (in the voice of The Dude) like… a bummer, man. Something well-designed is self-explanatory - you know what it’s used for. Good design is neutral and restrained - what you see is what you get.

7. Good design is long-lasting

8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail

In today’s ‘throwaway society’, it is rare to see designs last through time. However, the Eiffel Tower is an excellent example of graceful, timeless design. The care and accuracy exercised throughout the engineering design process, are clear and obvious. It avoids being fashionable and therefore, never appears outdated.

9. Good design is environmentally-friendly - Designers need to consider the lifecycle of a product.

10. Good design is as little design as possible

I love this diagram. We borrowed it from the blog Coffee with an Architect.

We think it gets right to the point and it’s very clear. It speaks of what happens when you have all three elements: beauty, function and economy working together - but also what happens when one of the elements is missing.

What makes something possess the quality of beauty? Beauty is a combination of the design elements, like shape, form, and color; which altogether, are aesthetically pleasing to the senses, especially sight. Beauty creates responsiveness and motivation. Most importantly, beauty is appealing and can be appreciated.

If something functions, it fulfills a certain task. Very functional products are designed to perform in a way to meet very specific requirements - an advanced jet-plane that can fly a certain altitude or a certain speed, or a specialized suit, so that life can be sustained in space

Economy is about things being affordable, accessible and attainable. It’s about being for the masses, and being mass-produced. Are the materials accessible, and is the product easy to assemble? Economy is about dollars and cents, but it also is part of a holistic approach to design. 

When BEAUTY and FUNCTION are the only two factor in the equation, the design is just an IDEA. When one takes ECONOMY out of the math, feasibility is in danger - and the design is a pie in the sky. If it can’t be built or manufactured, then this idea is nothing more than a sketch on a napkin.

This Frank Gehry project, featuring 16 towers and a basketball arena, was never realized, because the developer deemed the project to be too expensive. The mixed-use project can be considered beautiful and it included several useful functions. But, it remained an idealistic project because it was not economical to construct.

When BEAUTY and ECONOMY are the only two factor in the equation, the design is DISPOSABLE. When one takes FUNCTION out of the equation, there’s no permanence. Architecture is a permanent art. The Murphy’s building was built in 1910 - and it’s still standing because it was useful and valuable to the clients and the city.

Disposable design is not built to last. Consider the Burnham Pavilions in Chicago. Designed to be temporary, they are made to appeal to the public with attention to “short-term convenience”.  

When FUNCTION and ECONOMY are the only two factor in the equation, the design is BORING. The solution is entirely utilitarian - it can be well engineered and feasible, but there’s always something lacking. There’s no appeal to the senses. When one takes BEAUTY out of the math, what happens?

Self-storage units. Decidedly not beautiful - at least not in our encounters. They function as places to hold extra stuff, and basic storage units are simple and economical to construct. Without analyzing the symptoms of consumer culture, I think we can agree that storage units represent boring design.

When all 3 meet - Beauty, Function + Economy = Good design

When all 3 of the elements meet, we get Good Design - something that is aesthetically pleasing, something that works as it should, and something that can be afforded.

A beautiful design that doesn’t work and that no one can afford is an unrealized napkin sketch. An elegant space that no one uses is wasted space and wasted energy. Good design is timeless not only in beauty and style, but also in function. THIS building, the original shell - has been here for 104 years - it worked well enough to survive floods, keep harsh winters out, and sustain constant use. It also survived various uses: originally a car garage, later on a Montgomery Ward store, and for many years a rather shady local watering hole - before it was turned into this version of Murphy’s.

But good design goes further than that too - if the waiters bump into each other, if there’s not enough space for a good table - then the space doesn’t work for it’s use. So in the end we think that Murphy’s succeeds because it functions as a kitchen, restaurant and bar - it appeals to people, they like coming here and meeting their friends. The clients were able to accomplish their goals and make the space profitable.

Design Jammin’, and loving the process of design.

Last week Patri was invited to be a judge in the first annual Design Jam put on by the AAF-Black Hills (American Advertising Federation). Our local event was modeled after Cut&Paste, which is an international digital design tournament. The event is a live and intense design competition. This is her recount of it.

