Few architects would take on the long hours and complicated changes that come with a design job for a project already under construction.

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Not so for Indianapolis-based RATIO Architects, which viewed the redesign of the facade of Simon Properties' new $56 million headquarters building as an opportunity-even though the structural frame's design was already complete, steel was about to be bid and demolition of an existing onsite garage was under way.

"We knew we could move one or two columns, but we weren't able to change the basic footprint and the location of the elevator core," said Bill Browne Jr., principal architect and president of RATIO. "It was an opportunity for us to ride in on a white horse and do something interesting and exciting and likely better than what they had before."

Joining the project team in November 2004 after the original design architect was dismissed, RATIO was able to pull together a plan in a matter of weeks that would transform the initial exterior design into a facade that better reflected the expectations of the owner and community while keeping the foundation and skeleton relatively unchanged.

"Sometimes, as architects, one of the best things we can have is restrictions," Browne said. "It forces us to make some decisions. Sometimes if we have no limitations, the sky's the limit."

The 14-story, 325,000-sq.-ft. headquarters building for the property management group, first designed by Atlanta's Cooper Cary Architects, was initially drawn to feature a straight-forward limestone facade with punched windows. Already in the public spotlight because of its controversial location on a portion of downtown Indianapolis' Capitol Commons Park, the building's design-with few architectural details-drew additional scrutiny from the community.

RATIO had a brief encounter with the project several years earlier when the owner asked the firm to provide design input. However, RATIO's involvement ended when the owner eventually chose to hire Indianapolis-based general contractor Duke Construction to develop and build the project, who in turn brought their design partner, Cooper Cary, to the table.

Back on board as the project's new designer, RATIO's alternative offering jazzed up the initial design with considerable glass massing, different facades for each side of the building and a new approach where the foot of the building meets the sidewalk.

High-Profile Neighbors

Located on an urban downtown street corner, the building faces both Indiana's State House along Washington Street and the Indiana Convention Center along Capitol Avenue. The new office tower's proximity to two such well-known and established structures gave RATIO the opportunity to design the new building to visually interact its surroundings.

The mostly limestone facade was reduced with the addition of vertical strip windows and glass curtain wall elements. RATIO created three massing schemes, each featuring a proportionally higher percentage of glass as the facade works its way around the building.

Browne said the massings overlap and deliver a sense of layering to the skin. The color of the glass was carefully selected with a green-tint patina on the side that faces the State House to match that building's weathered copper dome. Glass and limestone are mixed with aluminum window frames and metallic accents.

RATIO also engaged the sidewalk with a street-level colonnade on the building's north and south sides that allows pedestrians to "tuck in" to the building as they enter, Browne said.

The new design passed the scrutiny of the owner, as well as the community.

"RATIO is very good at designing a building that fits in its surroundings and that still has a creative edge or flair to it," said John Rulli, chief operation officer for operating properties for Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group.

RATIO was also asked to design the building's lobby space on the first floor as well as the three-story executive atrium at the top. Instead of green-tinted windows, the glazing in the atrium is iron-free, offering a crystal clear view of the State House's dome and a panoramic vista of the city beyond.

Buying Time Demolition of an existing underground garage on the site began in November 2004-about the same time as the architecture firm shake-up-buying the design-build team enough time to implement a new design and construction plan.

Weekly design team meetings with the original architect were halted as the new RATIO team came on board, said Phil Allemeier, project manager with Indianapolis-based general contractor Duke Construction, and old construction drawings were scrapped.

"Most of my struggle was keeping my superintendent supplied with the design drawings that came out of the new design meetings," Allemeier said.

Demolition of the garage took about four months, preceded by two months of utility relocation, giving the entire project team time to regroup before actual construction began.

"For lack of better words, (the architecture firm change) happened at a good time," Allemeier added.

The project's original September completion date remains in place, despite the 11th-hour scramble to procure the new design's precast panels and a slight redesign of some of the main steel framing members.

The building's structural engineer, Haris Engineering of Overland Park, Kan., had to re-examine the frame from the foundation up-making slight changes along the way-to ensure it would support the new facade.

Although the new office building's skin is completely transformed, little of the supporting skeleton is changed from the original design, an accomplishment noted by the owner.

"Working with an existing steel structure is extremely limiting," said Simon Properties' Rulli. "For RATIO to put a new dress on the steel with a creative edge was a tremendous accomplishment."

Despite catch-up work at the start of the job, designing a challenging project such as this one is something RATIO's Browne would welcome again.

"As an architecture firm, we're handed lots of different kinds of projects," he said.

"That's the exciting part of this profession. We look at these types of projects as opportunities to be creative within a set of parameters."

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