Past and Future

Two time-honored spaces relive past glories through reinvention.

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 11/19/2007 12:00:00 AM

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It's perhaps the most conspicuous form of recycling—a latter-day designer re-imagining a time-honored space. In the November print edition of Interior Design, we highlighted five such conversions: BBH's office in Singapore, carved out of a prewar brick warehouse, the Blatz Condominiums, which have overtaken the former Blatz Brewery in Milwaukee, J.M. Weston's Paris office inside a neo-Louis XII once-mansion, New York University's School of Philosophy in an 1890 landmark, and the M.C. Escher exhibition in Madrid, framed by an 1881 reservoir.

Here, we continue our fervor for conversion by featuring the rebirths of two additional time-honored spaces. After reviewing the details below, take a virtual tour of the spaces by starting the slide show at right.

Interactive Museum of Economics, Mexico City

DESIGN: Entasis Architecture STANDOUT: Sparking tension worthy of high finance, the 18th century Mexican Baroque edifice on the 17th century former hospital interacts spatially, not stylistically, with the 21st century trappings it shelters. PHOTOGRAPHY: Carlos Somonte/Jaime Navarro

Palmolive Building, Chicago

DESIGN: Booth Hansen STANDOUT: The 1929 details on the landmark's Art Deco façade were diligently preserved, but the everyday offices inside were expunged to fashion smartly updated residences befitting next-generation Fitzgeralds. PHOTOGRAPHY: Jon Miller/Hedrich Blessing