Design Jam (2013) was a tournament of nine graphic designers, in which three designers competed at a time, for exactly ten minutes. Each round had a different design challenge and set of rules for the competitors to follow (one group designed a logo, another a T-shirt, and another a cover for an LP), so the final products were wildly different from competitor to competitor and round to round. The interesting part: each designer’s computer screen was displayed on a large screen for the entire audience to see (and admire and critique and generally be curious about).

The three judges evaluated each entry based on the criteria of the challenge and the overall merit of the final product. One designer was declared the winner of each of the first three rounds, and those three people advanced to the final round. After the final round, as I am sure you’ve already figured out, one designer was declared the winner of Design Jam.

I was thrilled to be one of the three judges. I would love to say that there was a very technical way to keep score, but there wasn’t. I didn’t even take notes (which is completely out of character), as I spent the 10 minutes of each “Jam” letting my eyes bounce around the 3 projection screens trying to capture what all was going on, and biting my tongue - trying not to join in and shout advice to the designers.

The crowd was an exciting mix of anyone and everyone in the local creative world. The crowd was wild and happy and excited and I could hear screams over my head as they cheered the competitors by name, chanted the name of their workplace, or yelled “UNDO! UNDO!” I could feel the adrenaline rushing the entire time - especially when I thought a specific designer had reached a great solution - but they kept going and going, massaging it, moving things around, bouncing between programs (usually Photoshop and Illustrator), adding textures and layers, distressing the look or changing the fonts one…last…time. I was entranced by seeing other designers’ processes - under intense pressure, in real time. Evaluating each design solution was difficult, especially because I knew what other possibilities those ten minutes had yielded for each designer. I saw what their design looked like before they added those last 10 layers or distressed the font before time was up. 

The very talented Dan Satterfield designed the poster for the event - and his design process mimicked the Design Jam format. He even recorded a video of his process - you HAVE to watch it. We all watched the video in the office and someone commented on how intimidated they were by the quality of Dan’s final version. I was more struck by the transparency of the process - all the times that Dan hit UNDO, or the number of times he chose a font from a long list only to change it a few steps later. To me, the beauty of the design process was perfectly captured in the video and similarly was very well showcased during the Design Jam.

When we present an architectural or interior design to our clients, the solution is typically very polished and has the look of finality - even at the very early stages of design. Most clients need the project to look like a finished product in order to be able to see a very specific realization of their space. I think that clients sometimes miss out by not seeing the stack of trace paper that bulges out of our trash cans or the random corner-of-a-piece-of-paper doodles that lead to design breakthroughs. 

If we’ve ever done work with you, you already know that our design process is all about versioning: nothing goes out the door with less than 3 versions (I have a thing about odd numbers, which prompts Emily’s now famous trick of Option 2.b).

The day after the Design Jam I couldn’t stop wondering, as I was moving the mouse around the screen and clicking away, how it would all look to an interested observer, the “design voyeur”. What if, like Dan, I had pressed the “record” button? Would the clients like the design better three versions ago? Maybe one day I’ll throw caution to the wind and just go ahead and press that button.

On leadership, and “getting after it”

Patri was invited by Amber Wilde, president of the Zonta Club of Spearfish to speak to 90+ high school girls about what she has learned so far about being a woman in the professional world. 

Here are two selected excerpts from her 15-minute talk.

DRESS FOR THE PART YOU WANT.

I used to dress up in nice slacks, heels and button-down shirts, until I realized that the architect I wanted to be didn’t sit in a fancy chair behind a big desk. So I traded it all (or, most of it) in for more practical wear and a hard hat.

I do have an ergonomic chair (a necessary tool of the trade, with tons of levers that I don’t really know how to use), but my desk is an old door held up between sawhorses. It’s a working desk and I wear a working wardrobe. 

Some may cringe when I say this, but the best advice I ever had before a job interview came from my college friend, Emily. She told me to dress for the job I wanted. I have been working architecture for a dozen years, I own my own business, I even have a few employess under my roof  and I own ZERO suits. That’s not to say that I show up in muddy boots everywhere, but when I dress up for interviews or meetings, my personality still shines through. 

