Karen L. Jacobson Architects Studio

Commercial

This project in Queens consisted of enlarging and reorganizing a factory that made metal access doors used in construction. It required understanding the manufacturing process and developing a construction sequence where manufacturing could continue its 24-hour production during construction of a second floor. Columns were inserted through the existing roof while the assembly line was operating. Storage and office spaces were located in the new second story. This allowed the offices to be lighter, quieter, and cleaner than when they were in the middle of the factory process. The finished inventory is moved and stored using forklifts, which generate large structural loads, adding to the difficulty of building on an old block building. The second story also became an opportunity for a large sign using the company’s fifty-year-old logo, whose access door is open to reveal the sky.