When rebuilding the observation tower, existing brick was taken down to a constant course, which allowed new brick to blend at the match line. |
For 38 years, the Pere Marquette Depot sat boarded up, broken down, and fire damaged. The Prairie-style building, with its distinctive orange iron-brick walls, was once the elegant Bay City, Mich., train station. The facility, which opened in 1904, served the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad Company when the area was the epicenter of lumber processing for the shipbuilding and kit homebuilding industries.
In 1953, the 9,300-sf depot underwent an atomic-age modernization to convert it into a Greyhound bus terminal. Classical features like the 66-foot-high observation tower, wraparound canopy, ornamental metal brackets, and porte-cochere were demolished. After the bus station closed in 1969, the property sat vacant for more than three decades.
It took the depot's owner, Great Lakes Center Foundation, from 2002 to 2005 to patch together $3.85 million from local, state, and national sources to begin an extensive but frugal renovation that would bring the building back to life as a community center run by the local Convention and Visitor's Bureau and as offices for the Bay Area Community Foundation.
The Building Team, headed by Quinn Evans | Architects of Ann Arbor, Mich., with local firms Gregory Construction as GC and MacMillan Associates Inc. as engineer, had a mess on its hands. The masonry walls were in decent shape, but the foundation was undermined and the interior was devastated by toxic pigeon guano and fire and water damage, which destroyed most of the ornamental plaster walls and ceilings. The mechanical equipment, boiler, piping, plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, and most of the wiring had been stripped.
The Building Team salvaged the wainscoting and most of the windows and doors, replaced missing tiled canopies, the Spanish clay tile roof, and the observation tower, and repositioned the depot for use as a twenty-first-century community and office building. Although the project did not seek LEED certification, recycled content, low-VOC materials, low-flow plumbing fixtures, radiant heating, and light-sensor controls were used.
“They've done a wonderful job with both the interior and exterior work,” said Reconstruction Awards judge David Callan, SVP Environmental Systems Design, Chicago. Fellow judge Ken Osmun, group president of construction at Wight & Co., Darien, Ill., marveled at the project's bang for the buck. “The budget was so low and they had to make the depot the focal point of the community. I can't imagine the challenges they had to overcome.” —Jay W. Schneider, Senior Editor
Related Stories
Performing Arts Centers | Oct 10, 2024
Studio Gang's performing arts center for Hudson Valley Shakespeare breaks ground
A new permanent home for Hudson Valley Shakespeare, a professional non-profit theater company, recently broke ground in Garrison, N.Y. The Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center includes a 14,850 sf performance venue that will serve as a permanent home for the theater company known for its sweeping open-air productions of classics and new works.
Museums | Oct 1, 2024
UT Dallas opens Morphosis-designed Crow Museum of Asian Art
In Richardson, Tex., the University of Texas at Dallas has opened a second location for the Crow Museum of Asian Art—the first of multiple buildings that will be part of a 12-acre cultural district. When completed, the arts and performance complex, called the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, will include two museums, a performance hall and music building, a grand plaza, and a dedicated parking structure on the Richardson campus.
Museums | Aug 29, 2024
Bjarke Ingels' Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art conceived as village of 12 pavilions
The 60,000-sm Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China recently topped out. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the museum is conceived as a village of 12 pavilions, offering a modern interpretation of the elements that have defined the city’s urbanism, architecture, and landscape for centuries.
Cultural Facilities | Aug 21, 2024
Baltimore’s National Aquarium opens 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the harbor’s original tidal marsh habitat
The National Aquarium in Baltimore has opened the National Aquarium Harbor Wetland, a 10,000-sf floating wetland that mimics the Inner Harbor’s original Chesapeake Bay tidal marsh habitat. Located between Piers 3 and 4 on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the $14 million project features more than 32,000 native shrubs and marsh grasses.
Museums | Aug 19, 2024
The Tampa Museum of Art will soon undergo a $110 million expansion
In Tampa, Fla., the Tampa Museum of Art will soon undergo a 77,904-sf Centennial Expansion project. The museum plans to reach its $110 million fundraising goal by late 2024 or early 2025 and then break ground. Designed by Weiss/Manfredi, and with construction manager The Beck Group, the expansion will redefine the museum’s surrounding site.
Smart Buildings | Jul 25, 2024
A Swiss startup devises an intelligent photovoltaic façade that tracks and moves with the sun
Zurich Soft Robotics says Solskin can reduce building energy consumption by up to 80% while producing up to 40% more electricity than comparable façade systems.
Adaptive Reuse | Jul 12, 2024
Detroit’s Michigan Central Station, centerpiece of innovation hub, opens
The recently opened Michigan Central Station in Detroit is the centerpiece of a 30-acre technology and cultural hub that will include development of urban transportation solutions. The six-year adaptive reuse project of the 640,000 sf historic station, created by the same architect as New York’s Grand Central Station, is the latest sign of a reinvigorating Detroit.
Museums | Jun 20, 2024
Connecticut’s Bruce Museum more than doubles its size with a 42,000-sf, three-floor addition
In Greenwich, Conn., the Bruce Museum, a multidisciplinary institution highlighting art, science, and history, has undergone a campus revitalization and expansion that more than doubles the museum’s size. Designed by EskewDumezRipple and built by Turner Construction, the project includes a 42,000-sf, three-floor addition as well as a comprehensive renovation of the 32,500-sf museum, which was originally built as a private home in the mid-19th century and expanded in the early 1990s.
Libraries | Jun 7, 2024
7 ways to change 'business as usual': The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
One hundred forty years ago, Theodore Roosevelt had a vision that is being realized today. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is a cutting-edge example of what’s possible when all seven ambitions are pursued to the fullest from the beginning and integrated into the design at every phase and scale.
Cultural Facilities | Apr 8, 2024
Multipurpose sports facility will be first completed building at Obama Presidential Center
When it opens in late 2025, the Home Court will be the first completed space on the Obama Presidential Center campus in Chicago. Located on the southwest corner of the 19.3-acre Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, the Home Court will be the largest gathering space on the campus. Renderings recently have been released of the 45,000-sf multipurpose sports facility and events space designed by Moody Nolan.