From the Inside Out

When Architecture Advantage first moved into our Piedmont Avenue office in 2015, it required a little imagination.

The combination of a lightning strike, a flood, and a fire (yes, seriously), had left our former Superior Street office unusable, sending President Melissa Graftaas on a quick search for a new place to call home. The building she found wasn’t exactly love at first sight. In fact, Melissa will admit she didn’t even want to go inside.

Fortunately, Designer Brain kicked in, and beyond the exterior, Melissa saw what the building could become.

A Little Imagination

The Architecture Advantage team moved in and immediately began a six-month interior renovation, transforming a dated, closed-off office into a bright, functional workplace with open work areas, conference spaces, private offices, a wellness area, sample rooms, and a kitchen.

For a while, that meant working from plastic folding tables while construction happened around us, but slowly, the building became ours.

And we didn’t stop there.

In 2023, we added a back deck, giving our team an outdoor place to work, gather, and enjoy Duluth’s warmer months. In 2024, we replaced windows throughout the open office and added new windows to the conference room, bringing even more natural light into the space.

Still, one piece remained.

For years, visitors walking through our front door commented on the contrast between the exterior and the warm, unexpected space waiting inside. We knew the outside didn’t reflect who we were or what we had created within it.

Ten Years in the Making

As our 20th year approached, Melissa decided it was finally time to change that.

With two celebrations planned to bookend our 20th year in business, the anniversary gave us the deadline we needed to tackle an exterior renovation that had been thought about for years.

Architecture Advantage’s own Shane Nies took the lead on the design, working closely with Melissa to translate years of ideas and inspiration into a new vision for the building. By our annual team workshop in January of this year, the design was ready to share with the full team for feedback.

Then came the unique challenge of being our own client…

Like any project, there were budgets to balance, materials to evaluate, constructability questions to work through, and ideas that evolved along the way. We were fortunate enough to find our contractor in BP Builders, who brought the design to life using LUX metal siding for the wood-look accent areas and LP SmartSide siding for the remainder of the building.

The project also went beyond appearance. Improvements included a new front entrance, new rear door, an ADA-accessible concrete ramp at the front of the building, continuous exterior rigid insulation to meet current energy code, and new roof fascia, soffits, gutters, and downspouts.

Demolition began at the end of June, and just over a month later, the transformation was complete.

Putting Our Name on It

Just hours before guests began arriving for our August 6th anniversary celebration, Melissa mounted the Architecture Advantage logo on the front of the building, officially putting our name on the exterior we’d spent the summer transforming.

That evening, our office and patio filled with family, friends, neighbors, clients, consultants, and colleagues who have been woven into Architecture Advantage’s story over the past 20 years. With help from the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce, we marked the renovation and milestone with a ribbon cutting in front of our newly finished façade.

Ten years after Melissa first walked into a building she wasn’t quite sure about, its exterior finally feels like the place a whole team has created inside.

It’s still the same Architecture Advantage home – just a little easier to recognize from the street.