Pitt Carriage

Built in 1909, the Pitt Carriage Co. Building, 212 E. Third Street, Des Moines, Iowa is located on the flat flood plain at the base of Capitol Hill in the heart of the East Side Industrial, Warehousing, and Railroad Historic District. The Pitt Carriage Co. Building made a locally significant contribution to Des Moines history as a rare-surviving carriage works factory building, which was constructed and operated under the leadership of the only woman to lead a carriage company in the United States.

Mabel Pitt’s unprecedented ownership/presidency of a carriage company earned local press and national trade journal coverage. The Hub, a long-time transportation manufacturing trade journal (1871-1919) that became the Automotive Manufacturer circa 1920, wrote on the newly founded Pitt-Carriage company under the headline “Woman Will Head Automobile Shop,” in February 1911. The facility served as carriage factory and warehouse through 1934 at which time it was purchased by the Reichenbach family and served as an ostrich hatchery until 1951. From 1951-1974, the facility served as warehouse for the Feed Specialties Company. The building has sat vacant since. The first floor and second floor each contain 5,280 square feet of space. Just as on the exterior, the interior is unadorned. The structure consists of structural brick walls over a concrete floor, interior structural wood and steel columns, an array of steel I beams, wood girders and remnant wood flooring. Almost all window openings had been filled with concrete masonry units.

Diffuse in structural order and lack of aperture, the space was unpredictable in its sensorial effects. The quality of its intricate component parts provided an elusive yet all-encompassing phenomena. The climatic conditions of this service-less facility offered a potent site for the creation of atmospheres and affects. Our goal here is to act on such circumstances with sincere sensitivity and in collaboration with the extant buildings past and material presence in effort to conceive of a new occupation by which we might intensify its environmental scale and complexity and thereby re-occupy and meticulously inter-connect it and ourselves with its contemporary cultural context.

The architectural effort was to retain the historic building envelope as well as its original window and carriage door openings. All modern CMU window infill and garage doors were removed and replaced with new recessed mahogany wood storefronts, pedestrian doors, and non-operable carriage doors. New 2/2 wood double-hung windows were installed throughout with thermally broken, wood-frame windows to replicate the original windows per photographic evidence sourced from the Des Moines Register and other vintage imagery from the area.

A new roof and ceiling assembly was installed. Additionally, there was no level two flooring or ceiling – there was only wood joist. Our goal here was to replace a number of burnt joist from previous fire damage and add a new wood floor and gypsum board ceiling. Wood egress stairs were added on each end of the facility. The street stair was located and installed in the same run location as the original street stair.

The architectural effort was to maintain the authenticity and atmospheric quality of this particular space by maintaining it in all aspects. Our goal for the interior was to the retain character-defining industrial features – concrete floors, masonry walls, soaring ceilings, and exposed structural steel and plaster wall surfaces. We installed a new steel structural shoring system to stabilize the already shifting upper story which leaned to the south. On west side, we created common restrooms which served a retail business at the rear and a restaurant in the front. The upper level was converted to a single entity office. The existing column line was left exposed and battered along which the new glazing system, offices, conference rooms and restrooms were located.

The project’s long-range impact on the structure is significant given the building has been completely code updated with new mechanical, electrical, plumbing, glazing and sprinkler systems to support more sustainable operational costs and the well-being of its occupancy. The entirety of the building has been rehabilitated to support mixed use tenancy for the coming century. All residential and commercial tenant spaces have been filled. Each of these occupancies contributes significantly to Des Moines’ historic East Side Industrial, Warehousing, and Railroad Historic District and East Village neighborhood by preserving the street character by restoring the masonry edifice and reconstructing the carriage door and shop entrances along East 3rd Street. Photographer: Cameron Campbell