What post-industrial cities can learn from a Vermont oven factory
As occupiers demand greener, more flexible workplaces, a former Vermont oven factory, now a low-energy tech campus, shows how industrial reuse can deliver the workplace of the future
Residing on the shores of Lake Champlain in Burlington Vermont, a former oven factory has found its second life as a workplace centred on sustainable energy and human-centric design. HULA Lakeside has transformed from a 150,000 sq ft industrial complex into a state-of-the-art technology campus, coworking hub and ‘business incubator’. The redevelopment by SAS Architects demonstrates how a building once designed for manufacturing, can be reimagined, breathing life back into its industrial shell.
The vast factory interior has been divided into neighbourhoods: accommodating private offices, coworking setups, meeting rooms, conference facilities as well as events and hospitality providers. Rather than creating one enormous open-plan workplace, the design centres around a combination of spaces, allowing for concentrated work while also accommodating for communal areas intended to encourage conversation and chance encounters. Large windows, indoor planting and the lakeside connection all help bring natural elements into the space, curating an organic feel to a utilitarian façade.
But HULA’s significance extends beyond its design. Its redevelopment offers a compelling example of how the reuse of existing buildings can be combined with the new age of hybrid working, all while considering an environmental footprint.
Looking beneath the surface
Before the renovation, the original oven factory relied on natural gas for its heating. HULA replaced this arrangement, creating an open-loop geothermal system connected to electric ground-source heat pumps, which provide heating and cooling across the campus. The tech is supported by a broader programme of upgrades including an energy-recovery ventilation system that captures heat from outgoing air to help condition incoming fresh air. Burling Electric Department reported that the campus’s energy use intensity was approximately 65% below the level required by the state’s energy efficiency code.
It serves as a wider lesson that sustainability doesn’t always mean starting from scratch. Retaining a structure while upgrading its infrastructure can provide an alternative to simple demolition.
A second life
There’s no shortage of potential candidates this example can serve to inspire on either side of the Atlantic. In the UK, The Bass Maltings in Sleaford Lincolnshire has been identified as one of 20 historic properties in the UK for which owners are seeking investment according to Historic England. The historic complex comprises eight multi-storey malt houses and a central water tower, built in 1907, and stands as the largest group of disused 19th Century and Edwardian brick malt houses in England.
In the US, the former Wellman-Seaver-Morgan engineering factory in Cleveland Ohio serves as an even more direct comparison to HULA. The 183,000 sq ft building and surrounding ten-acre site were left largely vacant for decades. This year, a redevelopment secured for $2.56 million in Ohio historic preservation tax credits; with a plan supporting a rehabilitation of the long-neglected complex. ‘We must take action to address the decades-old deteriorating and neglected real estate in our urban core,’ Cleveland’s Mayor Justin Bibb noted, ‘By doing so, we can revitalise Cleveland neighbourhoods, create new job opportunities, and attract new investments. The future of our economy is at stake, and we cannot afford to ignore this issue any longer.’
Old buildings, new possibilities
HULA demonstrates that with the right combination of design and investment, an obsolete industrial complex can become productive infrastructure in a modern economy. For cities with vast abandoned industrial districts such as Gary, Indiana, Redcar and Teesside in the Northeast of England and famously Detroit, Michigan, opening a new realm of possibility when it comes to regeneration may just save the post-industrial backdrops they’re built on. And, as pressure grows to revive neglected cities overall, a solution may emerge in the industrial buildings already left standing around us.
