Developers' foresight connects Heartside's new "38" with the original's architecture

Deborah Johnson Wood

When Locus Development's John Green and Andy Winkel set out to demolish the original brick building at 38 Commerce and build the contemporary "38" in its place, they made sure to reserve bits and pieces from the old to use as architectural and art elements in the new.

Over the past couple of weeks the original brick façade of the first building has been recycled as brick cladding on the interior commercial and residential lobbies. Two steel structural beams are now art elements incorporated into the wall of the commercial lobby for the building along Weston St.

"The beams are the old riveted style about 12 inches deep," says Scott Veine, project manager from Pioneer Construction. "They reclaimed about 100 lineal feet. Pioneer sandblasted the rust and layers of old paint off them, refinished them, and they became art elements tied directly into the old brick, which in turn ties into the new construction."

Veine says the recycled content in the new 38, which will be LEED certified, is about 27 percent – a number in line with the Midwest's slightly higher percentages for recycled content in LEED buildings.

"Steel and aggregates are created in the Midwest," Veine says. "About 40 percent are locally fabricated and, of those, about 25 percent are locally extracted out of the ground or are made from locally obtained content (within 500 miles)."

Thirty of the building's 35 apartments are leased, 13 are occupied, says Jessica Geerling, Locus Development. One of the eight condos has been purchased.

Construction of all the apartments is completed, Veine says, and crews will end all construction by late May with the exception of the interior build-outs for the four retail bays on the main level.

Source: Scott Veine, Pioneer Construction; Jessica Geerling, Locus Development

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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Development News tips can be sent to [email protected].

Photos:

Courtesy of Locus Development