Renovating a Small Rhode Island Factory Building

Driving through East Providence, you are likely to notice our office at 345 Taunton Avenue, East Providence. It’s a two-story cinder block box, painted battleship gray, with massive picture windows.

When we bought it in 2018, it had been a semi-abandoned office building for years. Before that it was home to a jewelry manufacturing outfit, Banana Bob. 

We found jewelry notions like this scattered all over the place when we moved in. It turns out that Banana Bob was a popular company and their pieces are collectors' items today!


With its large, open floor plan (previously used for assembly line jewelry production), the building was ripe for renovation into modern office space.

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Here’s what we did to transform the building:

• Checked the roof for leaks (luckily it was relatively new)
• Cleaned out junk (including a nifty old conveyor belt that moved products from the basement to the parking lot)
• Identified leaks (mainly in the basement), patched cracks with hydraulic concrete and sealed with masonry waterproofing paint
• Reinstalled gutters and downspouts and pointed them away from the building (it is amazing how often downspouts are the culprit for water damage!)
• Repointed cracks in cinder block walls (another cause of water damage)
• Replaced broken, old windows with new, energy-efficient glass
• Partitioned the open floor plan into smaller spaces for rent as offices and residences
• Repartitioned existing bathrooms to increase the total number of stalls, installed new toilet and sink fixtures (this required some plumbing)
• Fitted out the interior with insulation, drywall, paint (new paint is absolutely magical)
• Rewired electrical for new light fixtures and smoke detectors
• Reused original and purchased additional hanging industrial heaters
• Refinished the wood floors
• New exterior and interior doors
• Installed new handrails at front door
• Cleaned up years of trash in the parking lot and planting areas. Trimmed trees, pruned hedges, and spread gravel.

It’s been a lot of hard work but we are proud of transforming this eyesore on Taunton Avenue into a hub of activity.
 
345 Taunton Ave. is now home to David Sisson Architects, Mountaincow, East Providence Martial Arts, Elsie Osei Artistry, as well as two new live-work spaces.
 
Like all old American cities, Providence has many empty old factory buildings—in every size you can imagine. To keep our city alive, we have to reuse these buildings.
 
David Sisson Architects has worked with multiple clients to renovate some of these buildings, turning their spacious interiors into cafes, print shops, yoga studios, office space, live-work space, etc. See our loft conversions in our portfolio.