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Integrated Architecture’s new headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an adaptive reuse of a former printing plant, and its most revealing design work is concentrated at the façade corners. The project retained important features of a roughly 97-year-old building while adding corrugated metal wall panels over deep furring to give the masonry structure a more distinctive, insulated wrapper.
The corners were not simply folded from standard stock. Action Roofing & Sheet Metal fabricated flat pieces in its shop and epoxy-welded them into finished corners, with the goal of making the joints look convincing at eye level. Building Enclosure’s 2023 project profile describes why that small-scale detailing mattered to the larger strategy of turning an obsolete industrial building into a modern workplace.
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What building did Integrated Architecture convert into its new office?
The headquarters occupies a former printing plant in Grand Rapids that the project profile describes as about 97 years old and vacant for a decade. Over its life, the structure had accumulated additions and renovations, so the design challenge was not to start with a clean, uniform shell. It was to make a layered industrial building work as a contemporary office without erasing the characteristics that gave it identity.
The profile does not publish an exact street address, floor area, construction budget, or a complete chronology of the plant’s alterations. Those omissions matter: the project can be understood as a documented adaptive-reuse example, but it cannot be used as a cost model or as a complete record of the building’s history.
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Integrated Architecture moved from an outlying location to a more central workplace. Randy Pease, AIA, the firm’s director of design and a principal, said the former office had served the practice well but no longer provided the efficiency and flexibility the firm needed. He described the new location as closer to the clients and community the firm serves.
“While our previous location was a unique piece of architecture and served us well for many years, we found ourselves needing a more efficient and flexible workplace closer to the clients and community we serve.” — Randy Pease, AIA, director of design and principal, Integrated Architecture
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That statement places the project in an operational context as well as an architectural one. The building was selected to support a different way of working, while the design had to make an inherited structure legible and useful rather than treating its age as a reason for wholesale replacement.
Why preserve parts of the old printing plant?
The design team aimed to retain architectural elements that could carry the building’s industrial character into the new office. Large window openings were particularly important; some had previously been infilled and were identified for preservation or restoration as part of the project’s approach.
Pease summarized the existing condition and the design intent this way:
“The building had evolved with a collection of additions and renovations – the goal was to preserve many of its architectural elements, including large window openings, some of which had been infilled.” — Randy Pease, AIA
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Preservation here does not mean leaving every previous intervention untouched. It means deciding which traces of the building’s history contribute to the new workplace and then coordinating new work around them. Existing masonry, window openings and the irregularities created by successive additions became constraints that shaped the enclosure design.
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The project profile presents the finished office as a deliberately simple, modern workplace inside a reused industrial shell. That contrast is central to the result: the interior and new exterior work are contemporary, but they remain anchored to a building whose proportions and openings predate the office program.
What role do the corrugated metal panels play?
The selected cladding is corrugated PAC-CLAD HWP wall panels from Petersen. The panels were installed over a deep furring system rather than attached directly to the existing masonry. Visually, the ribs introduce a repeated horizontal texture, while the projecting profile creates changing bands of light and shadow across the façade.
Pease described the system as an “efficient, insulated wrapper” around the masonry building. That wording explains the design rationale, not a measured result. The source does not provide an insulation thickness, thermal transmittance value, air-leakage result, energy model, utility comparison or post-occupancy measurement. It therefore supports saying that the attachment strategy offered the possibility of additional insulation and enclosure improvement, but not claiming a quantified energy saving.
“The ribbed metal-panel system over a deep furring system created an efficient, insulated wrapper for the existing masonry building.” — Randy Pease, AIA
The furring zone also helped create the visual separation needed for the new skin to read as an intentional layer. Instead of disguising the masonry by applying a thin finish directly to it, the design established a cavity and a new plane. That move allowed the cladding to provide texture and shadow while acknowledging that the old wall remained part of the building.
Pease also identified a compositional goal:
“The ribbed metal wall panels were used to create texture and shadow for the façade while subtly reinforcing the horizontality of the building.” — Randy Pease, AIA
Horizontal emphasis is a modest intervention, but it can help unify a building assembled from different eras. The regular panel rhythm gives the street elevation a consistent visual order without requiring the designers to remove every existing opening or addition.
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Why did the corners become the project’s defining detail?
Large wall areas can tolerate a small amount of visual variation because the eye reads them as a broad field. Corners are different. They turn the cladding, terminate the rhythm of the ribs and sit where pedestrians can inspect alignment, seams and transitions. On this project, the installers treated those locations as custom fabrication rather than as an afterthought.
Action Roofing & Sheet Metal, based in Grand Haven, Michigan, fabricated flat pieces in its shop and epoxy-welded them into finished corners. The profile does not give a corner dimension, weld pattern, coating specification or shop drawing, so those details should not be inferred as a repeatable specification for another building. What is documented is the fabrication approach and the visual standard the installer was trying to achieve.
“The real trick was to get the corners to look good at eye level.” — Dave Metcalf, owner, Action Roofing & Sheet Metal
That comment captures why the title focuses on corners. A panel system can be technically continuous while still looking unfinished if the turn at a corner is bulky, mismatched or visibly improvised. Shop fabrication moved the most scrutinized work into a controlled setting before the pieces reached the building. The result depended on both accurate fabrication and careful field alignment.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallFor architects and contractors, the lesson is not that every metal-panel project requires the same corner method. It is that the corner condition should be resolved early, drawn at a useful scale and judged from the same eye-level viewpoints that neighbors and visitors will have. The appropriate solution will depend on the panel profile, substrate, drainage strategy, finish and movement requirements of each project.
How was the cladding installed in difficult weather?
