If you’ve ever driven Interstate 84 through Hartford, CT, you’ve probably noticed a large complex of red brick buildings located in what was once the industrial heart of the city. Prominent yellow letters on the side of one of the most distinctive buildings tell you that it’s home to the Factory and Showroom of Lyman Kitchens – the region’s oldest and largest continuously operating kitchen business.

In addition to its own custom cabinetry, the firm offers several stock and semi-custom lines, with full remodeling and countertop fabricating capabilities.

But it’s not just the products or services offered that make this showroom so unique. Indeed, the building itself, with its strong ties to the past, adds beauty and value to the showroom.

“It was the prominence and high visibility of this building that lead us to consider it as an option,” says general manager Brian Lyman. The firm had outgrown the small showroom that housed its cabinet front re-facing business since 1972, and needed more space to respond to a growing customer base and active builder trade.

“The old space was just not end-user friendly,” Lyman explains, noting that parking was limited and difficult for tradespeople with their trucks to access. The company also needed additional room to house the machinery used in the custom milling operation. Building a space large enough to accommodate this expanding business was cost prohibitive, so the firm decided to look into alternative options and hit upon the concept of adaptive reuse of an historic site.

Adaptive reuse and historic restoration projects allow owners to work with an existing building and rework the interior to suit their specific needs. In a typical year, building construction consumes vast quantities of lumber, concrete, steel and other resources. Add to that the shrinking amount of land available for development, and it becomes clear that more environmentally friendly ways to respond to changing business needs must be explored.

Reusing buildings reduces the consumption of raw materials and decreases construction waste from demolition. In addition, the rich detailing, materials and finishes that are too expensive and labor intensive to reproduce by today’s new construction standards are routinely found intact in many older buildings.

A New Lease on Life

Brian Lyman thinks the present building his firm occupies was built in approximately 1890 – as part of the Pope Manufacturing Complex that produced sewing machines, automobile tires and the world-renowned Columbia bicycles. In a photograph from that year, it is easy to identify the building with its distinctive parapet-topped exterior elevator that his company occupies today.

“Purchasing this building in 1995 really allowed us to expand the business in a way that would not have been possible otherwise,” he states. While 19th century engineering methods may have been lacking in sophistication, materials and labor were so cheap that buildings such as these were “overbuilt” to withstand the rigors of heavy manufacturing. This allowed Lyman Kitchens to install heavy milling equipment without having to reinforce the floors or make major structural changes.

Grand New Space

The expansive 16'-high showroom space is flooded with light coming in through large arched windows that line the walls. Mechanical systems have been left exposed in the ceiling, but are now painted black so as not to draw attention away from the displays below. The exposed brick walls have been sandblasted to a soft red color – necessary after a previous tenant in the 1970s had painted them over while the space was used as an office.