Formerly the Madison Street Jail, constructed in 1985, the 225 W. Madison project in Phoenix provided an opportunity to resurrect a decommissioned jail facility and re-purpose it through adaptive reuse as a Class A office building. Maricopa County, the facility owner, chose to re-use and adapt the existing building, resulting in approximately $70M in savings. The 278,775-SF building project completely transformed the jail into an open workspace. This was accomplished by enhancing the structural integrity of the original cast-in-place concrete structure, which also serves as the exterior skin.

The design challenge was to transform a secure, closed, and fortified structure designed to separate individuals from society and completely reinvent it as an open, welcoming workspace with daylight and views. Other firms assessed the building, and the recommendation was to “tear it down.” Instead, we took a more creative approach… reuse! By not tearing the space down, the project reused 2.1 million pounds of steel and saved 65 million extra pounds of concrete (16,633 cubic yards) from being sent to the landfill.

Read the full story in Structure Magazine.