The iconic One Wells Fargo tower and Duke Energy building in Uptown Charlotte are being reimagined. Charlotte Center City Partners and workforce solutions company CBI are working to enhance the region’s thriving urban core. CCCP and CBI hosted a design competition to reimagine vintage office space and to add a range of additional destinations and economic activities to strengthen Uptown as a regional asset.
Six teams submitted thoughtful and innovative proposals to reimagine five Uptown buildings (two proposals were for the same building). The teams consisted of combinations of architects, designers, developers, nonprofits, construction companies, property managers and property owners.
First place went to proposals from Progressive AE, Childress Klein, Archer Western and Cushman & Wakefield for One Wells Fargo; and Asana Partners, SK+I Architecture and MRP Realty for the former Duke Energy headquarters, Brooklyn and Church, at 526 S. Church St. Each team will receive $15,000 from Charlotte-based workplace solutions firm CBI.
“Downtowns across the country are being reshaped by the impacts of the pandemic and monetary policy,” James LaBar, senior vice president of economic development for CCCP, said. “We believe this design competition eliciting innovative ideas is the most viable and Charlotte-informed way to learn how older office spaces can evolve to meet the ever-changing ways of working and learning, gathering with family and friends, and enjoying exceptional living and visitor experiences.”
Plans for One Wells Fargo include a partial conversion and complete refurbishment of the building and adjacent plaza into new office space, residential units, a multilevel urban plaza and ground-floor community uses, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. The multifamily component will have 162 units, 20% of which will be reserved for those earning below the area median income.
Plans for the 14-story, 778,000-square-foot building at 526 S. Church St. include its complete conversion to multifamily housing with up to 440 units, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. Conversion of the former Duke Energy Corp. headquarters, built in 1975, will also include rooftop amenity space and ground-floor retail that aims to activate the area. The project is expected to cost $251 million, which includes MRP’s $35.5 million acquisition of the property in December 2022.
Welch Liles, managing director at Asana, told the business journal about 25% of the building will be demolished to make room for a 60,000-square-foot stand alone retail building on the corner of the site. The rest of the office building will then be converted to multifamily and include a pedestrian plaza through the property.
All six submissions will be on display at 400 South Tryon. The submissions identified, reimagined, and examined how the future of Uptown can be better balanced with more attainable residences, experiential retail, modern work environments, and engaging civic uses.
Common threads emerged in the designs:
- Targeted private and public investments can improve key metrics, including lower vacancy rates, strengthened existing office markets, securing the tax base, and additional public benefits towards our community’s most vexing challenges.
- Selective demolition can create more engaging, diverse, and programmable spaces for the public.
- Ground level design should support more vibrancy and interactions for more people than just the buildings’ tenants.
- Adding residential uses in parts of buildings in order to achieve a mix of uses as well as increasing the number of Uptown residents.
- Place-based, specific building ideas informing programmatic goals for Uptown.
- Braided capital between private and public as well as federal, state, and local will be needed to turn these proposals into projects.
- Office conversion projects that are flexible and have tangible public benefits will be more compelling to attract public investments.
- Due to the scale of the challenge and fierce peer city competition, we will need to work on both the supply and demand sides with new office conversion tools and policies as well as targeted economic development retention and attraction efforts.
“CBI believes that good design is good business,” David Longo, chairman and CEO of CBI, said. “The built environment, when leveraged correctly, will positively impact culture, collaboration, learning, and innovation. These elements are critical to the success of the organizations we serve.”
“The potential for vintage offices being repurposed or repositioned has a series of challenges: from architectural complexity to financial puzzles,” LaBar said. “The submittals all contain innovative ideas to transform Uptown’s vintage offices into more neighborhoods, better opportunities for local entrepreneurs, new hospitality venues for visitors, enhanced public spaces for non-profit investments, and pandemic-informed offices to attract and retain tomorrow’s businesses and talent for Center City and the Charlotte region.”
The two highest scoring submittals each received a $15,000 prize. The next two highest scoring submittals received $2,500 each.
