Hammel, Green and Abrahamson
Minneapolis
Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc. (HGA)

A historic biscuit factory remains intact in this minimal intervention

© George Heinrich

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By Camille LeFevre

In early 2000, Hammel, Green and Abrahamson (HGA), with more than 400 on staff, chose the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, a 1912 factory building, as the opportune place in which to consolidate its three offices and moved into the renovated, 140,000-square-foot structure in August 2001.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building’s replacement exterior windows were historically accurate replicas, to preserve the structure’s ornamental facade. The interior was in bad condition, but the building’s poured-in-place concrete structure was sound, and the raw warehouse space along with the wood floors, small floor plates, and abundant natural light provided a good working environment for the firm.

HGA retained the column-free, nonhistoric addition for the firm’s commons and service area. Former loading-dock doors are now floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining area; the library is located on a new intermediate floor. The front entrance leads from reception up concrete stairs covered in reclaimed timbers, past two square glass conference rooms and into the original building. Windows along Washington Avenue display architectural models and allow passersby to see the space.

HGA gutted the historic building, kept the boilers, cleaned the brick, sandblasted the concrete ceilings and columns before painting them white, and refinished the wood floors. They converted the freight elevator on the south side into copy rooms, demarcated by the elevator’s original metal sliding doors.

Core necessities like mechanicals, conference rooms, elevators, and rest rooms reside on the east side of each floor. Each level is divided into two zones that accommodate two to five project teams. Studios incorporate standard metal-framing systems, allowing teams to reconfigure shelves and display boards according to their needs.

In order to group workstations within the existing space—structural columns are 3 feet wide on the first level and narrow to 1 foot 8 inches by the seventh level—the architects modified a standard Teknion workstation. Cabinetry hangs from the spine, which houses power and data cables of the demountable system. New open stairways with black-painted steel railings connect the second and third, and the fourth and fifth, floors. The drama of open space, however, occurs on the sixth and seventh stories, the latter of which is ringed with clerestory windows. Here, HGA removed six of the ovens, leaving 40-foot-high openings on either side of the remaining oven. The oven, of tan and glazed-white brick, is currently used for storing biscuit-company artifacts.

See the December 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Offices for Hammel, Green and Abrahamson

Location:
Minneapolis

Gross square footage:
147,000 sq ft

Total construction cost:
Over $10 Million

Owner:
701 Investments LLC

Architect:
Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc. (HGA)
701 Washington Avenue North
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
tel 612.758.4000
fax 612.758.4199
www.hga.com