Streamline Architects threw open the doors on its forever home in downtown Moline to celebrate its 10th anniversary and demonstrate its commitment to share and preserve an historic Quad Cities treasure.
The award-winning, full-service architectural firm — founded by Andrew Dasso in 2015 as a one-person shop — first announced in June it would relocate from East Moline’s Rust Belt downriver to new offices at 1800 River Drive. It is not only the site of one of industrialist John Deere’s Moline homes, the historic building once housed Moline’s first post office.
“History is important — especially architecture — to this community,” Mr. Dasso told a QCBJ reporter and photographer during a tour of the new offices earlier this month. The project also demonstrates how adaptive reuse preserves historic stories like that one while allowing modern-day use of a building.
It also was true of Streamline’s previous office in the restored and readapted Rust Belt. That East Moline building was originally home to production of the Moline-Knight Automobile Co. beginning in the early 1900s. Mr. Dasso also made Streamline’s home there because building owner Larry Anderson is a mentor, friend and one of his best clients.
With this latest move, Streamline again traded one building steeped in Quad Cities history for another one. (Though technically the Rust Belt remains in the family since Mr. Dasso’s wife Marguerite Dasso and her sister Crystal Reickard still own and operate Jennie’s Boxcar restaurant there at 545 12th Ave.)
Gallery
While Mr. Dasso said he and his growing staff of 25 enjoyed their time at the Rust Belt, in the back of his mind was the desire to have Streamline settled into its forever home by the time the firm celebrated its 10th birthday.
Mr. Dasso declined to share the cost of this careful and historically sensitive remodel but he credited the City of Moline and bankers at Black Hawk Bank & Trust for helping him access an Illinois Business Advantage Loan. It allowed him to borrow money at a reduced interest rate and demonstrated that, “if you know about those programs, it is easy to do business in Illinois,” he said.
Moline excited by project
Moline City Administrator Bob Vitas told the QCBJ the city is “excited that Streamline has invested in such a historically significant building and site in Moline.”
He added “When great buildings, like the 1910 former post office, sit vacant for several years, it is a boost to the area to see them come back to life. Especially when the owners, like Streamline, plan to be long-term stewards committed to respect for the past, with an eye to the future.”
Mr. Vitas also said the city is “encouraged to see the fruits of our recently adopted Moline River Front + Centre Plan yield surrounding investment.”
Streamline’s attention to historic detail can be seen everywhere and begins in the carefully remodeled lobby. “As you can see, we haven’t changed much here,” Mr. Dasso said during the tour. “It really is kind of cool how we can use this building without destroying it.”
Another draw, he said, is that while the building is in the city’s downtown historic district it is not listed on the historic register. That gave Streamline “a little bit of freedom” to do what needed to be done without changing the building significantly.
It helped, too, that prior to the remodel, Mr. Dasso was familiar with the structure that began life as the Moline Post Office, later served as a National Guard armory and after that was home to some historic companies including Montgomery Elevator (now KONE).
In 2018, he toured the building — which had been vacant since around 2000 — with a residential multi-family developer client. But they could not find a way to turn it into apartments without destroying its history.
Ever since then, though, Mr. Dasso said “I’ve been watching it.”
Streamline’s design choices there also reflect its sensitivity to the fact that Quad Citians are protective of the building, its preservation and its features. Indeed, Mr. Dasso said, the most frequently asked question he fields is what became of the John Bloom mural once displayed there. It was created in 1995 for Montgomery Elevator and is the largest work of art ever painted by the late prairie-style artist and Grant Wood contemporary with deep QC ties.
Mr. Dasso pointed to a bookshelf that is in the spot where the painting once hung because the building’s seller decided to keep Mr. Bloom’s work. Had the owner not done so, Mr. Dasso said it is likely his firm would have donated it to the Figge Art Museum to ensure it was properly cared for and preserved.
