Sharing a triangular-shaped block in Missoula, Mont., the Corner is a four-story, mixed-use building made up of 4,100 square feet of commercial space on the main floor, and eight residential condominiums on the remaining floors. The new building is situated above a 21-space underground parking garage, and its entry is located through a large outdoor plaza. Additionally, four of the eight condominium units have a green roof deck, which mitigate temperatures by 30 to 40 degrees.
Owned by Eric and Cheryl Hefty, the property was purchased to protect University Flats, a 12-unit historic apartment building built in 1908 and on the National Register of Historic Places. “As we worked with the property, the triangular shape grew more and more compelling and appealing, and we eventually decided to build,” says Eric Hefty.
Located at the end of the “hip strip” on Higgins Avenue, across from the Clark Fork River in downtown, The Corner is within walking distance of the University of Montana. “The Corner site was at a transition between a commercial area, the Hip Strip, and single-family residential,” explains Eric Hefty. “It was also in an important historic neighborhood. We wanted to have the building fit well in its neighborhood, and also create a terminus to the commercial strip.”
Instead of tearing down the original commercial building on the site, building up a pile of debris and hauling it to a landfill, the Heftys chose to tear the building down by hand. This allowed 95 percent of the material to be reclaimed for other projects. “It is amazing how little was left after the material was made available to the community,” he adds.
The Corner features a high percentage of recycled structural steel, and virtually all of the finished wood for flooring, cabinetry, doors, trim, ceilings and decks are reclaimed, featuring a variety of Douglas fir, pine, African mahogany, vertical grain fir, clear redwood and clear inland fir that was milled at the old Anaconda mill near Bonner, Mont. Additionally, several units feature ceilings made of reclaimed clear vertical grain Douglas fir bleacher seating from the nearby Sentinel High School. In the public spaces, the ceilings are clad with mahogany rippings from a millwork job for a resort in Hawaii. The corrugated metal siding on the interior of the stair tower is reclaimed from a barn in Hamilton, Mont., where most of the reclaimed wood also came from.
“The reclaimed wood we used was dry, old growth, tight grained material that has a rich patina that is not found in new wood,” Hefty explains. “The use of corrugated steel was an afterthought for material that was originally destined for the dump. We exposed the backside of the roofing as siding on the exterior stairway.”
The decision to use weathering steel from Central Steel Service Inc., Pelham, Ala., to clad The Corner, goes back to a visit Eric made years earlier to Bannack, a celebrated Montana ghost town. While there, he explains that the image of a steel clad sidewall on an addition to the Hotel Meade had weathered to a beautiful rust-colored patina, which sat in great contrast to the monochrome gray brown color of the rest of the town. “The aging and patination process of the Cor-Ten gives the building life as it matures,” he adds.
“I believe that The Corner will age well and become even more appealing as the patina of the steel develops,” says Hefty. “The arid Montana climate has deterred the rusting process and delayed the development of the rusted protective layer, but time will finally do its work and the patina will be completed.”
Corner Condos, Missoula, Mont.
Award: Merit award winner in the category of projects less than $15 Million for the 2013 AISC IDEAS2 Awards
Owner: Eric and Cheryl Hefty, Missoula
Owner’s representative/architect/general contractor: Eric Hefty & Associates, Missoula
Cor-Ten fabricator: Pacific Steel, Missoula
Structural engineer: Apex Engineering Services Inc., Missoula
Cor-Ten steel: Central Steel Service Inc., Pelham, Ala., www.centralsteelservice.com