BusinessWeek Online Architectural Record Awards: BEAUTY AND THE BASICS

Storing and transporting bottled gas is heavy industrial work, pure and simple. Praxair Distribution, working with Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture, decided to celebrate this fact and transform a warehouse into a polished-iron tribute to the Industrial Age. Exposed ducts, gleaming pipes, and metal studs give the workplace a distinctive identity. A long skylight slices through the building. A 28-foot-high cylindrical conference room dominates the space. The room is sheathed in two layers of perforated galvanized steel, which admits finely filtered light. The 58,000-square-foot warehouse was converted into a combined distribution and office space for only $45 a square foot. A great example of using inexpensive materials to build an innovative and beautiful working space.