The project profile describes an unusually demanding installation schedule. Cold and wind complicated the work, and crews continued installing panels on Christmas Eve. These comments come from the project participants and are best read as an account of the job’s conditions, not as an independent assessment of the product or the installer’s overall performance.
Weather affects more than worker comfort. Wind can make large sheets difficult to control, cold can constrain sealants and adhesives, and shortened winter daylight can reduce the time available for safe exterior work. The source does not state the exact temperatures, wind speeds, dates of individual phases or any resulting schedule delay, so those specifics cannot be reconstructed from the profile.
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What can be taken from the account is the coordination requirement. A custom corner that looks correct in the shop still has to meet adjacent panels, substrates and flashings in the field. When conditions are poor, protection, sequencing and inspection become especially important because a correction at a corner may require removing more than one panel.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesHow does this project illustrate adaptive reuse?
Integrated Architecture presented the completed office as an example it could show clients who are considering reuse rather than demolition and replacement. Pease called it “a great example for our clients of adaptive reuse of a building to create a simple, modern workplace.”
“It’s a great example for our clients of adaptive reuse of a building to create a simple, modern workplace.” — Randy Pease, AIA
The example is persuasive because the project addresses several reuse issues at once:
- Program: the firm needed a more efficient and flexible workplace in a more central location.
- Existing fabric: the design retained significant architectural elements, including large window openings, instead of treating the old shell as disposable.
- New identity: the ribbed metal skin gave the street façade a clear, contemporary presence.
- Enclosure strategy: deep furring created space for an insulated wrapper around the masonry, at least in the design intent described by the profile.
- Craft: custom-fabricated corners addressed the places where the new skin would be most visible and vulnerable to criticism.
Adaptive reuse is often discussed in terms of embodied carbon, historic character or construction savings. This profile does not quantify any of those outcomes. It documents a design decision and its execution on one building, not a universal proof that reuse will cost less, perform better or be simpler than new construction.
What should an owner or architect ask before copying the approach?
The Grand Rapids project offers a useful sequence of questions, but its panel choice should not be copied without a building-specific enclosure review.
- What is worth preserving? Inventory masonry, openings, structural elements and additions before deciding where the new skin will go. A filled window opening may require a different repair or detailing strategy than an intact one.
- Where can the new enclosure sit? Confirm whether the existing wall can support the proposed furring and panel system, and resolve offsets at windows, doors, parapets and roof edges.
- What does “insulated wrapper” mean for this building? Establish insulation type and thickness, vapor-control strategy, air-barrier continuity, drainage and thermal bridges through project-specific drawings and calculations. The Michigan profile supplies no numerical performance target.
- How will corners be made? Decide whether corners use shop-fabricated pieces, formed components or another method. Review samples or mock-ups from normal viewing distance and at eye level.
- How will movement and water be managed? Coordinate joints, flashings, end conditions and penetrations with the panel manufacturer’s current technical documentation and the project’s code requirements.
- What is the installation plan? Account for weather exposure, access, temporary protection and the order in which large wall areas and custom pieces will be installed.
- What evidence will demonstrate success? If energy or comfort is a project goal, define the measurements in advance. The source profile reports design intent but no measured energy or thermal outcome.
These questions turn the project’s visible lessons into a practical design process without pretending that one office conversion supplies a complete specification for other buildings.
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What does the published account not tell us?
The 2023 Building Enclosure profile is a project feature, not an independent performance evaluation or a comparison of competing wall systems. It identifies the corrugated PAC-CLAD HWP panels and the installer, but it does not provide panel gauge, coating color, fastener schedule, furring dimensions, insulation value, fire-rating assembly, warranty terms or maintenance requirements.
It also does not report the office’s floor area, final cost, energy use, indoor-comfort data, construction duration or current occupancy. The stated age of the plant and its decade of vacancy are project-history details as reported in the article, not findings from a broader statistical study. Readers should use those facts to understand the starting condition, not to generalize about every vacant industrial building.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Finally, the profile’s comments about severe weather, supplier products and the appearance of the corners are participant testimony. They explain how the team experienced the work and what it valued; they are not laboratory results or third-party rankings.
What is the lasting significance of the corners?
The corners show how a relatively small fabrication decision can determine whether a large façade reads as deliberate. Integrated Architecture’s project did not rely on a new building footprint to establish a modern identity. It kept a masonry printing-plant shell, added a ribbed metal layer over deep furring and concentrated custom attention where the panels turned and met.
That approach combines preservation with visible new work. The old building remains legible through its openings and massing, while the metal wrapper introduces a controlled rhythm and a contemporary street presence. The documented result is an adaptive-reuse workplace whose strongest architectural message is carried by details that pedestrians encounter at close range.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the former printing plant open to the public?
The project profile identifies the building as Integrated Architecture’s headquarters but does not publish visitor hours, tours or a public-access policy. Anyone seeking a visit would need to confirm access directly with the firm rather than assuming that a working office is open for tours.
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Does the article provide a complete specification for the wall assembly?
No. It names the corrugated PAC-CLAD HWP panels, deep furring and the epoxy-welded corner fabrication, but it does not list panel gauge, insulation thickness, fasteners, flashings or other assembly data. Those items would have to come from project documents and current manufacturer information.
Can the project be used as proof that metal cladding lowers energy bills?
No measured energy or thermal result is reported. The source says the furring arrangement offered an insulated-wrapper strategy, so any savings claim for another building would require its own modeling and post-occupancy measurements.
Were the corner pieces welded on the building site?
The profile says flat pieces were fabricated in the installer’s shop and epoxy-welded into corners before installation. It does not describe every field connection or identify the exact adhesive or welding procedure.
