Masonic Temple Lofts

[completed while employed at Slingshot Architecture]

The Story: The Waterloo Masonic Temple building is nothing short of amazing. The lower floors were finished in high style with polished a grand entry stair, stone columns, and detailed plaster moldings. On the other hand, the upper stories remained a massive raw, industrial open space – concrete catwalks spanned 50 feet under massive steel bridge trusses!

The challenge in this project was to sensitively insert apartments into the upper floors while maintaining a sense of the large space. This design goal was achieved by creating a large central atrium, with three new skylights, ringed by multi-level apartment units. Throughout the adaptive reuse project, the feel of the original raw materials is highlighted by the new white walls.

This project received Historic Tax Credits.