Alamo Architects and OCO Architects jointly purchased a 1940s truck-trailer manufacturing plant on a 2-acre lot in downtown San Antonio. Rather than demolish the dilapidated structures, the architects sought to integrate the industrial property into a mixed-use building, which would provide two office spaces for the firms, while honoring the industrial heritage of the area.
After the abatement of the corrugated cement-asbestos siding, roofing, and window glazing compounds, the remaining shell structures were re-clad in galvanized corrugated metal and roofing, and new operable windows and storefronts. The industrial vocabulary was celebrated with the reuse of the steel sash clerestory windows as handrails and guardrails, the recycling of the long leaf pine flooring as interior wall cladding, and door and window casings. The existing steel and wood sectional garage doors were recycled as partition end caps and wall panels in both office interiors.
The existing multi-level mezzanine structure of steel pipe, angles, and channels was reconfigured as three distinct entry gates, two for the individual firms, and one as a common courtyard entrance from the staff parking area. The balance of the industrial sash windows was re-glazed with expanded metal, and was used as fence components.
The east courtyard, centered on a lush landscape bed with a concrete tank fishpond, has become the beer garden, a formal and informal meeting place for both firms’ employees. The reclaimed and reused materials were left in their aging, unfinished condition. The skeleton of the old fabrication shed was restored as the framework for the beer garden trellis.
The original concrete paving, as well as some from a nearby site, was reused as” poor man’s flagstone.” The largest pieces were simply tilted up and secured to recycled posts as the fence along the north and west property line. The height was kept low enough that the immense agaves and succulents growing next door were incorporated visually into the firm’s entry and visitors’ courtyards.
A 6,500-gallon cistern collects rainwater and HVAC condensate for landscape irrigation. Office areas have unobstructed views to the courtyards and utilize day lighting. Only a 5 percent volume of the construction waste, including demolition, was sent to the landfill. This project was awarded LEED Silver Certification by the USGBC in 2008.
