Concept

The client's specific functional and performance goals included building for longevity as a form of sustainability, achieving cost savings with engergy efficient systems and enduring design, and creating an active street-related baste to contribute to the revitalization of the district.

The program is broken down into three distinct volumes and organizes retail space at street level, offices from the second to the fourth floor, and residential space from the fifth to the sixth floor. The design establishes relationships to the adjacent historic Sugar Building in the dimensions and proportions of the massing, the masonry piers and the punched grid of windows.

The glazing composition varies to create a play of shadow and light. The overall composition oscillates between the classical and the contemporary – solid at the base, it evolves into an abstract exploration of the modernist grid in the upper storey.