Industrial Renovation

by Jonathan McGaha | November 30, 2016 12:00 am

An old steel mill building becomes a world-class robotics facility

A world-class robotics innovation and production facility is located in a former building of the Heppenstall Steel Mill in Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. A spin-off company of Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center[1], Carnegie Robotics[2] builds highly reliable robotics products and smart sensors to improve productivity, reliability and safety in a variety of commercial, industrial and defense markets.

The building was the only remaining relic of the defunct mill, which fell into disrepair after the facility was closed in 1979. According to Brad Frankhouser, associate and project manager at Desmone Architects[3], Pittsburgh and Morgantown, W.Va., Carnegie Robotics’ main decision to lease the building was two-fold. “First, the building is near Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center,” he says. “Secondly, they wanted to be located in a facility that was unlike any other. They wanted a facility that couldn’t be duplicated, and would help retain talent and spur innovation amongst their employees.”

Completed in April 2015, Desmone Architects renovated the existing single-story, 29,000-square-foot, high-bay
(65-foot-tall) building to add two new partial floors of 8,000 square feet each. A third, 8,000-square-foot floor is currently in design and will be completed in Fall 2017. Three floors house three new clean room assembly labs, two new research and development labs, office space, team building and conference spaces, while the remainder of the high-bay facility is used for the research and development, manufacturing and testing of large robotic apparatuses.

The existing building featured many components seen in heavy industrial steel mill facilities, including uninsulated building siding, translucent fiberglass clerestory windows and a vented light monitor at the roof peak. It also included triple columns that supported a crane rail in each column length bay. Two existing doors were discovered in mezzanine storage, which were restored and incorporated into the facility’s interior design.

For the exterior, the designers limited work to new punched window openings, a new elevated employee break balcony, and patching and repairing the existing façade and roof. “This allowed for the building to remain as the landmark it has always been,” Frankhouser says, “while the transformation into the 21st century begins as you walk through the entry doors threshold.”

A crane that was left from the original mill was integrated into the new design as a main feature visible from the high bay area. The open shaft elevator helps with the open feel of the space, as well as acting as a functional sculpture that adds character to the facility, Frankhouser explains. The finished lobby showcases the original crane while maintaining the building’s industrial feel through exposed metal ceilings and finishes.

“What is most exhilarating about this project is how the building was transformed from the old steel mill, reminiscent of Pittsburgh’s industrial past, into a state-of-the-art, high-tech facility that hearkens Pittsburgh’s future,” Frankhouser says. “The design focused on adaptive reuse; highlighting features of the building’s historical roots, including reuse of the existing crane in the main lobby and reuse of the original warehouse doors on the second floor.”

Frankhouser says metal was incorporated for the purpose of highlighting the building’s past life. The project features 12,560 square feet of Houston-based MBCI’s 7.2 exposed fastener wall panels in Ash Gray and 3,200 square feet of Corten steel wall panels from Western States Metal Roofing, Phoenix. Additionally, Walker, Mich.-based Tubelite Inc. supplied its T14000 Series aluminum curtainwall and storefront system. The Corten steel panels were used as an accent to be reminiscent of the buiding’s former life, while the exposed fastener panels were used as the interior façade skin to play up the horizontal nature of the building and its simplistic industrial features.

According to Frankhouser, the project is a prime example of Pittsburgh’s transformation from the dirty industrial steel era into the high-tech innovation industry of the 21st century.

Carnegie Robotics, Pittsburgh
Award: 2015 NAIOP Industrial Renovation Award, Best of Act 2-Tech Savvy Award, 2015 Pennsylvania
Brownfields Conference
Owner: Regional Industrial Development Corp. (RIDC), Pittsburgh
Architect: Desmone Architects[3], Pittsburgh and Morgantown, W.Va.
General contractor: FRANJO Construction Corp.[4], Homestead, Pa.
Civil/landscape architect: Red Swing Group[5], Murrysville, Pa.
Mechanical/electrical engineer: BDA Engineering Inc.[6], West Homestead, Pa.
Structural engineer: Whitney Bailey Cox & Magnani LLC[7] (WBCM), Pittsburgh
Curtainwall: Tubelite Inc., Walker, Mich., www.tubeliteinc.com[8]
Metal wall panels: MBCI, Houston, www.mbci.com[9], and Western States Metal Roofing, Phoenix,
www.cortenroofing.com[10]

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/industrial-renovation/

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