A ‘good framework’
That concern for preservation and the firm’s commitment to honoring the past while shaping the future also can be seen throughout the carefully remodeled Beaux Arts-style structure that was built for $157,000 in 1910.
And thanks to the renovation, Mr. Dasso said, “We’re learning so much about the past companies that have occupied the building.” For example, Montgomery Elevator had its research and offices there and did a major renovation in 1990. That work is commemorated by a series of photos that have been featured on the lobby wall near the existing old service windows where clerks once stood.
“So we had a really good framework to work within,” Mr. Dasso said. “Then we just wanted to kind of add our touches and do some things that brought the building back to its historic character.” That included repainting the green and orange interior with creams and whites, which is similar to what that entry space would originally have worn.
The stunning woodwork that had been created by a local woodworking legend also remains. So does a unique heating and cooling system which was one of the first projects undertaken by the fledgling Klauer Heating & Air Conditioning of Moline. Their boiler and air handler system was engineered in such a way that there is no visible ductwork to take away from the lobby and its stately plaster moldings, Mr. Dasso said.
Helping lead the Streamline office remodel was construction manager Russell of Davenport, who Mr. Dasso said “really partnered through the entire process.”
Key subcontractors included Rock River Electric, Crawford Co., JL Brady, K&J Finishing, and Rock Island Painting Co., which brush-painted the lobby by hand.
That combined with new old paint colors to create an inviting space. “I have a hospitality background and a lot of our employees do too, so it’s like a hotel lobby,” Mr. Dasso added.
Not surprisingly then, the space also features an espresso station to serve up Streamline’s own Iron + Grain coffee and create an “overall experience” for clients and visitors. Mr. Dasso said Streamline will hold events there, including for example, seminars to share some of the latest design trends.
Just east of the lobby where hundreds of the original mailboxes — for which Mr. Dasso still holds the keys — remain is the old post office library. Today it serves as Streamline’s design library and includes such features as an original rolling library ladder. The building also boasts space for large team meetings and places to showcase Streamline projects.
Function meets history
Despite the building’s age, the overall changes made to update it also appear minimal. That, too, was deliberate.
“We really wanted to repeat the history of the space, but we also needed function,” Mr. Dasso said. Doing that required, for example, cutting an opening to create an entry to and from the lobby. Other necessary modern touches were the addition of 100-inch and 65-inch televisions on the walls to allow clients to view architect’s designs or help facilitate meetings.
The remodel also features a large inviting area where Streamline’s growing staff members do their work. Around the perimeter of that large workspace are original hardwood floors that have been restored, but still pay tribute to the building’s reuse because they bear indentations from the postal clerks who long stood behind the counters.
The large windows at the top of that room’s impossibly high ceilings boast blinds that were probably original to the space. The period-appropriate bright pendulum lights that hang from the ceiling were found in the attic and reworked. Mr. Dasso thinks they too may have been original.
Some important changes also were needed because the exterior of the utilitarian building “almost pushes back at you when you come to the door,” he said. To combat that Streamline added new benches, a front terrace, seeding and uplighting “to make people welcome when they come in the door.”
Mr. Dasso also is counting on the new location to help Streamline continue to attract talented professionals to the Quad Cities. “When you bring someone that’s never been to the Quad Cities into the Rust Belt, they’ve been to buildings like that and they’re like ‘Oh, wow, you’ve got everything here.’”
In its new Moline home, Streamline also has worked to do that in a number of ways including in its unique small restrooms, where designers really let their hair down and “had our fun.”
Mr. Dasso said he hopes clients will find them cool. QCBJ staffers did, including the one wearing wallcoverings designed by Terry Crews, former NFL linebacker, actor on such hits as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Idiocracy, host of America’s Got Talent, and a sought after graphic artist and designer. It features the faces of 20 influential people including Mr. Crews, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walt Disney and pop icons such as Cindi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and more identifiable icons.
Yet another restroom is located in an old vault, “so it’s probably the safest
restroom in the Quad Cities,” Mr. Dasso quipped.
