WEST BROAD STREET MIXED USE

West Broad Street Mixed Use is a two-story medical and office building situated at the gateway to Richmond’s West Broad St corridor, taking contextual design cues from historic modern brick flagship properties on the edge of the Museum District.

Substantially complete in December 2020 and with much of the work for the project taking place during Covid-19 lockdown, the team proceeded with extra caution and completed the project with health and safety as a priority in the build process. With a project in the healthcare sector occupying such a prominent site, and during a pandemic, the development underscores the critical importance of access to care throughout our community, and provides the west Richmond and Henrico communities in need with an essential facility for quality kidney care, which is a human right.

Architecturally, the project acknowledges its place along the active West Broad street in that it was designed to be perceived in motion. Viewing the building at speed is heightened by dappled animation from reflected light of surrounding buildings, the piercing sunset glow from the west, and the accelerating pattern of color and porosity as the upper level façade appears to peel from the solid base. With a one story height prohibited by TOD-1 zoning, the team took a creative approach by constructing two floors, and blending the reading of the two volumes on the street façade by extending the solid mass of the upper level office space with a dematerializing screen wall that fades from opaque to porous with decreasing density.

From a building performance standpoint, a fairly complex utility control system belies the simple form of the project. With the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing needs of the ground level being highly specialized (A Kidney Care facility), great care was taken to coordinate to the stringent standard of the tenant - an effort shared between base building designers Fultz & Singh Architects and T.I. designers The Design Group Architects.

Location: Richmond, VA
Date: 2020
Size: 9,690 SF