On a day-to-day basis, I dress like a creative professional — who can get dirty crawling under buildings or climbing on rooftops. Every once in a while I totally forget what I do - or I start feeling really cool - and I show up to work wearing a dress and heels. That’s inevitably the day that I get called for an “architectural emergency” down at a construction site.

Other businesses require different dress codes. Let’s consider my good friend Vicki Urban, founder and CEO of the Rushmore Rollerz - the Rapid City roller derby team. Vicki, very much unlike me, is heavily tattooed, and the last time I saw her she had at least 4 different colors in her hair. Her professional attire at times requires ripped fishnet stockings and, more often than not, a Wonder Woman cape. That’s appropriate for what she does - but not for what I do (although a cape would be fun sometimes, wouldn’t it?). We both, however, “dress the part.”

ASK FOR THE PART YOU WANT

In order to succeed on my own, I needed to land new projects.

A few years ago I was listening to an interview with the TV actress, Sandra Oh of Grey’s Anatomy. In the interview she was talking about when she went in to audition for a part in the show. They wanted her to audition for the part of Bailey - and she had just started practicing something called “asking for what she wanted.” She explained that she would always be asked to read for the part of the best friend, and she would always go home bummed out that she (a) didnt get the part and (b) she never got to read for the leading roles. And one day she decided that she was going to go out there and ask for what she wanted. And that’s how she ended up with the part of Christina. I bet she killed it reading that part because it was what she wanted and because she knew she was going to be good at it.

Charged with this I decided not to sit at my desk and wait for people to walk into my office. Instead, I went out and decided to ask for the projects I wanted. I set up meetings with new building owners. I didn’t have to be TOO nervous about it; I knew a few facts: My prospective client had a beautiful building; the building needed some design help; and I could do it. It was pretty scary at first, but it worked. When I showed passion - backed up with good work ethics and good work - clients noticed.

Go out into the world and work hard and ask for what you want. Don’t sit around and wait for someone to figure out that you are cool, or talented, or smart - go out there, and if there’s a job or a part you want, ASK FOR IT. Let people know you are interested and that you care.

Thank you.

Spring thaw

Considering that we have had to measure three new project locations in the last 2 weeks, it has to mean that spring is here, right? Mind you, the clearest sign that we are in full spring swing is that since 6pm last night, Rapid City and most of western South Dakota have been under a “severe weather advisory”.

One our new projects is a dental clinic for an awesome young practice; another is a new home for an established financial firm. I’m sure we’ve mentioned before that the bulk of what we do is renovation work, so taking measurements means exciting beginnings for new projects. 

When we kick-off a project, two things happen simultaneously: we measure the existing space to be renovated, and ideas start flooding our brains. We keep Pinterest boards for most, if not all, of our projects. We find that it’s an easy way for everyone to share likes and dislikes - and the collaboration on Pinterest really comes alive when the clients get involved and give us a piece of their mind!

For the dental clinic, one of color schemes includes bright yellows – which are positive colors that can be hospitable, comforting, friendly, and warming. One other description we saw for yellow was “babies.” Not sure what that means, but everyone loves babies, right? In Patri’s synesthete brain, yellows taste like candy (but oranges taste like pennies, so we are staying away from those, for at least this project).

This bench (above) is from Steelcase’s Nurture line of furniture, which is designed for healthcare facilities. Steelcase strikes a great balance between performance, appearance and cost – and it is a great American company with a history of excellence. We love the playfulness of the bench, while still looking like something your kids can sit on.

We also “pinned” this recent project by Build, LLC, which shares some characteristics with the dental office. Like the photo above, the space we are working with has some great laminated wood beams that will be left exposed, and we are after a similarly clean but comfortable feel for the interior.

We really look forward to showing progress on these jobs in the coming weeks and months. Cheers from AcV2, and stay warm!

What we look for.

