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Historical Restoration

Botanical Heights

Botanical Heights is a new name that replaced McRee Town, which at one point was one of the most dangerous urban neighborhoods in the nation. At the time we moved in, the eastern half of the neighborhood had recently been completely torn down and replaced with new housing by a large regional home builder. The western half was assumed to be slated for the same fate; we had a different idea!

Working with a not for profit redevelopment group, the Garden District Commission, which was formed by the nearby Missouri Botanical Garden, we forged a new plan that stabilized the existing building stock and move forward with an ambitious plan for historic rehabilitation and infill building that would re-create a walkable, sustainable, mixed use neighborhood.

To date, our team has developed, designed and built over 40 new homes, dozens of apartments, a facility for Missouri’s top performing charter school, several nationally recognized restaurants and various office and retail spaces. We have guided over $15 million in investments in the neighborhood thus far with another $10 million slated for the coming two years.

The neighborhood has received local and national praise for both the speed and quality of the redevelopment. By working within the context of this long neglected 100 year old neighborhood we have been able to foster a rebirth with the density, amenities, and charm that make city neighborhoods great places to live and work.

Olio and Elaia

Bush (formally UIC) served as design-builder and developer for this new venture by our good friend, chef Ben Poremba. Olio, described as a “grown-up wine bar and eatery,” is located in a former 1930s Standard Oil station that had been covered in plaster and stood abandoned for over a decade. Following a careful uncovering and analysis of the existing structure to determine the original form and brick pattern, we were able to lovingly complete a rehabilitation of this iconic structure. Olio, and its sister restaurant Elaia, are now an important anchor for our redevelopment of the Botanical Heights neighborhood.

Lafayette Preparatory Academy

Phase 1 – Renovation of Classroom Buildings of Historic Lafayette Church

23,000SF

Lafayette Preparatory Academy is a top-ranked St. Louis City charter school and its reputation continues to grow. Their facility is in the prominent and beautiful neighborhood of Lafayette Square, near downtown. They came to us when they found a building in the area that they were trying to serve – the historic Lafayette Church at the northeast corner of Lafayette Square Park. The building had a lot of potential – though not a lot of land – and that worked for the school from a location and financial perspective. We were able to help with the development of the building, including acquisition, financing, deployment of incentives, and planning.

In order to meet the schedule the school needed to begin holding classes in the building, we divided the project into two phases. The first phase was the 23,000sf renovation of two of the old Sunday School classroom buildings. Both of historic significance, one was built in the 1940s and the other in the 1960s, and both were in terrible shape having been vacant for several years. The design team worked with the school leadership and staff to re-purpose the space into light-filled and spacious classrooms, a library, offices, and cafeteria / multi-purpose room. Once complete, the school began using the facility and we began to prepare for Phase 2. Interestingly, the 1940s building had been designed to have two more stories added to it, but the plan was never carried out. With such little space on the site to build, the challenge for Phase 2 was to fit several more middle school classrooms and a gym on the site.

Phase 2 – Middle School Addition and Gym Addition

16,500SF

After completing Phase 1 – renovation of the classroom buildings – we began planning for Phase 2, which was decidedly more complicated. The design team was able to squeeze a two-story classroom building between the historic church and the 1960s building, and connect the floors. We also designed and engineered the addition of a full-sized gym on top of the existing 1940s building. The original plans for the building called for a vertical addition of two more floors of classrooms. Ultimately we were able to add the gym and successfully navigate the code changes that were made.

Being in a historic district, the new construction portions of the project faced regulatory challenges and approvals required by City guidelines. We were able to work with the neighborhood and the Preservation Board to design a beautiful addition to the neighborhood and a functional facility for the school.

Garcia Properties: Headquarters & Multifamily

This adaptive-reuse transforms a historic auto dealership and showroom into the headquarters for a local real estate developer and construction company. The first floor is an open office space with 15 apartments above.

