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Projects:
Hoyt Block
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The Hoyt Block was built
in 1875 as a 4-story commercial office building. Its High Victorian
Italianate architectural details include high windows and ceilings,
arched windows, and carved columns in over 100 years, the Hoyt Block
has housed a large selection of Cleveland companies. In 1982, it
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Renovation of the Hoyt
Block began in 1986 as the initial phase of the West St. Clair Project
(to renovate a city block in Cleveland's Warehouse District for
mixed-use) and was completed in 1987. The plan for adaptive re-use
called for the combined restoration of a beautiful facade and preservation
of interesting interior features with some new construction to make
the building desirable for modern office and retail use, and to
meet present day safety codes.
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In order to optimize usable
space, light needed to be admitted into deep interior spaces. A building
of no historic importance was removed from the interior of the city block
to create a courtyard (in keeping with the larger West St. Clair Project)
and windows were cut into an overlooking section of the Hoyt Block's west
wall. On that same side, a small, in-fill building (originally a passageway)
was carved out to form an atrium and interior windows were additionally
cut into the same west wall. The ground floor of the carved out atrium
was partially cut away to admit light into vaulted brick and stone basement
spaces.
| The new atrium
functions as a passageway to the courtyard and provides the Hoyt Block
with an impressive entrance and showplace. The entrance is marked
by a simple canopy of steel and glass and the building name in white
letters; the effect has a contemporary, rejuvenated accent. At night,
light glowing through the canopy's frosted glass designates the entrance.
Parts of the upper floors have been left to stiffen the north wall
and provide sunlit shelves for plants. From the south wall, the upper
floors were partially retained and enclosed to step out at graduated
heights into the atrium; more office space is thus created, and entering
the atrium becomes an event as the full 4-story height reveals itself.
Theater lighting and skylights accentuate the high spaces and rough
textured walls. |
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The building's exterior was
cleaned, column capitals and cornices restored, and retail storefronts
rebuilt to original design. A generous areaway for stairs and daylight
was cut into the West 6th Street sidewalk, enabling the creation of additional
retail space below grade. Office space wraps around a compact core containing
elevators, fire stairs, and restrooms. An original archway leads to the
new elevator lobby, with 2 new elevators that replace the original, water
driven model. More than 100 windows have been restored and retrofitted
with insulated glass, and sashes and frames reconstructed. Arched brick
passageways were reopened in interior bearing walls. All new mechanical,
electrical, and fire protection systems were installed. Three floors total
43,000 sq. ft. of open office space.
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