One of Lowell’s iconic properties, Mill No. 5 is an interior streetscape of salvaged storefronts with a collection of unique small businesses and events on an upper floor of a historic Lowell mill building. OverUnder was selected to lead a team that conducted a study to determine if the property’s future was sustainable. In tandem with a financial and an acoustical study, we identified a number of physical challenges, chief among them the need to build-out additional floors while solving for circulation (access to the upper floors and fire egress) and sound mitigation (a primary school sat on the lower floors). The team proposed a solution that harnessed a combination of skills: graphic design to draw visitors in and up; urban design to turn a back street into a new front street, and architecture to pair a defunct turbine hall with a new iconic staircase that connected all the floors in a practical yet dynamic manner.