101NQ Design Narrative

The original building at 101NQ was a product of Mid-20th Century urban renewal: A department store designed to attract suburban shoppers that had fled the cities during the turbulent 1960’s. As such, it ignored and isolated itself from its urban context by turning its back to the street. Its primary entrance was above street level, accessed from an adjacent parking garage. Its design flaws soon became apparent and the project ultimately failed, with the store closing its doors less than two years later. The building subsequently languished, functioning as a manufacturing facility before ultimately sitting vacant for nearly a decade.

The design brief was to transform the out-of-scale and out-of-context building and reintegrate it into the city’s urban core. The program was to include street level retail, which was missing for decades, and professional office space on the intermediate floors, with luxury residences on the top floor.

The first step was to carve away at the building’s windowless mass to make it more pedestrian friendly and to reduce the apparent scale of the 75 foot tall facades. Recessed arcades were created on both street facades. The entire first floor was opened up to the street and adjacent public plaza with full height glass storefronts. The upper floors were opened up with multiple window openings, scaled to relate to the rhythm and patterns of the adjacent historic neighborhood and to introduce much needed natural light.