Blackney Hayes Architects was charged with creating a vision for an entire block at 4th and Race Streets that incorporated the adaptive re-use of an existing 3-story brick building into ground floor retail, with parking and residential units above a 7-story overbuild, thereby creating a 200-room hotel and a new 150-unit residential building.
In addition to successfully integrating the new construction with the existing building, BHA maximized views toward Independence Mall by rotating the overbuilt mass 45 degrees to the south and creating an outdoor roof terrace above the existing 3-story building. A dynamic elevator tower element and textural treatment of the walls, through panelized construction, create an iconic focal point at the northeast corner of the mall. Using Building Information Modeling tools, BHA was able to rapidly create and communicate the ideas to the client in rendered images of the same model that would eventually be used to create the construction documents.