St. Louis, MO
Site: .51 acres
Building: 10, 450 SF
Completed: 2013
Client: Undisclosed
Contractor: Neu Construction
Interior Design: Idea Architects
We were tasked with designing a showroom addition to an existing nondescript office warehouse building. The building was originally built in 1962 and had several uses over the years. The current owner purchased the warehouse to store his collection of cars and use what was originally designed as the office to display his favorite car along with some of his favorite memorabilia (housed in the adjacent warehouse pictured below).
The owner uses the building to host charity corporate events for his business. As his collection and event size grew it became apparent that he needed to build a larger showroom to support this growing need.
The most challenging part of the project was that a portion of the site was in a floodway and the new addition had to be designed to resist hydrostatic pressure from outside the building. This was accomplished by incorporating a 48” high concrete wall behind a brick veneer with a cast stone water table which transitioned to the painted CMU wall above. This would allow this new structure to withstand floodwaters rising up to 4’-0” above the floor.
We then designed the building perimeter to step with the line of the floodway which created alcoves of space within the addition. The brick veneer for the wainscot matched the existing brick trim on the outside corners of the existing building.
The building has been crisply designed and meticulously landscaped with dark brick accents adjacent to the white painted CMU along with a metal canopy and new parking spaces with a new clearly defined accessible route.
