Liberty Lofts in Ann Arbor Wins Sustainability Award

The Ann Arbor Historic District Commission awarded the Liberty Lofts development an Adaptive Reuse Award as an outstanding example of sustainable development.

The downtown development is redeveloping an old factory on the block surrounded by Liberty, First, William and Second streets near the city’s Old West Side, an old German immigrant enclave.

Approximately 70,000 of the structure’s 110,000 square feet is part of the original building, which housed an automotive manufacturer since the 1920s. A 40,000 addition for lofts was built onto the original factory.

The project won the award because it mixes the old and new parts of the structure nicely and increases the housing density downtown. The developers were also lauded for efficiently using the land, effectively mixing retail and residential space, redeveloping a brown field site in a flood plain.

Only five of the 68 lofts in the building are still available. They range in size from 844 to 2,337 square feet. The lofts emphasize the building’s industrial heritage with open floor plans, exposed mushroom-shaped concrete columns and burnished block concrete walls.

Construction workers have also recently finished renovating the single-story section of the plant at the corner of Liberty and First streets into commercial space, which is still available.

Chicago-based Morningside Group is the developer behind Liberty Lofts, along with other urban-based developments in Michigan and the Midwest.

Click here to visit the Liberty Lofts website!