Birmingham recognizes innovative projects with historic awards

The Birmingham Historic District Commission's Awards recognized some of downtown's biggest recent projects, including the renovation and expansion of the Briggs Building and 203 Pierce, the home of Toast restaurant.

These are the sorts of projects where the developer choose to repurpose old structures into something newer and better. Too often Metro Detroit businesses looking for new or more space choose to raze and build anew. It's a far from sustainable practice. The owners of these two buildings went down a different path, especially the Briggs Building developer.

"They actually took a look at that and said, 'We need more space but we have a great building,'" says Sheila Bashiri, city planner for Birmingham. "They basically recycled the building."

Ted Fuller's company breathed new life into the historic structure at the corner of Old Woodward Avenue and Maple Road by adding a third floor and filling in an adjacent parking lot with a 5-story addition.

The overall project, which is fully leased, adds 62,000 square feet of space and 175 parking spots. Approximately 42,000 square feet is dedicated to Class A office space, 10,000 square feet is set aside for retail and the remainder is luxury apartments. A parking deck is behind the building.

The original Briggs Building was built as a 2-story office/retail building in 1930. The adjacent lot served as a surface parking lot for decades.

Source: Sheila Bashiri, city planner for Birmingham
Writer: Jon Zemke

Birmingham recognizes innovative projects with historic awards

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