Creativity and Preservation can certainly exist we all know this and have seen examples. They both can also be odd fellows and cause a certain amount of friction when mixed together. Sometimes the unthinkable (altering or removing historic fabric) can lead to the greater good for a historic building.
While in Atlanta I had the opportunity to visit three inspiring projects that prove creativity and preservation can coexist. While there I thought of the many large historic warehouses within our communities that are now vacant. Due to their size and level of disrepair they often are hard to repurpose.
Through creative interventions, developers in Atlanta have repurposed similar warehouses into professional offices, housing and retail spaces. Once such project, Studioplex stood out as a very creative solution to repurposing a 1904 cotton storage facility.
This complex now is a vibrant center integrating retail with 130 mixed income-housing units. With its already inherent traits such as high ceilings and exposed brick walls, this storage facility converted nicely into spaces that many find desirable.
Many utilitarian buildings have limited daylight within their interiors particularly as you get away from exterior walls with windows. Studioplex incorporates a very creative solution to getting daylight into the center of the building. Existing concrete floor plates were opened up to create a central corridor that functions for the buildings circulation and also creates a common area very similar to a courtyard for all residents and shop goers.
Though unorthodox in that historic fabric/material was removed to accomplish this, it serves residents well and allowed the project to move from vacant dark rooms to light filled occupied space. The complex has a feeling of a modern ruin that has been taken over by its residents to live once again. Though many preservationists may find this approach unconventional and slightly against the grain (myself included) one cannot argue the success and beauty that has been created through this project.