44th Office Works
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT
- 2079 W. 44th Ave., Sunnyside, Denver CO
- Adaptive reuse — existing 1 story brick and CMU building to 2 story with mezzanine
- Level 1 retail, level 2 and mezzanine office
- 3,500 sf office, 4,500 sf core shell retail
- Former brick material yard
- Construction completed
SUMMARY
The most ambitious adaptive reuse is the one you cannot see. At 44th Office Works on West 44th Avenue in Denver’s Sunnyside neighborhood, MmD Architecture transformed a single-story brick and CMU building, a former brick material yard, so completely that the original structure has effectively disappeared into the new composition. What stands on the street today reads as a purpose-built modern commercial building, its geometry, proportions, and material discipline giving no indication of what came before.
The exterior is organized around a neutral field of white stucco that allows the geometry of the addition to do the work. A dark metal frame defines the building’s edges and establishes the rhythm of the facade, and within that frame a full-height curtainwall glazing element marks the second floor office entry with unmistakable presence. This vertical gesture is the dominant feature of the street elevation, rising above the roofline and asserting an identity visible from both directions along 44th Avenue. Natural light floods through the curtainwall into the office levels above, the glazing serving simultaneously as the building’s signature move and as the primary source of daylight for the workspace within.
Inside, the design continues the same logic with the same honesty. Rather than concealing the industrial character of the original structure, the design celebrates it. Exposed steel columns, open steel stair with wood treads set against a full-height wood accent wall, exposed ceiling structure, and exposed mechanical overhead establish a material language that is warm, precise, and entirely consistent with the ambition of the exterior. The wood carries the character of reclaimed material as it ages, deepening in tone and texture in a way that reinforces rather than contradicts the industrial honesty of the space. The building that was is not hidden. It is transformed, absorbed into a design of sufficient conviction that old and new become a single architectural idea.
