Concrete Columns

Considerable progress has been made to clear out the back end of the first floor at the Palace.  This is the roughly 10,000 SF concrete and brick portion on the western side, which was built in 1914 and then added on to in 1929.  Workers cleared the deteriorating wood lath, wallpaper and plaster off of the interior and returned the rugged concrete and brick structure back to its bare bones. 

As I stood in the middle of the newly exposed space for the first time, the possibilities of uses began to speak to me.  The 12’ tall ceilings and window frontage could make successful retail while the large space on the southern end could make a banquet hall, public assembly space, or even an exercise facility for local residents.  The passageway that cuts through the middle of the hotel is lined with brick arches and skylights, which could make a beautiful, sunlit alleyway for impromptu public meetings and walk-throughs. 

Here is the current break up of the programmatic uses for back end of the first floor.  As you can see the western end is retail (blue) while the large space on the southern end is an assembly hall (green) and the passageway (the yellow highlights the atrium above) cuts through the building.

The green squares dotting the concrete portion represent a 15-foot grid of large, 16” columns supporting concrete beams.   The columns are part of the concrete building's robust structural system which was engineered for a building two stories taller than the Palace.  These columns could offer an artistic statement in themselves, by either being covered with stucco and intricately detailed or sand-blasted and left with their existing, rugged appearance.  Although very different aesthetically, both methods could work well with the Palace, either by contrasting the interior finishes with an honest, gritty structure or the classical ornate.