To maximize flexibility and capitalize on an underserved market in St. Louis, the owner suggested micro-apartments. After exploring more conventional unit arrangements, it was discovered that a self-contained, furniture-like pod including a kitchen, bath, and storage was conducive to semi-transient dwellers, made a more interesting distinction between existing and new, and created an opportunity for an economy of scale for the developer – most of the pods are the same and only change orientation.

The design takes advantage of the existing structure including a concrete ramp- historically used to get cars to the roof- heavy concrete slabs, and rhythmic distribution of structure. While many of the units reference a mechanical sameness, drawing upon the industrial past of the building, the ramp creates a situation in the penthouse for a more unique apartment. The unit is tiered over three plateaus that lead to a roof deck and separate studio with city views.

The renovation included a complete restoration of the building exterior. All of the historic window openings had been made smaller with masonry, and non-historic replacement windows, and covered by large awnings. Now, the exterior features windows that revive the design and transparency of the original structure.

Gadellnet

The new Gadellnet headquarters are located in the completely renovated and re-purposed Lunar Tool Building in the Botanical Heights Neighborhood. Gadellnet, a start-up IT company was looking for an office space that would work well for day-to-day workplace functions, and that would also be a differentiator when it came to recruiting new employees. The Lunar Tool Building was made up of two different warehouse buildings from different decades and both qualified for Historic Tax Credits.

The Gadellnet clients, three partners – were looking for open concept work space, flexible open space to accommodate large and small collaborative meetings, as well as conference rooms and offices of different sizes. Additionally, they needed a gym, and indoor and outdoor recreational space, and a large kitchen/bar area for employees and entertaining new clients. We incorporated many of the interesting features of the existing building into the design, maintaining the warehouse feel with large, glass garage doors, exposed brick, factory windows, exposed steel structure, and barn-style dock doors. An old crane became part of the structure that holds up one end of a new mezzanine in the space.

In addition to creating and building a unique design for the workspace, we worked with the client to develop the property, guiding them through a develop-to-suit process that included acquisition, financing, and incentives.

Tower Grove Mews

A rough-shod conglomeration of buildings, the Tower Grove Mews historic stable complex had lots of potential, but was so dark and full of junk, it was hard to imagine. Once we were able to clean out the buildings,  we discovered a pretty amazing space in the stable-turned-warehouse. And ultimately, we completely rebuilt that part of the structure after discovering that the roof was held up by storage pallets stacked high. The old stable space formerly housed our St. Louis office, and has since been converted to apartments. There are also three other storefront retail spaces, a restaurant space, and 10 loft-style apartments – all surrounding an open space that accommodates some required parking spots, but also made a charming courtyard, conducive to some great music and festival events.

With exposed brickwork and ceilings, sealed concrete floors, and a number of features from the building’s former use left in place, the one and two bedroom apartments are very unique, full of character, and are what you might imagine when you think of a loft apartment. Exposed brick and timber trusses, full-wall glass garage doors, and old machinery make up some of the features of the apartments.

The project was a development, design, build effort by our team. We worked with the City of St. Louis to complete the design and with the state of Missouri on completing the requirements necessary to receive Historic Tax Credits.

Wild Carrot

For years, the building at 3901 Shaw Avenue sat unnoticed and slowly deteriorating. While sometimes occupied by a retail tenant or small corner market use, the building was unrecognizable as something that was once a neighborhood gathering space. When the building was suggested as an option to our client by the City, we realized that it had actually been the Shaw Theater in a past life and at about 9300 square feet, was exactly what we were looking for. After exploring the interior, we realized that the old theater portion had huge barrel trusses, exposed brick and other interesting details.

