Oxford Development Company purchased a 400,000-sf light industrial building, with the aim of clearing the seven-acre area and connecting this property with the first phase of its highly successful 3 Crossings mixed-use development. Instead, the team assisted the client in repurposing the building’s three existing 18,000 sf bays into a unique office space—with the aim of capturing the authentic characteristics of the building and to create a high level of value that new construction could not afford.

City of Pittsburgh officials and the communal neighborhood groups celebrated this adaptive-reuse approach. This project design includes the original superstructure which includes eight-foot-tall steel roof trusses. The outer bays were covered in metal and glass, a nod to the vernacular of ribbon-windowed warehouse buildings found on streets around the site. The middle bay was re-designed as an outdoor urban court. This court serves both the building occupants and the larger neighborhood.

Wood planks from the underside of the existing roof were repurposed in many ways to reinforce the historic patina of the site and to promote a deeper level of sustainability. The building is now home to the Smith+Nephew Pittsburgh R&D and Medical Education Training Center, which was also designed by Perkins Eastman.