To re-energize its operations, Cleveland-based law firm Calfee elected to revitalize the 101-year-old Rockwell Building and relocate its offices there.
Even among shopworn structures, Rockwell seemed an unlikely choice, given its lobby had been converted to parking space and surrounding columns were either missing or crumbling. Overhead, several ad-hoc enclosures obscured an original skylight. Elsewhere, elevators were stripped from their shafts, mechanical and life-safety systems were virtually nonexistent and electrical systems were outmoded. Atop the structure, damage to the roof contributed to basement flooding.