The Glendenning family, deeply rooted in the St. George community, purchased the Mathis building in 2019 with a vision to transform it into an event space and serve as their family office headquarters. The building holds a special place in the heart of Gretchen, a fifth-generation St. George Girl who fondly remembers hearing of her mother, Teddy Sue, visiting the butcher shop in the building as a child. This emotional connection and the building's unique history and composition made it an appealing project for the family. Recognizing its potential, the Glendennings engaged Lloyd Architects to help bring together the two distinct uses in a harmonious building program.
Building History
Originally the Henry Riding Carpenter Shop, the next iteration of the building on East Tabernacle Street in St. George, Utah, was a meat and grocery business run by William and Ernest Nelson and financed by a prominent local businesswoman, Addie E. Price. With improvements and service upgrades over the years, Addie sold her interest to Wallace B. Mathis, who acquired the store’s stock and changed its name to the Mathis Market.
Adapting to the Building’s New Purpose
The Mathis building, nestled between the Electric Theatre and the neighboring bank (previously a historic post office), presented unique challenges. The historic facade, a blend of the original grocery store and a later addition, was a testament to the building's rich history. However, a lean-to building in the back posed a significant obstacle. With the building set to serve two distinct purposes—an event space and a corporate office—the space division was clear. What wasn’t immediately apparent was how to replace the lean-to building with a light-filled, inviting space for the family to gather and work. This adaptive reuse project required careful planning and innovative solutions to overcome these challenges.
Preserving Historic Details
The Mathis event space occupies the original grocery store space. On the exterior of the building, the team rebuilt the crumbling facade and replaced aging windows and doors with new ones, meeting the City’s guidelines for historic preservation. Inside, the design team uncovered wall openings to create a versatile gathering space that renters can quickly transform to meet their event needs. Exposed roof trusses in the ceiling were retained and coated in white paint to help refract light, creating a more welcoming space in the dimly lit interior. An exposed brick wall adds to the historic charm of the space.
A shared restroom coordinator connects the Mathis event space to the family office building beyond and provides another means of egress to meet the code—a catering kitchen and basement storage round out the building amenities.
Designing a Modern Connection
In designing the 2,600 SF addition to the Mathis building, the team faced two constraints—an unusually skinny lot and the inability to place windows on the side of the building that abuts the bank’s property line, limiting the ability to bring natural light into the space. To overcome these challenges, the team designed an elongated building with a three-story volume connected to the Mathis building and a two-story volume at the rear of the property.
A private courtyard connects these two volumes. Having the courtyard in the middle of the elongated addition and strategically placed skylights in both volumes allows ample daylight to flood the interiors of the family office.
The design move lies in the three-story addition to the Mathis building. On the third floor is the office’s conference room, which features a large picture window. When seated at the conference table and looking through the window, you see a perfectly framed view of Dixie Rock. The window location visually erases the neighboring buildings from view to focus only on the natural setting of this popular hiking spot. It also helps bring daylight through the space and into the abutting courtyard.
The building materials, though simple, exude elegance. Combining honed CMU block, thermally modified wood siding, and splayed openings at the doors and windows creates a modern addition to the historic building. Inside, the contemporary design aesthetic continues with concrete floors and cantilevered stairs.
The first floor features a kitchen and lounge area that opens to the adjacent courtyard, while the open office space on the second floor leads to the third-floor conference space. This modern design, coupled with the building's historic charm, provides ample space for the seven directors of the G-Companies to work, invest, and give together while offering a welcoming space for the entire family to gather and relax.