Recently, AcV2 spent a couple of Friday afternoons learning the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. We were taught by Leah Braun, a supremely talented motivator, counselor, life coach, and friend – find her here. During the two sessions, we set goals, adjusted the way we communicate, and generally refined our office culture. The Seven Habits served as a framework for the discussion about how to keep improving. From time to time, it is nice to let someone else (an expert, no less!) help us discover ways we can achieve and maintain an effective business.

During these sessions we discussed what makes a strong job candidate. While all employers look for highly skilled and experienced applicants, we generally concentrate on traits that cannot be taught: determination and keen perception. No amount of training can make an unmotivated person more determined to succeed, and someone who lacks insight and reacts haltingly to unforeseen situations creates an unwanted level of dependency. An agile mind and a willingness to act are crucial when dealing with the challenges of construction – from the initial client meeting to project completion.

John had a commander a few years back who did not mince words (one of his many admirable traits, some would say). When mentoring the younger officers, he would say, “You can’t coach effort.” Similarly, the architecture/design principal is responsible for coaching execution, rather than effort.

Anyone can be taught to properly detail a roof drain, write a contract, or complete many of the routine tasks we do on a day-to-day basis. But without self-motivation, it’s impossible to make it to that next level where we can achieve the awesomeness we strive for in a completed project. And without the insight to make the right choices, we can’t trust an employee to guide our projects swiftly and successfully across the finish line. We look for architects and designers who are driven to succeed each and every day. Skills are important, but determination and tenacity are musts. Which brings us back to the Seven Habits: Habit #1 tells us to Be Proactive. 

Passing Through: Portland, Maine

John spent some time in Portland, Maine last week. Here is his account of a small sampling of food, coffee, and culture - but not necessarily in that order:

You may wonder why I was in Portland - it is, after all, quite a long way from Rapid City. 1620 miles, to be exact. I was there to participate in a series of pre-design meetings for an Innovative Readiness Training (or, IRT) construction project. Long story short, IRT is a program in which the Air National Guard and Reserves support projects (health services, construction, infrastructure improvement) that offer training for military members and address needs within communities throughout the US. In this case, I will provide architectural services (my training) for a new dining facility and technology center at Camp Hinds, a facility that serves the greater-Portland community. Eventually, Guardsmen/women and Reservists will build the facilities and roads at Camp Hinds as part of the IRT training program. I encourage you to read more about the IRT and its origins.

I know, I know…this needs to be faster and funnier. So here goes:

Portland has a really great restaurant scene. I ate at a very unassuming Vietnamese restaurant, a couple of hipster-approved establishments, and one tourist trap (for the obligatory lobster, of course).

First up, Saigon Restaurant. I’m always a sucker for good Vietnamese food, and Saigon did not disappoint. The pho was some of the best I’ve had in the US. I could have easily eaten there every night and left Portland a happy man.

Next, I hit Duck Fat. Their claim to fame are the French Belgian fries - specifically, “classic Belgian fries made with Maine potatoes fried in duck fat…” They serve some sandwiches and assorted other goodies, but nothing I ate came close to the fries. So good. (But FYI: Don’t eat there if you have an aversion to hipsters in youth extra-medium T-shirts.) Photo by Bryan Bruchman / flickr.com

I then went in search of some proper ramen at Pai Men Miyake (I have a thing for noodles). The ramen was good and the happy hour specials were generous, so I was happy. Pai Men Miyake is in the arts district, not too far from the Portland Arts Museum. The interior of the restaurant had a crafty, slightly DIY (in a good way) feel, featuring walls covered in end grain wood scraps. 

My host for the week introduced me to Coffee by Design. There are six locations…I think I tried three of them. I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed with Coffee by Design. Everything I tried was amazing. It’s on par with Intelligentsia (in Chicago and LA), the favored shop of our favorite coffee snob aficionado. Go out of your way to find Coffee by Design if you are in the Portland area - well worth it.

