Appraisers’ Building Adaptive Reuse

McLaren Engineering Group provided structural design and engineering services for the adaptive reuse of this historic ten-story steel-framed Appraisers’ Building in Baltimore, MD. The former federal 147,000-square-foot building was originally constructed in 1935 and used for appraising and inspecting imported merchandise that passed through the Port of Baltimore. McLaren helped transform the former commercial building into luxury apartments located just blocks from Baltimore’s picturesque Inner Harbor. The mixed-use building now offers residents a bi-level penthouse full of lifestyle amenities including a fitness center, rooftop deck, street style art, indoor basketball court, and lounge with billiards and a ping pong table.

Adaptive Reuse Engineering

McLaren worked closely with the client, contractor and architect to provide designs and on-site assistance throughout the development and construction of this adaptive reuse project. This allowed design work to continue during construction, avoiding delays. After analyzing the building’s lateral load resisting system to account for column-slab interaction which was previously discounted, McLaren determined that the existing steel cross-braces could be removed. This allowed for more efficient access to the building’s central staircase and elevator.

For the adaptive reuse of the Appraisers’ Building, McLaren’s team also worked to design and detail new framing to support a concrete floor slab, remove bracing for the existing boiler flue removed below the penthouse for amenity access, framing to support a new amenity rooftop deck, reinforced masonry flood barriers, and a new screen wall in-fill at the existing loading dock.