Karen Linner, principal at Shenandoah Consulting, and Harvey McLain, of the
Turtle Bread Company, teamed up to renovate Longfellow Offices at 36
th and Lake in South Minneapolis. The new Longfellow Offices had its grand opening earlier this month.
The vintage building previously housed an art gallery. The building's focus now is wellness, which Linner says is a “burgeoning market.” Longfellow Offices houses tenants that work in massage therapy, acupuncture, and Rolfing. A holistic diabetes group is also in the works.
Throughout the construction process, Linner and McLain sought to bring out the building’s best features.
“It’s a great building with great bones,” Linner says.
The structure was gutted, then divided into 10 suites for practitioners. Tenants share a common hallway that’s equipped with a sink, plus a kitchenette and an accessible restroom.
Linner and McLain added windows to allow for plenty of natural light, and they installed dimmable light fixtures, “which are convenient for practitioners,” she says.
They also paid attention to design details that preserve the building’s character. For example, hand-painted ceilings resemble old-fashioned pressed tin. Hardwood floors, high ceilings, subway tile, and wood trim add to the effect.
Soundproofing in each suite was a priority. In wellness offices, Linner says, the “biggest complaints are about sound transmission. You don’t want to hear someone’s emotional release coming through the walls.”
Linner's pleased with the way Longfellow Offices turned out. “People walk in and say, ‘This is such a nice building,' or 'It feels so calm in here,’” she says.
On a broader level, “I hope we’ve created a community in the building,” she says, adding that the like-minded tenants “are part of a renaissance on East Lake Street.”
Source: Karen Linner, principal, Shenandoah Consulting
Writer: Anna Pratt