‘One of the last bad pieces of Old Town’ is about to be turned ‘into something special’

When an architect designs his own space, he’s not simply designing it for himself.

It also serves as a showpiece for what he can do for clients.

Just ask Stan Shelden of Shelden Architecture, who is embarking on a transformation of what he called “one of the last bad pieces of Old Town” with plans to “turn it into something special.”

“We’re in the business of making space for people,” Shelden said. “If this isn’t a showpiece for that, we will have missed the mark.”

After working for someone else, Shelden started his own firm in 2002 in leased space at First and Mead. He grew the company from a one-man shop to a 22-person staff. There are so many employees now, they have to be on separate floors, which Shelden said he doesn’t like.

Now, he’s purchased a former warehouse less than a block away at 115 N. Mead and is renovating it for his firm with plans to lease to others as well. The 21,000 square feet over three floors, including a basement, will allow for more flexibility.

Everyone at the firm will be on the second floor, which Shelden said leads to “all the fun kind of interactions when your whole team . . . is together.”

Shelden bought the building about a year ago and has been working on plans ever since.

The 1901 brick and poured-in-place-concrete building “is built like a tank,” he said.

It suffered some damage early in its history and was reworked in 1912.

“The building is an extraordinary ordinary little brick warehouse,” Shelden said.

Though it’s in what he called sad condition and “needs a boatload of work to get it up to speed,” there’s an attractive simplicity to the space, too.

“The fact that it’s so simple is very appealing. Nobody’s messed it up. . . . It’s very much a blank slate.”

Shelden said the building is easy to get to and visible along Douglas, sitting just north of Union Station.

It also sits close to the railroad tracks and is especially connected to them, Shelden said.

At one time, there was a direct link from the tracks into the second floor of the building where items could move easily from the trains along the tracks to a trolley line into the building.

“It was a pretty cool deal.”

The building isn’t specifically listed on historic registries; however, Shelden said it’s a contributing element in a historic district.

He said his hope is his adaptive reuse of a languishing property will contribute to all the other good things going on in Old Town and downtown.

Shelden said the ability to “show what you can do with old bones, honoring the old bones . . . and yet reimagining their use into an office space is one of our favorite project types for our clients.”

“It feels very important,” he said. “I love the story that that tells.”

Just as Shelden’s parents and wife were involved in helping Shelden start the company and get into his first space, he said they’re involved with this building as well, and he’s especially grateful. That’s even if his parents were a bit surprised when they first saw the dilapidated space.

Shelden joked that his parents would say he’s “open to risk.”

“It’s a big project.”

The new space should be ready by fall.

“There’s a lot of energy going into this thing,” Shelden said.

He’s already looking forward to walking clients through to show how the building transformed.

“It definitely will be a tool. . . . We would love to do this for any of our clients, so getting to do it for ourselves is extra special.”