Photo Tour: Quorum Architects

Recently, we had the opportunity to visit the home of Quorum Architects. Quorum is located in the Near Southside, at Vickery & Hemphill. From the outside, the Quorum building (which also houses Concussion and Matador, with Quorum leasing space out to those companies) is a very modest sort of building that comes across as small and rather unassuming:

Appearances can be deceiving, and like a TARDIS, the building’s interior seems to inhabit a different dimension than its exterior. Walking into the Quorum offices reveals a rather cavernous building with some great loft-style detail.

The building dates from 1937, with additions in the ’40s and ’50s. It was originally a Southwestern Bell garage structure, and through the years suffered many unkind remodelings. When Quorum bought it, the building was buried under eight coats of paint, and featured a sickly green pond inside thanks to a leaking roof. After extensive restoration and renovation work, the building was transformed into the slick industrial-style offices you see now.

Part of the odd impression of exterior vs. interior size comes from the building being sunken into the ground a couple of feet. Walking inside is a genuinely surprising experience, as nothing on the exterior prepares you for the impressive size of the interior.

Walking inside, the entrance is flanked by this undulating steel wall that divides Quorum’s space from the rest of the building without sealing it off or blocking the flood of light. It’s a similar sort of steel to the Cor-Ten that you can see on the famed “Vortex” sculpture in front of the Modern, and which is also used on the exteriors of modern buildings such as the striking Clinton Condominiums in Portland, Oregon.

Rooms are often divided with beautiful industrial-chic steel & glass walls and doors – to the right as you walk in are the Matador offices.

That beautiful brick was buried under eight coats of paint – extensive work was needed to uncover its original beauty.

Heading in, a ramp drops you down into the building’s main space. Walking around the steel wall brings you into Quorum’s offices.

Here it is, the original 1937 Southwestern Bell garage space. This huge space is kept open and flowing thanks to low dividers rather than full cubicles or offices. Up above, one can see the original 1937 light fixtures, in the form of the circular shades, that have been restored and refitted with CFLs. The building in general is surprisingly green, in fact – besides the extensive use of CFLs and the general sustainability of re-using as much as possible from the original building, Quorum recently installed a new energy-efficient white roof, which significantly improved the building’s energy consumption and dropped the cost of climate control by $5,000 a year.

Up above, a series of large skylights allow even more natural illumination into the building.

This conference room makes a striking presence thanks to the steel & glass enclosure.

The curved sheet metal wall to the right encloses the break room and server room. The green cabinets on the wall beyond were rescued from a nearby hospital during its demolition, and were restored and re-used here. Elsewhere, Quorum also re-purposed HVAC grates from that hospital into light fixtures.

A look inside the conference room. You won’t find dropped ceilings here – all the spaces make great use of the building’s original exposed beam ceiling.

These distinctive sideways-facing light fixtures are, believe it or not, original 1937 units as well. We had assumed at first glance they were modified examples of the standard disc-shaped fixtures, but these oddly warped units have always been this way. They have a bit of a Salvador Dali-esque feel to them, as though they’ve melted.

On all the original light fixtures, Quorum originally found them covered with black paint. After the paint was removed, the original green enamel finish showed through again.

Here in the print room, one gets a good look at the structure behind that dramatically leaned steel wall.

It’s hard to not get a lot of photos of the main office, because it’s just such a cool old urban warehouse space.

At the rear of the building sits the original 1937 garage door.

Back up at the front of the space, with another shot of that big steel divider.

Heading through this door off the main entranceway leads into Matador’s space.

Matador occupies the 1950s-era corner of the building, with a lower ceiling covered with sheet metal.

Back in the entrance hall now, headed toward’s Concussion’s offices.

Concussion’s space is like a smaller version of Quorum’s, with a high ceiling and old brick, though the Concussion space retained some more remnants of paint layers for more of a “gritty” sort of look.

Another of those great steel & glass dividers.

Concussion’s main space.

We had a great time visiting Quorum and talking to the firm’s reps on subjects ranging from the streetcar to the Hemphill streetscape and beyond. The Quorum building just goes to show that you really never know exactly what sort of great spaces are tucked away inside classic old urban buildings, even ones as unassuming from the outside as this. It’s an impressive, stylish urban adaptive reuse and we have to say thanks to Quorum for having us inside for a visit. Thanks to Melanie, Bill, Arthur, Amy, Scott, and everybody else at Quorum for the chance to share their space with our readers.