Adaptive Reuse
Adaptive reuse is conversion of a building from its original use to a new one. The practice adds value to a project by preserving resources and a sense of history and elements of a building’s soul, and saves time and money. As cities are in a constant state of change it’s an effective approach.
“Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things pass and nothing stays, and comparing existing things to the flow of a river, he says you could not step twice into the same river.” Plato
Our practice was founded on the adaptive reuse of light-manufacturing buildings emptied as manufacturing jobs migrated offshore and service jobs replaced them.
We converted factories and warehouses into live-work lofts, offices and retail venues, providing design and sometimes design-build services.
As we developed more expertise in new business development and assembly space design we prepared concepts to convert Europe and the USA. Our work included converting garages, a turbine factory and a bank into restaurants and developing hotels from an iron foundry, an office building, a post office, etc…
One of our favorite adaptive reuse projects is East, the conversion of abandoned and decrepit iron foundry in Hamburg’s St. Pauli District into a hotel with a variety of restaurant, lounge, bar and dance venues.
Recently we converted a mechanic’s garage into Twain, A 1930’s mechanic’s garage was converted into Twain, a restaurant and bar in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.
Louis Sullivan
The conversion of a warehouse / residence into an office building with a ground floor restaurant.
JW Marriott, Houston
JMA provided design architecture services for the conversion of the Carter office building, originally built in 1910 in downtown Houston, into a three hundred room JW Marriott hotel.
Jordan Mozer and Associates, LTD.
- Fulton Market
The conversion of a warehouse into a studio/showroom
Jordan Mozer and Associates, LTD.
- River North
The conversion of loft space originally used as a metal machine shop into an architecture and design studio
Bangkok Joe
The conversion of a bank into a Thai restaurant in Georgetown, Washington D.C.
The Hudson Club
restaurant had offered 100 wines by the glass. It was a garage.
Outer Circle Products
The conversion of a warehouse into an office and assembly space.
Ludwig Drum Factory
The Ludwig Drum Factory, which provided drumsticks to Ringo Star, was converted into some of the first Planned Development live-work lofts in Chicago.
Scoozi Restaurant
Scoozi Restaurant was a garage filled with trucks and car parts.
