{"id":92890,"date":"2007-07-31T15:19:32","date_gmt":"2007-07-31T15:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\/concrete-construction\/article\/from-boxes-to-blocks_o"},"modified":"2007-07-31T15:19:32","modified_gmt":"2007-07-31T15:19:32","slug":"from-boxes-to-blocks_o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zonda-develop.go-vip.net\/concrete-construction\/projects\/from-boxes-to-blocks_o\/","title":{"rendered":"From Boxes to Blocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>

When most people go home from work, they don’t head for a manufacturing facility. But in Ybor City, a National Historic Landmark District of Tampa, Fla., it’s trendy to live in such a place, like the Tampa Box Factory. The facility, originally built by hand in 1915, has been restored and converted into the Box Factory Lofts, with 53 two-story loft homes.<\/p>

Concrete block proved to be the ideal building material for the \u201cadaptive reuse\u201d project, providing both historic continuity and modern practicality. The 68,000-sq-ft building formerly housed the world’s largest cigar box manufacturer. Its original concrete masonry walls were still largely intact when restoration began in early 2006. The walls gave architect Lord, Aeck & Sargent a good place to start.<\/p>

\u201cThe Barrio Historic Preservation Board required us to preserve the original masonry,\u201d explained Ellena Lin, project architect, \u201cbut we would have done that anyway because it is interesting, attractive, and enhances the quality of the project.\u201d<\/p>

To ensure high quality restoration, Miles Development Partners hired Paul J. Sierra Construction as general contractor. The Tampa firm has more than 30 years of experience restoring Ybor City’s historic structures, which Andy Castro, Sierra’s commercial division manager, described as \u201ceither related to the cigar industry or social clubs.\u201d<\/p>

At one time, Ybor City was considered the cigar capital of the world, which is a designation the city still celebrates during its annual Cigar Heritage Festival. In fact, Andy Castro’s own grandparents were cigar makers who worked in buildings just like the Tampa Box Factory. Most of the city’s residents spent their free time in one of the many social clubs established by the Spanish, Italians, Cubans, Germans, and other nationalities who settled there.<\/p>

Click here to see the slideshow<\/a><\/p>

Life in a factory<\/b> <\/p>

Unlike the Box Factory, most of the old social clubs have been converted into office buildings, or renovated for their original purpose as community gathering places. The Box Factory Lofts is one of the first new housing developments in the area. Sierra hired Joswig Construction to create livable space in this industrial setting, and also preserve the building’s original character. Joswig is a local masonry contractor specializing in historic restoration and repair.<\/p>

The versatility of concrete block is most obvious inside the loft units, where the material bridges the gap between the contemporary residences and their nearly 100-yr-old setting. Architects specified standard 8-in. concrete masonry units for new load-bearing walls.<\/p>

The walls were deliberately left unfinished to create juxtaposition between the old and new materials and separate the individual loft homes, which range between 950 and 1700 sq ft. The walls were also designed to support the building’s new inner tier roof, raised 5\u00bd-ft above the existing roof to add second-level lofts to each unit.<\/p><\/div>

Fa\u00e7ade face-lift<\/b>

Joswig worked with Service Painting, the project’s painting and restoration contractor, to carefully restore the original interior and exterior masonry walls. The company stripped layers of paint, tuck-pointed, and sealed the block.<\/p>

The restoration team faced its biggest challenge outside the factory’s walls. Contractors were able to refurbish almost all of the massive 16-in. x 32-in. masonry units that made up the building’s historic fa\u00e7ade, with the exception of a small area with structural damage and sections designated for new window or door openings.<\/p>

In these places, they had to make sure any replacement block matched the original units exactly, by order of the Historic Preservation Board. The construction team salvaged and reused existing block wherever they could, but in the end there wasn’t enough.<\/p>

\u201cRecasting the original block wasn’t an option,\u201d said Castro. \u201cTwo people could hardly lift one block since they weighed several hundred pounds each. It also wasn’t cost effective because the style isn’t produced anymore.\u201d Instead, Sierra made an onsite casting of the block, used to produce a 3\u00bd-in. veneer face block in the original split face pattern.<\/p>

To match the depth of the 16-in. walls, the contractor first placed 12-in. gray block and applied the decorative veneer block to the front. Once the company added a fresh elastomeric paint coating to the entire surface, the result was flawless.<\/p>

\u201cWe’re thrilled with how sensitively the team went in to adaptively reuse the building, while staying as true as possible to its history,\u201d said Bruce Wise, AIA, Miles Development Partners director of design. \u201cThe project has been very well received in the community, and there’s a lot of respect for what’s been done.\u201d<\/p>

The project has won historic preservation awards from both the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission and the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation.<\/p>

Residents also seem impressed. \u201cThe people there love it,\u201d added Castro, \u201cbecause of its unique, industrial style.\u201d In support of his point, architects report the Box Factory Loft’s units are nearly sold out.<\/p>

For a bird’s-eye view of this project from start to finish, Click here<\/a> to see the slideshow in a new window.<\/b><\/p>

Project Participants<\/b> <\/p>