Despite a coronavirus pandemic that has delayed or postponed projects across typologies and markets, the design firm Ware Malcomb has managed to buck that trend with design work for new buildings and spaces that serve some of the country’s hardest-hit sectors, like retail and offices, as well as some, like industrial, that have prospered during the health crisis.
Since last spring, Ware Malcomb’s completed projects have included:
•In December, the relocation of Key Food Stores Co-op’s corporate offices from Staten Island, N.Y., to 38,000 sf of Class A office space in Old Bridge, N.J. The new digs, on two floors, includes a reception area, conference rooms, a fitness center, and wellness room. The space also features an executive suite, and a test kitchen. Aside from providing interior architecture and design services, Ware Malcomb’s in-house branding studio designed environmental graphics into the workspace and amenity areas. Unity Construction Services was the project’s GC; CBRE was its broker and project manager.
•New office space for Airspace Technologies, the air transport shipping firm, located within the two-building, 235,000-sf Atlas at Carlsbad (Calif.) campus that Ware Malcomb helped to transform in 2017. Airspace Technologies is leasing 23,000 sf that are divided into three department “neighborhoods”: Design, Engineering, and Administrative. A centrally located reception, boardroom, and break area serves as a hub for employees. Ware Malcomb provided interior architecture and design services for this project, which was completed in October. The GC was Good & Roberts; the CM Hughes Marino; and the furniture supplier Cultura.
•Last summer, the 7,500-sf Vallejo First 5 Center opened as a learning and play space for children five years old or younger from low-income families. The space, inside the Vallejo (Calif.) Shopping Mall, has as its focal point a large indoor playground featuring a fantasy theme of bugs and the outdoors. Ware Malcomb provided the interior design architecture and design services, and Underwood Construction was the GC.
L'Oreal's Pulp Riot brand is now working out of new office space in Encino, Calif. Image: Haley Hill Photography
•New offices in Encino, Calif., that Ware Malcomb designed for L’Oreal’s Pulp Riot hair coloring product line. The 6,600-sf space encompasses a hair demo salon, conference rooms, open and flex offices, and a photo studio. It also serves as a training facility for stylists who come from around the country. The GC on this project, completed in July, was Pinnacle.
•Loloi Rugs’ newest facility, which opened in Atlanta last May, is a build-to-suit 646,380-sf building that incorporates a distribution center, warehouse, office space, and product showroom. Ware Malcomb designed 10,000 sf of interior office space and the 5,000-sf showroom. The offices, located on the periphery of the floorplate, have large windows and glass walls to maximize natural light exposure for the space. Ware Malcomb’s GC partner was Alston Construction.
Ware Malcomb designed the interior space and showroom for Loloi Rugs' new warehouse in Atlanta. Image: Johnny McLendon Photography
BIO-MASS BOILER A FIRST FOR ITS MARKET
Yesterday, Ware Malcomb announced the completion of the new Denver headquarters for TruStile, an industry leader in interior doors whose parent company is Marvin Windows & Doors. The headquarters includes 50,000 sf of office space and 260,000 sf of manufacturing/production space with a large outdoor amenity deck.
Bringing natural light into the building was an important design feature for TruStile's new headquarters. Image: Inside Out Studios
Ware Malcomb provided architecture, interior design, and engineering services for this project, which was built by Ryan Companies. The design team, at TruStile’s behest, ensured the layout of the open office and amenity areas were located near windows as much as possible. The production area is also visible from the building’s training room and various points in the office.
TruStile—which had been operating out of four buildings in Denver—has combined its operations into a single structure whose environmental features include a two-story mechanical building at its northern flank housing a bio-mass boiler that converts sawdust produced by the factory into energy for heating and cooling.
This site was constrained by its proximity to a 100-year floodplain. It required a development permit and a letter of map amendment and letter of map revision based on fill, known as a LOMR-F, whose issuance eliminates the federal flood insurance purchase requirement as a condition of federal or federally backed financing. This project also required a large underground detention system that was the first of its kind in Colorado.
ECOMMERCE IS DRIVING NEW PROJECTS
640 Columbia in Brooklyn, N.Y., will provide “last mile” distribution logistics for ecommerce. Image credit: Neoscape
Among the projects that Ware Malcomb currently has under construction is a multistory distribution center, known as 640 Columbia, which the firm developed in collaboration with DH Property Holdings and the GC firm Suffolk Construction.
Located on 4.5 acres in Brooklyn, N.Y., the 370,000-sf facility—which follows an industrial design prototype that Ware Malcomb came up with in 2017 for land-constrained sites—will provide so-called “last mile” logistics for the delivery of online purchases. The facility will include a warehouse, office space, two levels of truck docks, a mezzanine with parking, and dedicated elevator service on the third floor. An attached 77,853-sf parking structure will accommodate up to 184 vehicles for employees.
Since 2017, Ware Malcomb has designed approximately 20 million sf of industrial distribution projects in North America. The Brooklyn facility is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Its building team includes SMBH Structural Engineering (SE), WB Engineers and Consultants (MEP/FP), and Bohler Engineering (CE).
Related Stories
| Sep 7, 2022
Use of GBCI building performance tools rapidly expanding
More than seven billion square feet of project space is now being tracked using Green Business Certification Inc.’s (GBCI’s) Arc performance platform.
| Sep 7, 2022
K-8 school will help students learn by conducting expeditions in their own communities
In August, SHP, an architecture, design, and engineering firm, broke ground on the new Peck Expeditionary Learning School in Greensboro, N.C. Guilford County Schools, one of the country’s 50 largest school districts, tapped SHP based on its track record of educational design.
| Sep 6, 2022
Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. (1939-2022) An incomparable spirit
Dynamic leader and Kohler Co. Executive Chairman Herbert Vollrath Kohler, Jr. passed away on September 3, 2022, in Kohler, Wisconsin.
| Sep 6, 2022
Demand for flexible workspace reaches all-time high
Demand for flexible workspace including coworking options has never been higher, according to a survey from Yardi Kube, a space management software provider that is part of Yardi Systems.
| Sep 2, 2022
Converting office buildings to apartments is cheaper, greener than building new
Converting office buildings to apartments is cheaper and greener than tearing down old office properties and building new residential buildings.
| Sep 2, 2022
New UMass Medical School building enables expanded medical class sizes, research labs
A new nine-story, 350,000 sf biomedical research and education facility under construction at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, Mass., will accommodate larger class sizes and extensive lab space.
Architects | Sep 1, 2022
BNIM promotes Jeremy Knoll to Director of Sustainability and Regenerative Design
BNIM'S Jeremy Knoll promoted to Director of Sustainability and Regenerative Design.
Giants 400 | Sep 1, 2022
Top 160 K-12 School Architecture + AE Firms for 2022
PBK, DLR Group, Huckabee, and Stantec head the ranking of the nation's largest K-12 school sector architecture and architecture/engineering (AE) firms for 2022, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
| Sep 1, 2022
ABC: Nonresidential Construction Spending Increases by a Modest 0.8% in July
National nonresidential construction spending increased 0.8% in July, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data published today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
| Sep 1, 2022
The University of Iowa opens the new Stanley Museum of Art, a public museum for both discovering and teaching art
The University of Iowa recently completed its new Stanley Museum of Art, a public teaching museum designed by BNIM.