Montgomery Building
Awarded:
- Preservation South Carolina, Honor Award, 2021
- Spartanburg County Historical Association, Peggy T. Gignilliat Preservation Award, 2021
- Traditional Building Magazine, Palladio Award for Adaptive Reuse, 2021
- CREW Upstate, Development Impact Award, 2019
- ENR Southeast, Best Projects Award of Merit for Renovation / Restoration, 2019
In 1924 the Montgomery family, a very prominent family in Spartanburg’s textile manufacturing industry, commissioned Lockwood Greene to design and build the building. Completed in 1925, the 10-story Montgomery Building is one of the first Chicago-style construction projects ever built outside of Chicago.
In 2016, local developer BF Spartanburg came forward with a plan that city officials praised as a “next-level” catalyst for downtown Spartanburg. After engaging McMillan Pazdan Smith on a feasibility study, the development team created plans to restore the 92-year-old, iconic high-rise into a mixed-use retail, commercial, and residential project in the heart of the city’s central business district.
Our design team worked carefully with the National Park Service to meet their criteria for preserving and updating the building appropriately. The building façade’s pre-cast concrete panels were very innovative for their time, making it possibly the only remaining historic pre-cast Chicago-style building in the region. McMillan Pazdan Smith was able to source new concrete panels that replicate the old panels closely enough to receive approval in accordance with the building’s protected status on the National Historic Register of Places. Many of the building’s original Renaissance Revival style architectural details on the interior were also be preserved, including the decorative plaster ceilings and marble floors and walls. The renovated and restored Montgomery Building features 9,000 SF of select boutique retail stores and intimate restaurants on the ground floor. The second floor is dedicated office space, and the eight floors above are residential units, with approximately 92 one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging in size from 422 – 1,374 SF. The CM-At-Risk project was completed in 2019.