Contract Magazine - January/February 2019 - 108

INTERIORS AWARDS

The building holds its urban
corner, standing in opposition
to the neighboring strip
development (right).
Optimo's design studio
(below) features dual round
openings that once gave firefighters access to below via
firepoles and are now glazed
to allow visual connection
between studio and
production (far right). The
double-bay garage that once
housed the fire engines is
now the production floor
(opposite).

Chicago's Beverly neighborhood lies just 11 miles southwest of the SOMdesigned Willis Tower, which was the world's tallest building for the last quarter
of the twentieth century. But the Chicago-born architecture firm hadn't completed
a commission anywhere nearby until it recently repurposed an old fire house
as a bespoke boutique hat maker's factory for Optimo Hat Co.
Graham Thompson started Optimo when he bought out one of the last
remaining hatter's businesses in Chicago during the 1990s. He has since spent
25 years collecting the rare tools and knowledge necessary to create a factory
with the sole purpose of making the best hats in the world,.
Graham jumped at the chance to acquire the dilapidated 7,770-square-foot,
two-story building when the city built a new fire house facility next door. The building
is a throwback-much like Optimo-a solid masonry structure that holds its urban
corner. "It's a classic midwestern fire house-we inserted this new infrastructure
by adding detail to the existing fabric," says SOM Design Partner Brian Lees.
Although the entire factory comprises just three ground-floor rooms, moving
the hats through the structure was key, and small details were critical. "How do
you hold up the hat without getting it dusty?" Lee asks. The answer was to create
a moveable shelving system-in both metal and wood for different phases of the
process-where the hats are suspended on rods that provide just the necessary
amount of support.
108

The double-bay garage that once housed the fire engines is now the
production floor. Three freestanding blackened metal "goal posts" span the space,
define discrete work areas, and provide electric, direct and indirect lighting,
and air hoses-with all the necessary utilities just inches away from the equipment.
The shelving units move freely through the wide aisles. Production continues in
the surface finishing and sewing rooms in the rear before concluding a circular flow
back on the factory floor in the center of the building. Each work station comprises
an assortment of antique and new tables and machines, each finished to match
the dominant dark metal industrial aesthetic defined by SOM. New polished concrete
floors conceal in-floor heating, which provides a pleasant temperature throughout
the winter without blowing dust around.
The primary space of the upper floor is Optimo's design studio, with the dual
round openings that once gave firefighters access to below via firepoles now glazed
to allow visual connection between studio and production. Offices and kitchen
complete the support amenities. The design studio focuses on a 19-feet-long walnut
table illuminated by a 10-feet-diameter custom circular metal light fixture suspended
on thin cables. A bespoke shelving display-which riffs on the wood and metal details
found downstairs-features some of Thompson's personal artifacts, including hand
tools once used by his mentor, antique hats, and sewing machines.
While Optimo strives to create a unique, albeit traditional, product for the 21st
century, the small-scale design remains a bit anomalous within SOM's oeuvre. "It's not
the usual thing we do," Lee admits. "But we saw a design opportunity." The surprising
match between the large Chicago architecture firm and small South Side maker
resulted in a compelling-and business savvy-piece. "For our whole history, we could
barely keep up with demand," Thompson notes. "Now we have far greater capacity,
there's a lot of room to grow, and this feels like the character of our brand." c

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