Dilapidated Detroit Auto Garage Gets Overhaul as Energy-Efficient Office

Most business owners would have a hard time envisioning their future office in a crumbling brick building on an empty block in Detroit. But most business owners aren’t entrepreneur John Patrick.

The founder of Above the Fold describes his business as a “talent agency for the built environment.” The firm, which pairs developers with curated architecture and design teams, moved from New York City to the Motor City in 2015, and just a few years later Patrick began working on his own extensive, hands-on project — the company headquarters.

Patrick’s project site was the only building remaining on a deserted block in Detroit’s North End neighborhood. The former auto repair garage had fallen into total disrepair — it was a dark, brick shell full of debris, graffiti, old tires, vegetation and an unlevel dirt floor.

“It was really a disaster. But in the middle of a decaying building with trees growing in it, I could see this beautiful light coming through a hole in the roof, and I was just so inspired by it,” he described.

Patrick bought the building in 2020, as pandemic restrictions began to take hold.

“I owned my house and a commercial building [I was working out of], but I felt like something was missing for me. During Covid, I realized I really wanted to do my own project, so I sold both of those assets and bought this building.”

Patrick wanted to “preserve as much of the building as possible and keep the industrial nature of the space,” he said, so he restored the original brick walls and even left some of the graffiti present when he bought the building.

“I wanted it to stay authentic to where it is and everyone who had touched it before, and for people to see old things — that most might think are ugly — in a new way. Almost like making an exhibition out of it,” he said. “But I still wanted it to feel comfortable, contemporary and fresh.”

The structure required extensive masonry repairs to the walls, and while Patrick planned to salvage the existing roof, a misunderstanding with a contractor who demolished it required Patrick to outfit a new one. He added eight skylights to allow light to filter throughout the space.

Minimizing construction waste was paramount, and other than the unplanned roof demolition, “we only had one dumpster of construction debris from the project,” Patrick said. He tried to use leftover construction materials wherever possible, including DIY-ing his own furniture. To spruce up cabinetry he found on Craigslist, Patrick added a countertop made from leftover flooring insulation foam and a polycarbonate top layer that was extra material from the bathroom ceiling.

Patrick gathered furnishings and light fixtures throughout the office from a myriad of budget-friendly sources — online marketplaces, flea markets, real estate sales and auctions and Ikea. The walls are adorned with pieces from local and international artists meant to reflect Detroit’s vibrant arts scene.

“This space is a real repository for art and architecture, kind of like the city of Detroit. I’m all about design that isn’t generic, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. You just have to have intention,” he said.

Sustainability and energy-efficiency measures were top priorities for the renovation from its inception. The workspace gets so much natural light — thanks to glass doors and numerous skylights — that Patrick said they never need to turn on artificial, overhead lights during the workday.

He opted for a heated floor, “so we're not pushing hot air through the building. We're creating thermal human comfort rather than filling the volume up with warm air.”

Patrick also didn’t install any air conditioning to save energy, but if the space feels too hot, floor-to-ceiling 12 foot by 10 foot doors open out to the landscaped backyard to push hot air out of the space.

“We’re not using electricity to create a comfortable environment,” he said. “Considering that the preserved walls aren’t even insulated, I am still spending less money per month to heat this building than I used to spend on my house.”

Even with a career within the architecture industry and a commercial real estate license, which he mostly uses to execute small deals for friends, Patrick said he still took a huge risk taking on his own adaptive reuse project.

“But it’s really rewarding,” he said, of owning and designing his headquarters. “I literally got on the roof myself and drew where I wanted the skylights to be. I was digging dirt myself. I designed this myself and oversaw the construction in a very hands-on way. The project is really a reflection of me for my business.”

Patrick hired a construction company and Iannuzzi Studio as the architect of record to do the final drawings, but he designed the vision for the project himself. “An important piece of advice for anyone who wants to transform a space [themselves] is to learn [how to use] an architectural drawing program to create different scenarios on your own,” he said.

And especially after renting office space in New York City, investing in his own property affords him stability and peace of mind for his company.

As a business owner, he said “one of the biggest stressors that I never want to worry about is, ‘is my rent going to increase? How much will it go up to? Am I going to have to move? Are we going to have to do a whole new buildout? Will my talent leave because they don’t like the new location?’ I don’t want to be thinking about any of that.”

Patrick currently has two part-time employees working in the office with him (plus a third remote staff member) and hopes to grow the brand up to 10 employees in the future as the company expands its portfolio. “I’m going into 10 years of this business now, and I needed to build a space where I could grow a team. As our business expands, especially globally, it’s great to have a place with comfortable workspaces for everyone.”

You can equate Patrick’s business model to a Hollywood talent agency, but for architects instead of actors, he said. He represents design firms across six continents, and pairs curated teams with owners, developers and tenants that need architecture work for their projects. Above the Fold’s roster includes architecture firms, landscape architects, photographers and graphic and wayfinding designers. In addition to facilitating partnerships for projects, Patrick also handles PR and promotion.

He hopes that his network and curated recommendations will make architecture and good design more accessible and affordable for more businesses, eliminating the need for expensive consultants, drawn out proposal requests and competitions. “There is a really big missing middle in the industry. If more clients were able to hire slightly less experienced, but extremely capable designers, then we would also start to see more innovation in the built environment.”