Story

The Regent House amenity space was previously a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, loved and patronized by the people who lived, and worked in Arlington. However, the restaurant could not survive the pandemic and had to shut down after serving the neighborhood for a decade. The property owner decided to transform the vacant space into an amenity space for its tenants. The project involved revamping the former restaurant and adding a fitness center and refurbishing the lobby and locker rooms. To carry out the demolition of the space, subcontractors had to work primarily off scissor lifts. Demo involved removing existing ceiling-hung HVAC units, grease traps, and multiple walk-in freezers. The project was complex as it involved modifying the building's structure to increase its Gross Square Feet (GSF). This required the demolition of the existing curtain wall and extending the defunct property management office to align with the curtain wall on the second floor to create a new fitness center. There were numerous challenges during this bump-out, including field conditions that prevented us from removing the existing precast columns, insulation challenges, and energy rating concerns. We overcame these obstacles by remaining in constant contact with the client and property management and thinking outside the box. The drawings called for extensive precast paneling to meet a new Arlington County energy code. To save the client money, we proposed using an energy efficient film. It met code, but also allowed for greater window coverage and diffuse light to enter the space. The result was a highly efficient, elegant fitness center that came in under budget. At the start, we had to engage the client and property management multiple times about tenant access through the public lobby. The lobby was a huge challenge, as we had to grind down existing tile, level the floor, and install incredibly thin, large format tile over the existing stone, all while keeping the lobby accessible and dust free for tenants. To address this issue, three temporary interior partition walls and one exterior partition wall had to be built. The construction of the interior partition wall was necessary to eliminate disturbance resulting from the construction activities. The exterior partition wall was necessary to prevent the elements from entering the fitness center due to demolishing the existing curtain wall and bumping out the space for the new fitness center. The scope also included the conversion of existing restrooms into a collaborative team room, coffee bar with telescopic partition, and all-gender restrooms. The old kitchen was demoed and turned into a high-end conference space that can be divided into three separate conference rooms by two operable partition walls. The P1 entrance was completely redone and turned into high-end locker rooms. The major highlights of the amenity space are the suspended planter boxes with continuous light and a large, curved seating area and bar top to match the sweeping planter boxes above. The result was a high-end, dazzling collaborative effort between rand* and the design team.