Our team consulted on the development, helping our client to find the building, negotiate the purchase with the City, and utilize Historic Tax Credits. We brought her vision of an event space for hosting weddings and events for up to 200 people. To host variable-sized events, we needed to make the space flexible while respecting the old theater space architecturally. For the most part, we left the space open and exposed, and inserted small, contrasting volumes into the space to house the kitchen, bar, mezzanine, bride and grooms’ rooms, and storage. The arrangement of these spaces allows for variable sized events and some of the existing architectural features create opportunities to divide the space and curate to an event – and also make those evermore important “Instagram-able” moments.

The design and construction team worked collaboratively to create a great space that worked with the budget. We completely renovated the ground floor interior of the building into and event space and a small 2nd floor apartment into an apartment or Air BnB that can be rented along with the space. Using historic tax credits, the exterior was refurbished to its former glory as the Shaw Theater. A large and impressive historic canopy and ticket booth were reconstructed on the front of the building. We worked with the State Historic Preservation Office to make other thoughtful modifications to accommodate the new use.

 

Climb So Ill at The Power Plant

When brothers and business partners David and Daniel Chancellor and partner Ian Anderson came to us they already had one of the best known and unique brands in the climbing holds and supply business, in So Ill, and wanted to launch an indoor climbing gym that would be on par with their holds business. Working with Bush (previously known as UIC), the team toured spaces across St. Louis, including abandoned malls and breweries, which were capable of holding up to 55 foot high walls and an existing massive bouldering wall. The final location selection was a truly one of a kind opportunity in the former Power Plant to what was the City Hospital complex south of Downtown. We worked with So Ill and the existing building owner to not only understand how the climbing gym could fit, but to also figure out how to insert an adjacent banquet hall and a two story roof top restaurants with a bar looking out over the top of the elite wall, all of which not only created a great facility, but made the project financially viable.

The result is truly one of a kind. Working with Bulgarian based climbing wall designer and fabricator, Walltopia, Bush and So Ill developed a design with vibrant walls contrasted against the rich patina of the carefully maintained existing structure. New elements, such as a series of balconies and stairs and a suite of custom casework and furniture, were designed to match this contrast of elements and to further embellish the unique scale and heights of the spaces.

Bush’s design team embedded themselves in the Climb So Ill team from the outset of the project and did everything they could to help David, Daniel and Ian realize their dream of creating one of the best indoor climbing experiences in the country. Starting with site selection, advising on their award winning business plan, working tirelessly to find the right mix of spaces and materials, and even donning climbing gear to adjust lights 60 foot in the air well into the night the day before opening, Bush became a part of the So Ill team and the success of our client.

 

 

 

 

 

Wilson Building

The historic Wilson Building originally built in 1914 has been redeveloped into a mixed-use development with 33 residential rental units and approximately 5,025 square feet of first-floor commercial space facing 5th Avenue South in downtown Clinton IA.

The $11.45 million historic adaptive-reuse, mixed-use development will preserve and transform the Wilson Building into loft units and one and two-bedroom rental units ranging in size from 483 to 1,224 square feet. The remodel included structural repair to the exterior brick & terracotta. On the interior, all utilities were demolished and replaced. Apartments were shaped using as many original walls as possible, even keeping the original corridor doors where present. Windows were replaced with new, historically accurate units. We worked closely with the design team and the State Historic Preservation Office in order to keep the remodel as historically accurate as possible.

 

Will Hall and Law Building

In the spirit of a historic renovation, Bush Construction converted the beautiful Will Hall and Law building in downtown Aledo, Illinois. There are now three commercial units on the main floor and AirBnB units on the second floor.

Bush Construction also completed the historical renovation of the Carnegie Library in Aledo, Illinois at the same time. Built in 1915-16, the landmark served generations of community members until it closed in 2019.

The storefronts of the Perryton Law Building were restored for a more historic appearance, which the Bush Design team kept in mind when drawing up plans. On the first floor of this renovation, there is commercial space, and the second floor contains tenant space. This project required a finish date within a strict time frame and with diligent planning and strong trade partner relationships and communication, we were able to achieve this aggressive schedule.

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