PlanPhilly's Eyes on the Street reported recently on our adaptive reuse project at Ortlieb's Bottling House, the former bottling plant of a brewery that will be home to our new studio in 2014. Writer Ashley Hahn spoke with James Timberlake about plans to make use of natural ventilation and daylighting in the historic 1948 building, and to monitor the work spaces for comfort once we move in.

KieranTimberlake's renovation of Ortlieb Bottling House underway 
 
We know the Philadelphia firm KieranTimberlake for its high-minded contemporary design projects - from universities across the country to the future US Embassy in London - and these days they're crafting an important project close to home. 
 
Back in November KieranTimberlake announced that they had purchased the old Ortlieb Bottling House in Northern Liberties with plans to convert the building into their firm's new headquarters. The firm intends to use the adaptive reuse project as a real-time experiment in sustainable design, founding partner James Timberlake told me over the phone this week.  
 
Already the former bottling plant is seeing a lot of action, even as other buildings in the disintegrating Ortlieb Brewery complex across the street have been left for dead by owner/developer Bart Blatstein. As of this week, most of the necessary demolition work is complete, including the removal of the entire roof and the windows. Repairs to the exterior masonry – repointing the mortar, replacing loose brick, and fixing structural lintels above the windows – are also in progress. 
 
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