Orange Cat Racing

a complex, post-industrial lot redefines the office as a woody respite

This amenity space is an extension of the Orange Cat Racing headquarters, a motorcycle racing club located within Chicago's West Loop neighborhood in a former textile factory. It supports the garage-like environment with a place for respite as well as auxiliary outdoor, office space.

Contained by industrial buildings and a 15’ raised viaduct, and capped by a steel armature, the site features limited construction access and methods.

The underutilized lot was a 100-year accumulation of contaminated back fill. The project budget required a financially viable remediation, while the complex site features prohibited simple excavation. Workshop employed the innovative solution of scraping the surface then applying an engineered barrier and Omni Infinity Media ™ to vegetate the new surface and manage stormwater onsite without expensive grey infrastructure.

Trees were hoisted over the street wall and threaded through the existing structure. Once placed, an understory of shade garden ferns and native species were established to re-wild the site. A serpentine path of decomposed granite, punctuated by granite boulders, flows through the site connecting internal and external functions.

Site conditions prior to construction: