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1/19/21
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Here’s news from a Western US state we don’t report about much – Alaska. In Anchorage, architecture firm Perkins&Will has completed the modernization and expansion of the former Key Bank Plaza building in the city’s downtown area into a sleek, glacier-like office building.
Originally constructed in 1972 by Alaska Mutual Savings Bank, the nine-story office building, located at 601 W 5th Ave, required extensive structural repairs as a result of the region’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake in November 2018. In addition to much-needed seismic reinforcements, the building will undergo an external transformation that pays homage to Alaska’s natural wonders.
Principal Brad Hinthorne, Senior Project Designer Bill Xu, and designers Kirk Malanchuk and Louis Peiser are working alongside Design Director Erik Mott to deliver an innovative office environment that embraces connectivity to Alaska’s natural world. Together, the design team has reimagined the property to include an additional 40k sf, sloped façade that reconfigures the building to resemble a glacier. Replacing the existing precast concrete cladding will be new floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing for maximum daylight.
Future tenants will benefit from being located in close proximity to several prominent city attractions, including the Alaska Center for Performing Arts, William A. Egan Convention Center, Visit Anchorage Headquarters, Town Square Park, and historic Fourth Avenue Theatre. Given the potential for substantial pedestrian activity at different times of the day and year, on-site landscape and hardscape improvements have remained a top priority for Perkins&Will’s design team. To account for dark, snowy winters, radiant heating, six new skylights and drought-tolerant native plants have been incorporated into the project’s master plan.
As a result of the substantial damages sustained in the 2018 earthquake, the Key Bank Plaza Building will be retrofitted with significant interior improvements, such as the replacement of all mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, construction of a new stair tower, modern elevators and installation of a freight elevator. The owners hope that the modern, state-of-the-art building will reinvigorate Anchorage’s static downtown area which has not seen any new construction for the past 10 years.
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