1960–1961, Aeck Associates; 2010–2011 restoration and renovation, Greenline Architecture. 1001 Whitaker St.
The sprawling, ground-hugging, single-story modernist building reflects the impact of postwar suburban ideals brought downtown and the high quality of midcentury corporate design. The precast concrete waffle slab-roof structure also forms the interior ceiling, evoking traditional coffering, and dramatically cantilevers over the exterior walls, whose continuous ribbon windows make clear their non-loadbearing character. A central glass and aluminum entrance pavilion with a projecting triple-arched canopy reinforces the classical roots of this abstract design. Seacrest Partners commissioned the building’s meticulous restoration. The 1973 landscape design by Clermont Lee has since been considerably altered.