Portland also has a great art museum (appropriately named The Portland Museum of Art) - and a really friendly gentleman at the reception desk who goes by “Juice” - his callsign from flying in the Air Force (the story of his name is worth hearing if you run into him). The museum’s main building was designed by Henry Cobb (of Pei Cobb Freed and Partners) in the early 1980s. Though the exterior is unmistakably (and a bit painfully) post-modern, the interiors are really quite nice. The galleries and circulation are marked by granite slabs and inset pine flooring - 20 x 20 squares are the primary module forming the galleries. 

I went to the Portland Art Museum at the suggestion of an architect at SMRT. One of the current exhibits chronicles 25 years of a local lecture series called “Architalx.” While the exhibit lacked focus, the Architalx program looks great. So many influential architects have taken part - Billie Tsien, Rick Joy, and Jorge Silvetti, to name just a few. The museum’s permanent collection is impressive - many fine examples from Winslow Homer and NC Wyeth, but also modern masters, such as Miro and Kandinsky.

Portland was a very nice surprise - its very walkable downtown has a little bit of everything. Great coffee and very friendly people top it all off. I look forward to going back as the Camp Hinds project progresses.

The Art of Renovation

With demolition work well under way on the Omaha hotel and construction rocking on the F Residence kitchen renovation, we have had renovation on our minds. 

The bulk of our work right now is renovation work – be it historic preservation work or more typical renovations. We seem to thrive when there are pigeon carcasses and multiple verification trips involved in the “discovery” process.

We attribute the amount of renovation work we get to the fact that prime real estate is in short supply. Our renovations are mostly located in dense urban neighborhoods (Parts Central, Murphy’s, Omaha hotel, Dakota Soda Co.) or on stunning residential sites (M2 Residence, H Residence, F Residence). One project even fits both categories – the historic Sweeney House, pictured above.

Renovations offer more constraints than new construction, but we start a renovation just as we do any project – by understanding the client’s goals and aspirations. A large advantage and clear difference is that we can visually analyze what clients and occupants like and don’t like about the existing structure. This often allows the clients to prioritize and target design moves and construction budget.

As architects, we have to develop a clear vision for each renovation and to be very direct in communicating how the renovation is the same and how it is different from the existing building. Being able to visualize a renovation is arguably more crucial than it is with new construction, for one simple reason: the existing condition biases our (and your) expectations and perceptions. That said, a clear vision doesn’t mean an final vision. Inevitably, surprises are uncovered during demolition in buildings being renovated. It’s like unwrapping a present, you never quite know what’s inside walls and ceilings until you open them up.

For example, in the F Residence (see above), a very large beam spanned across the kitchen – not at all what was drawn on the original plans. We had to work fast and consult our structural engineer to create a solution that could be promptly installed by the builder.

In another instance, in the Omaha Hotel project, we had to re-plan the back-of-house scheme very late in the game – just before we issued the final Construction Documents – in order to retain the existing mechanical and electrical rooms. The hotel project manager decided it wasn’t feasible to move the necessary utilities around as we had originally planned, so we had to scramble and share quick/dirty plans with him to verify on site if the new layout would work.

These examples underscore the need to be adaptive and open-minded. Renovations rarely proceed exactly as expected. There is no time to lament how these surprises impact our vision – they are opportunities to offer thoughtful solutions that enhance (rather than diminish) the finished product. John relates this to aviation:

Before flying, we would always plan a route to fly during the mission and plan a specific time to reach the target. For each mission, we printed a chart with that route depicted as a single black line. When a mission goes exactly as planned, we would say that it was “black line.” Rarely was a mission “black line.” Similarly, a renovation is rarely “black line.” Straying from the black line in construction just means we need to improvise, be creative, and figure out the best way to reach the target. 

The transformative power of a good renovation is immeasurable, and often renovations catalyze development of neighboring properties. We’ve seen well-timed and well-located renovation projects mean positive growth for Rapid City: along a bit of a “no-mans land” between Mount Rushmore Road and West Boulevard, the 800 and 900 blocks of Main Street have seen a lot of investment over the last few years. We can thank Peter and Aida Compton’s Bully Blends for transforming two adjacent properties near the corner of 9th and Main, Murphy’s overhauling their building and brand, and local preservationist Pat Roseland bringing a mix of commercial and residential units to a previously vacant property across the street from the Federal Building. Those blocks are an increasingly vital part of downtown Rapid City. We are very excited by the possibility of initiating further development within that part of town, elsewhere in the city and around the state.

