The 1408 Wazee building, while historically significant, was compromised by an insensitive renovation from 1982 and by a lack of maintenance in recent years. After purchasing the property, Concord Energy retained Semple Brown to restore the building’s historic charm and renovate the interior spaces to incorporate the amenities of a modern office.

Our team started by designing all new facades for the primary and alley street elevations. The result is distinctly modern but references the historic condition by repeating key regulating lines from the original 1930’s facade and by re-creating the divided lite proportions of the original glazing. Daylighting is distributed through each floor plate.

On the interior, our team retained and exposed as much of the original wood and brick structure as possible, but the building was otherwise gutted and redesigned. The building now includes one and half floors of open office space, two large conference rooms, private offices, a feature stair that visually connects the three levels, and staff amenities including multiple kitchen/breakrooms, shower/locker rooms and bicycle storage space.