Live & Work - Sustainable Design

Applications of sustainable design, sourcing, and building in the modern architectural design industry were explored to redesign an existing industrial building shell, located in Milwaukee, WI, to house separate residential and occupational spaces.

To explore what bringing to life my dream of having my own architectural design firm would look like, I chose to rework the roof structure and raise a central portion of its simple gable to bring natural light into the building's most central zones, then split the 30' of new floor-to-ridge interior height into two floors and a catwalk-style mezzanine level.

The first floor houses four mid-sized apartments pushed to the back side of the building, furthest from the street for a more private living experience and with designated apartment entry points that are not shared with the firm. The front of the building that immediately faces the street is where the lobby for the design firm exists, and the heart of the firm is fully accessible from there on the second floor via elevator or open stair.

The mezzanine catwalk is a dedicated 1,500 square foot material library with custom cabinetry for all types of samples and selections to be stored and accessed functionally. This space also includes pin-up space and flat lay box storage as well as a large collaborative workspace that overlooks employee desk space down below. The nature of the catwalk being floating in the center of the building mass allows light from the raised section of the roof to shed down onto the floor below, making this work environment as enjoyable to exist in as it is efficiently space planned.