400 Broad St., Gadsden, Ala.
RETROFIT TEAM
DEVELOPER/DESIGNER: The Sterling Companies, (256) 547-4407
MATERIALS
Phillip Carr, president and CEO of The Sterling Companies, changed his renovation plans when he discovered the drab former pawn shop he purchased to house his real-estate management company actually was an ornate historic building from the 1880s. Instead of gutting the structure and constructing plain office space, he decided to restore the building’s original grandeur. In a labor of love, he redesigned the interior in a style that honors the building’s 19th century origins, brought in a specialty mason to re-create the original brick façade, found an expert to rebuild the 1901 freight elevator and discovered a replacement for the original stamped-metal ceilings—thermoformed ceiling tiles.
The building’s stamped metal ceilings were badly rusted and damaged. Only a small, inadequate number of tiles could be reused.
“Tin and copper ceilings are just unbelievably expensive,” Carr recalls. After researching options online, he found Ceilume thermoformed tiles. Ceilume makes 40 different patterns of 3D tiles, including several that closely replicate the look of stamped metal ceilings. Among the color and finish options are three metallic finishes.
Carr selected Ceilume’s Empire pattern in a Copper finish for the building’s atrium and second-floor hallway. The pattern features a border row of Ceilume’s Fleur-de-Lis pattern, also in Copper. The tiles were installed in standard 2- by 2-foot suspension grids, which were painted to match the tile.
The first-floor reception area and connecting hallways ceilings feature Ceilume’s Stratford pattern, a low-profile design of concentric squares, in white. The pattern creates a sense of formality reminiscent of coffered ceilings and works well with the fluted moldings around the office doors.
THERMOFORMED CEILING TILES: Ceilume
THE RETROFIT
Constructed shortly after an 1883 fire that burned much of the downtown area, 400 Broad Street was built by a Prussian immigrant, Herman Herzberg, who fought in the Civil War and then went into the mercantile business. His store operated on the site until 1944. In 1979, the building became a large pawn shop. When Carr purchased the building, his team discovered the decorative brick front was covered by a flat metal façade and the side and back exterior brick were coated with an inch of concrete. Half of the interior was closed off for storage or abandoned, and the building had been deteriorating slowly. When Carr’s team found a photo of the original structure in the collections of the Library of Congress, everyone was amazed at what the building once looked like.
“We said if we were going to do this, we had to do it justice and return it to its original glory,” Carr relates. The team removed the metal façade, but discovered the brick underneath the concrete could not be saved. Instead, Carr found a specialty mason to re-create the original brick design in a new layer.
Front glass was restored and expanded on both floors of the building. A new 2-story atrium rises from the main entrance to the second-floor landing/lounge. The two floors are linked by an elegant iron spiral stairway. The upper landing is a lounge area, furnished with pieces reminiscent of the 19th century. Wrought-iron chandeliers light the space. Exposed brick is paired with white formal millwork panels and moldings, set off by dark oak floors. A corridor of office spaces runs down either side of the building, accented with white moldings against taupe walls.
PHOTOS: Ceilume