701 EATERIES \ 2021 AIA ND Honor Award

At the center of a growing NDSU campus and Fargo downtown, 701 Eateries is a landlocked adaptive-reuse project that reinvents an old laundromat space as a new dining space and commercial kitchen addition. The project’s intent was to provide a space for all neighborhood demographics to meet, eat and play in a quickly changing renaissance zone. As a part of that process, the architecture team was asked to provide ADA accessibility, a new commercial kitchen, prep kitchen (allowing for outside catering), and urban rooftop experience (to take in the quickly growing downtown). The challenge was creating new spaces that didn’t adversely affect the existing brick building. The new kitchen requirements (venting and equipment) and the addition of a rooftop patio required a definitive ‘new and old’ to accommodate both. Ultimately, the roof structure was replaced to accommodate the additional patio loading and the kitchen/elevator addition was deemed the best way to handle ADA and venting requirements for the new commercial kitchen and prep kitchen. Instead of trying to copy or recreate the old building, the design team made a very conscious effort to blend the addition into the existing residential neighborhood and establish a contrast between the ‘new and old.’ As a result, the neighborhood has embraced the project as ‘theirs’ and continues to be celebrated as a much-needed addition to the neighborhood and Fargo’s newest renaissance zone.

TYPOLOGY

Commercial \ Remodel

LOCATION