Principals Jessica Ritter and Neil Walls led the renovation of Glavé & Holmes’ office in Shockoe Bottom. (Jonathan Spiers photos)
Fourteen years after setting up shop in a former tobacco warehouse in Shockoe Bottom, Glavé & Holmes Architecture has wrapped up a renovation to better utilize and equip the space to its current needs.
The nearly 60-year-old design firm recently completed the monthslong overhaul of its headquarters at 2101 E. Main St.
The $600,000 renovation added new technologies and lighting to the space, and opened up previously underutilized areas across the firm’s two-level, 15,000-square-foot footprint.
New LED lighting illuminates the wooden rafters and brick walls in the main workroom.
The upgrades better showcase the building that once housed part of the Larus Brothers tobacco factory, which operated there from the late 1800s, when the building was built, until 1968 when the company was sold, according to a history by Glavé & Holmes staff.
Added LED lighting illuminates the wooden rafters and brick walls that once enclosed the factory’s workers and now provide an open workroom for Glavé & Holmes’ staff of 58 architects, interior designers and historic preservationists.
Oversized display screens have been added to new conference rooms and collaborative spaces, and tech upgrades include specialized lighting in the firm’s design lab that can be adjusted to show building finishes in warm indoor light or bright outdoor daylight.
The new design lab area includes a gathering space for group design reviews.
The renovation was led by Jessica Ritter and Neil Walls, principals with the firm who lead its interior design studio and technology division, respectively.
Ritter and Walls said the design process for the project was underway well before construction started last November. Work concluded in April, with local firm Riverstone serving as general contractor and Glavé & Holmes staff relocating their workspaces upstairs and downstairs as the project progressed.
“We did a lot of programming discussions with our leadership team and studio directors to find out what we needed to do. We really focused on maximizing the utilization of our space,” Walls said on a recent tour of the space.
“When we moved here, we did a quick renovation to get in. It served us well for a while, but it became time for us to update things to better accommodate the new structure of our firm and integrate technology a lot more,” he said.
The 135-year-old building was originally part of a larger tobacco factory.
Founded in 1965, the firm moved to the building in 2010 from previous locations farther west along Main Street. It rents its space from owner Wolf Haxall LLC, which bought the building in 2017 for $10.5 million following its conversion to office space in 2005 by Fulton Hill Properties.
Fulton Hill, led by developer Margaret Freund, continues to manage the property and in 2016 added a dozen apartments on top of the building, adding to 17 units in an adjacent building that Fulton Hill likewise converted and also made up part of the Larus Brothers complex.
“With our firm having a lot of history working with historic buildings, coming to Shockoe Bottom and being able to occupy a building that was over 100 years old fits with the type of architecture that we do and felt like a good home for our office,” Walls said.
Added Ritter: “Adaptive reuse was a core part of Jim Glavé, our founder. That was one of the things he felt very passionate about.”
A photo of women working in the building in 1911, when it was used as a cigar factory. (Image courtesy Glavé & Holmes)
Bringing the 135-year-old building further into the 21st century, the renovation opened up underutilized spaces and moved the interior’s library upstairs from a windowless room in the basement. The new library space, called The Lab, features a gathering space for meetings and whiteboards for drawing up designs.
“It’s design lab, it’s a collaboration lab. We kept it open because it reflects the multipurpose nature of it,” Walls said. “With all the white finishes and things, we were joking about putting up lab coats here.”
Added Ritter: “People can perch and take a look and just be involved in that design process.” Laughing, she added: “And we can do happy hours back here.”
The downstairs space that previously housed the design library has been converted to a meeting and training space that Ritter said can also be used to host events.
“It’s been good for the various organizations that people on our staff are a part of,” Ritter said. “They’ve been able to host their events here. We open it up to that.”
Of the renovation overall, Ritter added: “It’s been well-received by clients. We’ve had several client meetings back here, and I think they like seeing where the magic happens and where we’re doing our work.”
The building at Main and 21st streets includes a dozen apartments that were added on top of it in 2016.
Glavé & Holmes is led by President Lori Garrett, a senior principal along with Randy Holmes, Andrew Moore and Steven Blashfield. Eight other principals and senior associates, including Walls and Ritter, round out the firm’s leadership team, which shares ownership.
The firm is planning an open house to be held in November. It’s also aiming to roll out a redesigned website later this fall.
Glavé & Holmes’ office upgrade came around the same time as another design firm in town, 3North, completed a renovation of its headquarters in the former Boy Scouts of America building at Fitzhugh and Malvern avenues.
That is an awful addition to the top of that building. Cringey. Otherwise the interior renovations look fine.
Couldn’t agree more
awful might be a bit strong, I’d vote for mediocre myself
Looks great Jess & Neil! Great job!
The rooftop apartments blend in very well.The exterior design is the same as the first floor.