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Warehouse’s Reinvention as Contemporary Museum Wins Architecture Awards

Monday, November 28, 2011

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In Raleigh, N.C.’s Historic Depot District, a 1910 two-story red brick building and one-time home of Cal-Tone Paints was recently transformed into a modern and dramatic contemporary art museum.

Photos courtesy of CAM Raleigh

Exterior view of CAM Raleigh, designed and renovated by the architectural team of Clearscapes and Brooks + Scarpa.

The museum—CAM Raleigh—and its design team have received six architectural design awards since the site opened its doors in April 2011. The awards include a 2011 AIA Design Award (Merit), an AIA Tower Award, the 2011 Carraway Honor Award of Merit from Preservation North Carolina, the 2011 Sir Raleigh Walter Award for Community Appearance, and a Downtown Raleigh Alliance Imprint Award.

The facility is operated by a partnership of North Carolina State University College of Design, the Contemporary Art Foundation and the community of Raleigh.

“I am pleased to see CAM Raleigh open. With its mission firmly in place, I believe that we have designed not just a building, but a piece of the city,” said N.C. State’s College of Design Dean Marvin J. Malecha, FAIA. “It is affirming to see the external excitement about CAM Raleigh, these awards are validation that the perseverance was time well spent.”

‘Recycled’ Design

CAM Raleigh’s 25,000 square-foot home was designed and renovated by the architectural team of Clearscapes (Raleigh) and Brooks + Scarpa (Los Angeles, Calif.).

Originally built for Allen Forge & Welding Company and expanded in 1927 for the Brogden Produce Company and more recently home to longtime occupant Cal-Tone Paints, the structure has emerged from its asbestos-clad sheathing into a “new incarnation,” Brooks + Scarpa said in an announcement describing the project.

View of the large covered overhang at the sculpture garden.

The revamped downtown warehouse design includes a “dramatic deconstructed roofline, new lobby and state-of-the-art gallery spaces,” the owner said.

The building is among a collection of buildings related to the heyday of railroad transportation and shipping in the city. With the “recycling” of the structure, the owners preserved an important part of history, Brooks + Scarpa said.

Just as important as preservation, the firm noted the addition of a 900-square-foot entry space. The lobby is a glass-enclosed space set beneath a folded panel roof that extends over the entry’s sculpture garden to form a “front porch,” the architecture firm said.

Interior view of CAM Raleigh.

The interior of the museum features much of the “original fabric” of the building. For example, loading bays for trucks and a connection to a railroad spur were left intact, said Rosemary Wyche, CAM’s director of development.

The new construction and original historic building “collapse together and fuse one structure,” the architects said.

More information: Project design details.

About the Architects

Clearscapes is a multi-disciplinary design firm that focuses on cultural facilities, urban mixed-use development, higher education, and large-scale public art.

Brooks + Scarpa, formerly known as Pugh + Scarpa, was recently recognized with the 2010 AIA Architecture Firm Award, an award recognizing firms that have produced distinguished architecture for at least 10 years.