Preserving a company's legacy through a transformative renovation
Project Story
Prominently located at the head of their corporate campus, this building is the first office building owned by Edward Jones. We were charged with transforming the building into a high-performance workplace while preserving an important piece of the company’s legacy. A new detached garage and connecting bridge were added in a later phase, and the surrounding landscape was transformed into a more sustainable campus amenity.
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Size
130,000 SF, 704 cars
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Status
Completed 2014 (office building)
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Completed 2015 (garage and pedestrian bridge)
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Awards
2016 AIA St. Louis Citation Award for Architecture, Parking Garage
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2015 AIA St. Louis Honor Award for Architecture, 201 Progress Parkway
The programmatic goal of this project was to create effective and flexible office space for 700 employees supported by conferencing, food service, and a secure entry. Architecturally, the building needed to transform into a contemporary workspace that relates to newer buildings on campus, while allowing vestiges of the original design to remain. The original building did not meet the wellness objectives of the campus, so in addition to upgrading basic systems, a facade reconfiguration was needed to radically improve daylight and views. Lastly, the quality of the arrival experience was particularly important and this was transformed by weaving landscaping into the domain of the building.
Christner partnered with Edward Jones Facilities Design and Construction representatives through a very collaborative process. A series of early brainstorming sessions kicked off the project and yielded innovative and unexpected solutions to both the campus organization and the arrival sequence. Throughout the remainder of the project, we worked closely with the Edward Jones’ team to review floor plans, develop details, select finishes, and to refine workstation layouts. We also worked with existing corporate design standards to advance their culture while moving toward more effective and efficient workspaces.
This project supports Edward Jones’ effort to continually evolve their workplace, it celebrates a piece of the firm’s history, and it creates a new threshold to the corporate campus. Two new conferencing additions support collaboration with prominent locations and views. A transparent linking bridge doubles as informal coffee and meeting space, creating a gateway to the campus that puts the importance of human connectivity on display. A new landscape was woven into the experience of the building, creating new outdoor amenities and a gracious arrival experience for employees and visitors. By creating a dialectic between the heaviness of the original building and the lightness of the new additions and insertions, this design reflects a company that is rooted in history while always looking towards the future.
Highlights
The renovation improves the facade but allows traces of the original building to remain. A dense array of existing non-structural brick pilasters were removed, and the remaining pilasters are concealed with ‘shadow boxes’ within a ribbon window curtainwall system. Slightly bluish glass, variegated tan terracotta, and dark anodized aluminum create a palette in dialogue with the browns, grays and blues expressed in the existing aged copper fascia. To serve as a counterpoint to the opaque and weathered copper banding, new construction is intentionally light, transparent and ethereal.
We collaborated with the client’s internal interior design department to ensure that the interior and exterior palettes were aligned. This alignment creates a stronger sense of connection between interior spaces and the perimeter landscape. Site design integrates the building with the landscape and features a visitors’ ‘parking garden’, new bio-retention gardens, and a landscaped dining terrace.
The 3-bay parking structure is “open air” and incorporates an innovative enclosure system comprised of louvers in which opacity into the garage is affected by their orientation. Depending on a viewer’s point of view, the garage façade changes as a person moves around it.
