OSF Ministry Headquarters
Dewberry · Peoria, IL
Overview
A significant historic preservation effort under the standards of the National Parks Service, this collaborative office environment was recovered from a former retail building campus which was in complete disarray. Covering seven floors and three sublevels, the mixed-use office, café, and restaurant solution injects new life into the downtown area. Open office planning with a gradient from large conferencing areas to individual focus rooms is now nested into a forest of restored classical columns.
This 21st century professional space was recovered from a campus of connected buildings slated for demolition as part of a downtown redevelopment master plan. The original structures included the steel-framed and white terra cotta-clad department store building designed by an architecture firm in 1905, a 1951 mid-century annex, a 1933 supermarket, and portions of a parking structure entrance pavilion dating from 1949. These buildings were combined into a contiguous collaborative workspace and restored to their 1951 period condition, the first point at which all structures existed together on the site, under The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. A mix of uses fill the headquarters including administrative offices, a history installation, event spaces, a café, and a restaurant. Employee wellness is prioritized through design features such as abundant access to daylighting and an inviting and restorative green roof terrace with access to city and river views. Seven above grade floors and three subgrade levels terrace from the west street entrance, facing the city’s civic core down to the east street, adjacent to museum and river frontages. Designed around three guiding principles - economic catalyst, promotion of greater good, and creating a flexible infrastructure work environment - this former retail anchor would again become a shining beacon, now for the values of the organization and promise of the future of downtown.
Gallery