22 Light Street: Construction Check-in

The renovation at 22 Light Street in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is nearing the halfway point. With an expected completion date of March 2021, the structure originally known as the Lanahan Building, will begin its next life serving as affordable residences for 40 families within the downtown district.  

The Lanahan Building reconstructed in 1906

 

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Roof of building is cutout for the installation of the new lightwell

Originally reconstructed in 1906, following The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, the building was designed with the latest fireproofing standards of its time. The Lanahan Building served as the headquarters and distribution center for William Lanahan & Sons, the family business most notable for the creation of Hunter Baltimore Rye whiskey. The business had been located at 20 Light Street previously and chose to reconstruct next door following its destruction. The firm continued operations at 22 Light Street until the beginning of the Prohibition. From then it took on a new purpose as home to the Baltimore Oriole Cafeteria, where meals were provided to citizens during the Great Depression. The building has lived several lives in the 115+ years since, most recently serving as an office building for various tenants.  

The team at Soto, in partnership with Osprey Property Company and Southway Builders  seeks to retrofit the currently underutilized office spaces within the building to provide affordable apartments ranging in one, two and three bedrooms alongside ground floor retail. Located within the Business and Government Historic District of downtown Baltimore, the building is a contributing structure to the district which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The existing facade and structure, exhibiting ornate detailing and craftsmanship, are beautifully preserved and provide the interiors with generous ceiling heights and oversized windows facing Light Street.  

Joe Ijjas, Associate at Soto and lead architect of this project, explains part of the team’s design strategy. “We are able to utilize our experience on a variety of previous projects involving adaptive reuse, office conversions, historic preservation, and affordable housing to bring together a cohesive design approach to ensure the success of 22 Light Street. This allows for a unique blending of these concepts to achieve the goals we’ve set for this historic district building.” Thus, the team not only draws from their experience with office conversion and renovation, similar to the retrofit at The Oxford, but also historic structures as seen in the Century Apartments.

The building itself is six stories tall with a basement. From the exterior, it appears to be one building, but there are actually two constructions on the inside; the upper floors of the building align, while the ground floors do not, following the grade present on Light Street. The challenge was navigating a 3-foot thick load-bearing masonry wall in the middle of the building which the team bridged by uniting the two sides with creative unit designs and circulation paths. 

Structural changes were also needed to adapt the building to modern typologies.  Unusual, for a dense urban site, the building is buffered on three sides by alleys. While this provides decent light exposure, the surrounding modern buildings often block direct light. Additionally, Joe notes that “a typical challenge of office to residential conversion is the buildings’ difference in floor plates, sizes, and dimensions. While a residential building typically averages 65-foot width for double-loaded corridors, in the case of 22 Light Street we have a deep square building which we need to get light into.” To solve this challenge the team cut a portion of the buildings’ side to place a lightwell. This lightwell will provide daylighting to a number of units throughout the building. 

Repairs were needed at the existing concrete encased steel beams as well as assessments of the floor, ceiling, and wall assemblies where the 115 years old structure has begun to show wear and tear. “There was more structural reinforcement than we initially anticipated, yet being able to remove underutilized mechanical equipment allowed us to open up the building and see the true guts rather than layer and layers of renovations. We began to see the high ceilings and fantastic windows on the front facade that look out onto Light Street and what it could do for the interior spaces. These aspects really will make for some unique units,” explains Joe.

Being able to see the history through such renovations has been invaluable to the team and has heavily inspired the new design of 22 Light Street. Joe emphasizes that the team at Soto sought to allude to the building’s history, particularly to its reconstruction after the Baltimore Fire. “We tried to express this theme throughout our interior design. We’re utilizing a unique wood product that is similar to the look of charred oak barrels used for whiskey distilling while also hinting to the rebirth of the building from a great fire.” The theme is present throughout the lobby, community room and other common areas of the building. 

The team also ensured that the building will meet modern codes along with the latest building systems. Proper airflow and indoor air quality are provided with new high efficiency split system mechanical units to ensure just this. Each unit will be individually temperature controlled, bringing in fresh tempered outdoor air to all the common areas and units as well.  Efficient hot water heaters, new insulation, new windows and a small solar panel array on the roof help the building measure up with the latest sustainability standards for the State of Maryland and help to ensure that the building will have a useful and sustainable life for the next 100+ years.

The history of the building itself is truly unique and this attention to detail throughout the design ensures that it will not be lost. These design decisions by the team at Soto, coupled with the building’s prime location, make it clear that 22 Light Street will successfully take on a new life and a whole new purpose as home to 40 families in Downtown Baltimore and provide its own rebirth for those in need of high quality affordable housing.