The Malt House is a mixed-use commercial development within the Manhattanville Factory District in West Harlem which preserves and knits together a collection of historic four- and five- story industrial warehouse buildings from the turn of the last century and adds a significant six-story modern expansion above. The scheme clearly demarcates the old from the new. A new glass façade completes and ‘recreates’ the street wall, melding the old and new through its treatment of scale, texture, and color in the design of the curtain wall glazing. Set back behind, five new stories of ‘Class A’ commercial office space rise above with a more reserved presence from the street; providing office space for the burgeoning science corridor along upper Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue subway lines.
In order to support the new addition on top of the existing, foundation work was necessary to support in, around, and underneath the existing columns and new superstructure was added to provide bracing against lateral loads. Along with renovating existing masonry, cast iron and steel, the quality of the existing spaces have been carefully preserved with strategic interventions to support the new program of commercial office spaces and a new multi-floor contemporary art gallery complete with exhibition and support spaces.