What was that - AcV2?

Recently we met with someone who recommended we rethink/change the name of our company. She told us “AcV2” is hard to write, hard to pronounce, hard to remember. Maybe it is. But it comes with a great story, which we’re pretty sure will help you remember it – and you might just remember a little something about us as well. 

Principals John and Patri named the company following a dinner with a tremendously valuable professional mentor, when we decided to start our own architecture firm. We left dinner feeling hopeful and determined, but a little uncertain, too (some fear in the belly is a good thing…or so we’ve been told). We got in the car and asked each other: “What should we name this thing?” (That’s of course after discussing entrepreneurship question 1A: “Are we out of our minds?!?!”). And John, without a single drop of hesitation, says “A-C-V-2”.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Patri and her sisters could always identify their volleyball at the gym — it was the one tagged “ACV2” with black marker. Pronounced in Spanish, ACV2 sounds like “Acevedo(s),” Patri’s family last name. So when it came time to name the new practice, there was really only one contender. It’s a long-standing nickname that’s short and sweet and deeply personal.

Ac · V2
english: |a·see·vee·too|
spanish: |ah·say·vay·dos|

As we started drafting this blog entry, the most recent issue of Residential Architect (good publication, btw) arrived in the mail. In it, there’s an article about architecture firm names. AcV2 is not too far away from the names of some incredibly influential firms: HOK, RMJM, and SOM, to name a few. The only difference is that when you sound out our name, you say Patri’s last name. We hope the little joke leads to some great conversations. If we only had a quarter for every story that started: “My college roommate was from Puerto Rico. His name was___, do you know him?!”

We chose a name that speaks directly to who we are and where we come from – a way to connect with clients, consultants, colleagues, everyone. We want to know what makes you tick, and we want you to get to know us better, too. 

We love origin stories. Please feel free to use the comments section or Facebook to share how you came up with the identity for your business.

Parts Central

The Parts Central project, which we designed in conjunction with Fred Thurston, is nearing completion this week. We are excited to see work wrap up on the building renovation, and we are equally excited to share some of the back story and a few pictures of the project. 

The building is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and we made an effort to keep its original character whenever possible. While the renovated space respects the past, it also looks forward: It’s being designed with sustainability in mind, and in the process of receiving LEED Silver certification. The project also qualifies for two important tax benefits, the South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) Tax Moratorium, as well as National Park Service (NPS) Tax Credits. These tax incentives are key for many historic preservation projects; renovations can sometimes cost as much if not more than building new. Offsetting building costs on important historic structures greatly improves the feasibility of a rehabilitation or renovation project.

Originally built as the Casper Supply Company in 1946, the building at 415 Main Street is better known as Parts Central. Located in downtown Rapid City, the Parts Central Building is a prime example of the late western Art Deco movement, with its flat wall surfaces, decorative brickwork, and pilasters that rise above the roofline. As with many buildings of this style, one can see elements of the Modern Style through the rounded exterior windows and glass block. The renovated building will house leasable office space and be a new hub for downtown-based business.

The photo may look incomplete because there has not been any “build-out” for future tenants, but make no mistake about those “empty” spaces: the contractors are busy removing walls, adding windows, cutting doorways, and installing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. In addition to fully finished common spaces (such as bathrooms and corridors) and executive offices (for the building owners), the main floor and basement will soon be finished to suit the needs of future tenants.

Throughout the building, we sought to retain key historical elements of the building, while creating flexibility for future tenants and incorporating more natural light into the space. We added a second main entrance on the alley-side of the building and introduced new windows, skylights and transoms.

One of our favorite features of the renovated building are the new handrails, a detail that although small, accentuates the Art Deco richness of the building’s style.

It is always an honor to work on existing buildings that are rich with history and architectural distinction. Parts Central is a unique piece of our downtown commercial district, and we hope our work enhances and preserves the building’s special character.