New Office, Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services

Office Expansion / Renovation
Madison, Mississippi

A former corporate office building housed the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services (MDRS) for many years, but did not serve its adapted purpose very well. Its oddly-shaped form, ambiguous entrances and inaccessible level changes made its approach difficult for MDRS employees and clients. The expansion and renovation of the facility required new office areas, a 475-seat auditorium, conference rooms, work areas, and employee areas. Responding to the geometry of the existing building, the design for the addition evolved as two elongated wings that parallel the front angled facades, hugging them close, but separated, creating outdoor spaces between the two buildings and allowing more daylight into the office areas. A new triangular connective element is formed by the new wings, based on the geometry of the existing building form, just in front of the existing building entrance. As a node at the second and third levels, this space connects the existing with the new; it also penetrates the building as a glass balcony, a marquee for a large canopied, floor-level drop-off at the ground floor, where it dissolves into columns, becoming the main entrance plaza. The ground floor becomes a transparent lobby for the auditorium at the north wing, providing an independent entrance. At the south wing, an owner request for an entrance to the executive offices was fulfilled with a curtain-walled glass entrance stair, maintaining the transparency of the ground level. To the west is the new main entrance of glass, opening into the atrium of the renovated building, flooding it with natural light. All new finishes, and a glass rail system replacing the solid-walled guardrails at stairs and landings, contribute to a lighter, more open interior.

Construction Cost: $12.3 million

Completed 2014