Location: Chicago, IL

Client: Marc Realty

Completed: 2015

Photo Credit: Tyler Mallory

Space Haus was contracted to design the lobby and roof top community room during the conversion of the Brock and Rankin Book Binders building into rental lofts. This heritage building in Printer’s Row is listed on the national Register of Historic Places.

With the intent that our design should tell the story of the building, we salvaged rusty sewing machines, steel lettercases, old cigarette tins and crumbling newspapers from the building’s basement. Old machines were salvaged and restored and the lettercase was varnished. We salvaged and restored the decommissioned elevator pulley and created a custom frame to house it. We also sourced historic images documenting Chicago’s heyday in the book binding trade. In the final installation, hundreds of hardcover books, painted white, serve as the canvas against which these artifacts are displayed.