I recently celebrated another birthday. When you reach a certain age in my family, the celebration lasts for an entire weekend—not just the day of your birth. It was a wonderful time! My birthday, which happened to be somewhat of a milestone, made me realize how lucky I am to be here to celebrate and allowed me the time to reminisce with my family about the amazing years that have passed (albeit too quickly).
Every day, amazing buildings and structures around the world also are celebrating birthdays. In fact, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Washington, D.C., 50 percent of commercial buildings were constructed before 1980. I love this fact and reference it quite often with readers and customers. Those of us born before 1980 know: When you reach a certain age, your body doesn’t respond or recover quite like it did when it was younger. Similarly, buildings require new components and systems upgrades to be made more technologically advanced, energy efficient and resilient so they can provide another 50 years of useful life.
I love learning about buildings across our country (and the world) that are being repurposed and upgraded for today’s needs. For example, this issue’s “Cover Story” takes a look at YETI’s flagship store located in the city where the business known for drinkware and coolers got its start, Austin, Texas. Recognizing that in today’s world, a retail store needs to create an experience for shoppers, the project’s architects—Austin-based lauckgroup (now Perkins+Will) and Lake|Flato Architects’ Austin office—provided YETI with exhibit and entertainment options in what once was a warehouse that survived Austin’s infamous 1935 flood.
retrofit held its second-annual retrofit conference in Charlotte, N.C., in October. (Learn more about this fascinating conference on retrofit’s conference website.) The conference’s morning keynote speaker, Galina Tachieva, managing partner of DPZ CoDESIGN, Miami, spoke about how to eradicate urban sprawl by finding new uses for abandoned malls and parking garages and then infilling the spaces between to create walkable neighborhoods. As we listened to Tachieva speaking, Editorial Director Christina Koch and I couldn’t believe the timing of Shelden Architecture Inc., Wichita, Kan. Firm representatives had reached out to Koch before the conference, offering to share the story of Broadway Autopark, which was built in 1949 as an attendant-operated parking garage in Wichita. Featuring twin spiral towers and porthole windows, the garage could hold 500 cars. Today, the garage’s unique features are assets to what now is a 44-unit apartment building that includes first-floor office space. Who would’ve thought you could turn a parking garage into residential space? And who doesn’t want front-door parking? Check out this amazing retrofit project in “Multifamily”.
These are a couple of my favorite stories in this issue. We’d love to learn about the renovation, retrofit, historic and/or adaptive reuse projects you’re working on. Submit them to us for consideration for the magazine or online. We’re seeking great content for 2019 right now! (Email a brief overview about your project, along with a few low-res images, to [email protected].) If you’re interested in learning about each issue’s topics, download our media kit.
Finally, I’d like to send a big thank you to you, our readers and advertisers. Because of your support we have been able to grow our magazine in print and online and will continue to celebrate the birthdays of many amazing retrofit projects today and in the future.
Have a wonderful holiday season with your families and friends. See you in 2019!