3rd Place, Adaptive Reuse
Thomas Powers School, a 40,000-square-foot stone-clad schoolhouse in Philadelphia sat empty for almost 10 years before it was sold by the school district to a residential real-estate developer. Given the inherent inefficiencies that come from wide school corridors with bearing walls on either side, neither the original developer nor the organization to whom it sold the property could make the building work as a project. Fortunately, Kreate Hub took control of the 1899 building with the goal of converting it into a canvas for artists, a place where businesses and careers could be launched and a community built.
At a targeted goal of $45 to $50 per square foot in renovation cost, which was met, the owners goal was to return whatever savings could be achieved through efficient design and construction to the artists as reduced rental fees. When Kreate Hub Philly opened in August 2020, pre-leasing had already proven successful and, by early spring 2021, the building had reached 97 percent capacity.
The building featured large multipurpose spaces on all three floors that were subdivided by massive rolling partitions, which hang from wide-flanged beams, allowing the spaces to be broken into anywhere from one to five classrooms. A number of these panels were fixed in place, providing the demising wall between various studios. Thick slate blackboards were cleaned for reuse or repaired using chalkboard paint to allow them to function as originally intended. The 10-foot-wide corridors were turned into galleries. The adjacent space, which had been storage, proved ideal for the building’s single-occupancy toilet rooms and work sinks.
After more than a century of life, the floors had been worn by occasional refinishing, and minor sagging along beam lines was visible. Rather than toothing in new red-oak flooring, the owner purchased a less expensive, pre-finished red-oak product and planed off the finished surface to match the thickness of the existing floors.
The project benefited from an acoustic ceiling that had been added to the building at some point. Only sections of wall and trim below the pressed tin ceiling tested positively for lead and were ultimately encapsulated. Then, the ceiling was manually brushed with a firm bristled broom—not stiff enough to damage the ceiling, but strong enough to remove loose and flaking paint. The ceiling now is a highly detailed polychrome surface, interplaying with the exposed spiral duct, electrical conduit and light fixtures.
To provide a clean approach to lighting without detracting from the ceiling, a linear LED fixture was selected at 4- and 8-foot lengths. In most of the project, these fixtures are oriented in an orthogonal grid with the building’s walls; within the central gallery corridors and lounge space, a more playful, angled arrangement is installed.
“The Kreate Hub program seems like a perfect marriage for this building. Subdivision of classrooms for private studio spaces is very well designed to hold walls low and maintain the original volume and detailing of windows and tin ceiling. The project does well to embrace the program and provide a slate where users complete the design through their artwork. The vibrancy and energy of the final product is palpable.”
Ross Welch, AIA, NOMA, LEED Green Associate, associate, Trivers, Metamorphosis Awards Judge
Retrofit Team
METAMORPHOSIS AWARD WINNER and ARCHITECT: LRK
MEP/FP ENGINEER: Hutec Engineering & Consulting
CIVIL ENGINEER: E&LP Inc.
Materials
PAINT: PPG
LIGHTING: Brandon Lighting
LOCKSETS/SECURITY: NSP Security
