ARCHITECTURAL

DESIGN
ASSIGNMENT-1
SUPRIYA SINHA
2018UAR1077
 Conservation of
Buildings adds or give
the city its beauty and
identity. Also it gives a
WHY CONSERVATION?
sense of history &
memory while we are
moving towards future.

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DIFFERENT APPROACHES FOR CONSERVING BUILDING
.
PRESERVATION
Focuses on the maintenance and
repair of existing materials and
retention of a property’s form
as it has evolved over time

RESTORATION
depicts a property at a particular RECONSTRUCTION
period of time in its history, while
re-creates vanished or non-
removing evidence of other
surviving portions of a
periods.
property for interpretive
The approach seeks to return a
purposes.
structure to its original concept

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DIFFERENT APPROACHES FOR CONSERVING BUILDING
.
RENOVATION
Focuses on updating a building
modernizing character elements or
bringing it up to current standards
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REHABILIATION/ADAPTIVE REUSE
acknowledges the need to alter or add to a
historic property to meet continuing or changing
uses while retaining the property's historic
character.
250 West Larned Street,
Detroit, Michigan, US
CASE
STUDY
 ADAPTIVE REUSE – to THE DETROIT FOUNDATION HOTEL
Detroit’s Fire Department Building converted to a boutique hotel by Aparium Hotel
Group

FIRE DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS Converted to FOUNDATION HOTEL After Renovation

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 • Built in 1929
• Designed by Hans Gehrke
• Michigan’s oldest fire department
• Served fire protection and emergency medical services to the U.S. city
of Detroit, Michigan since many years
• filled with clerks’ offices and sleeping quarters for firefighters and
place for firetrucks in ground floor.

HISTORY • It was the one of the important buildings in Detroit, registered in

Detroit Public Library
• Also Scenes for the robot-fighting movie "Real Steal" was shooted here
• After 2013, the building was selled to aparium hotel group due to
economic crisis .DFD moved out from the building in 2013 and handed
to McIntosh Poris Associates

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TIMELINE The building was listed Building selled to
on the National Aparium Hotel Group
Register of Historic Detroit foundation hotel’s CREW Detroit
Sites in 2009. construction started Impact Award
1929 2011 2015 2018

2009 2013 2017

Budget crisis. Closing Foundation Hotel was American institute of

of many buildings. opened for all architects (AIA) state
DFD moved out /regional awards

Fire department
headquarters
constructed
 • Hans Gehrke served as the architect designing
ARCHITECTURAL the neoclassical building

FEATURES • The building is clad in dark red brick in a

running bond pattern and trimmed in gray-buff
terra cotta, supported by steel frames.
 ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
FACADE
• The four fire engine doors are outlined
by terra-cotta-trimmed arches
displaying rope moldings, dentiled
lintels, and keystones. A rosette in a
circle decorates each spandrel

• On the West Larned façade the building is

divided into six bays, with the four central
ones slightly projecting. S
• These central bays contain the arched,
terra-cotta-faced portals to four engine • The first level is a story and-a-
bays with deeply recessed double doors half tall to accommodate the
fire trucks
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 ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
FACADE

• Metal spandrel panels separate the third • The walls above are
and fourth-story and fourth and fifth-story demarcated into bays by
windows in the center four bays. broad and shallow piers that
support a tall terra-cotta
entablature with dentiled
cornice topped by anthemion
cresting.
• Between the second and third
• The pedestrian doors are stories appears another broad
surmounted by terra cotta crests terracotta band containing a
marked “DFD” for Detroit Fire dentiled cornice
Department. In the entablature
above the doors, is engraved the • A terra-cotta beltcourse
words “Fire Headquarters.” separates the first level from
the second story above.

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 • Historic preservation and renovation of the
former Detroit Fire Department Headquarters
• TEAM: The Aparium Hotel Group, McIntosh Poris
Associates, local developer Walter Cohen, and
the Simeone Deary Design Group based in
Chicago.
• PROGRAM: Hospitality, Food & Beverage
• Vision for the Detroit Foundation Hotel was to
honor Detroit’s past and to celebrate the city’s
promising future.
• The conceptual design was inspired by the idea
of “Coming Home to Detroit.” This inspiration
resulted in the commitment to “Repurpose
History” by taking historically relevant moments
and materials from the Fire Department
Headquarters, as well as from Detroit, and
create a contemporary design.
DETROIT FOUNDATION • 100-key boutique hotel featuring ground-level
restaurant, private dining room, chef’s table,
HOTEL bar, lounge, retail, two business meeting rooms, ,
podcast studio, roof-top banquet space and
Fitness Center
 COMPARISON
FACADE

• The existing façades were repaired and

restored to maintain character
• Decorative lightings and new glass panels
were added

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 COMPARISON
FAÇADE

• Restoration of the exterior masonry,

terracotta façades
• Doors, windows, and façade decorations
were restored
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COMPARISON
FAÇADE ELEMENTS

Decorative terra cotta panels sporting

firehouse themes, such as busts of
firefighters, gryphons at a fire
hydrant, and winged serpent-tailed
figures flanking a shield proclaiming
“DFD,” were repaired, cleaned, and
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COMPARISON
DOORS
the seven hefty red doors that fire trucks once
raced from were removed, repaired, and
stripped of layers of paint in order to discover
the original color.

PEDESTRIAN DOORS

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 COMPARISON
WINDOWS

The Steel Windows, Transoms and Decorative Grill were restored

in-field
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COMPARISON
AREAS

• The 5 story building’s first floor

originally housed fire apparatus
assigned to cover the growing
downtown area.
• Other floors of the building were
designated as living quarters for
the men assigned there and
offices for department
administrations.

Entry for
fire trucks

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 DETAILS
INTERIORS
Entering the five-story Neoclassical
building through a massive arched,
terra cotta-faced portal, originally
one of the fire engine doors, guests
are transported into a voluminous,
story-and-a half space that once
housed the fire engines. The space
incorporates the check-in experience,
lobby, and a restaurant aptly named,
“The Apparatus Room.”

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 COMPARISON
INTERIORS
Inside, the Apparatus Room, a vast
1½-story restaurant and bar situated
off the ground-floor lobby, still has
the original floor-to-ceiling columns
and glazed-tile walls, reflecting its
previous function as the firehouse
equipment room.

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DETAILS
INTERIORS
An open display kitchen and antique
brass metal rail system, reminiscent of
a fireman’s pole, runs through the
restaurant and highlights the strong
architecture.

Exposed Brick Offsets

Contemporary Bar
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 DETAILS
INTERIORS

RESTAURANT

Overhead, a feature chandelier, inspired by the building’s

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history, resembles an abstract smoke-inspired structure.
COMPARISON
INTERIORS

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THANK YOU !