Dallas’ century-old Maple Terrace Apartments, once the tallest residential building in the city, has been revived through an adaptive reuse transformation led by 5G Studio Collaborative, turning a 1925 residential hotel icon into a contemporary workplace destination. Originally designed by famed English architect Sir Alfred Bossom, the building’s glamorous past included high-profile visitors such as Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley, and Zsa Zsa Gabor. After decades of decline, Maple Terrace has now been reimagined as a bold hybrid of preservation and expansion, carefully inserting new office volume within the footprint of the original U-shaped structure.

The renewed Maple Terrace Office Tower delivers approximately 150,000 sq. ft. of office and restaurant space, capped by two new floors and anchored by restored historic façades. The design approach places the new development “within the old,” allowing the remaining sections of the original south façade to act as visual bookends, framing the modern curtain wall addition while preserving the Mission Revival character that defined the building’s identity. Inside, the new volume introduces three office levels with impressive 17-foot-high ceilings, supporting flexible workplace layouts and a stronger sense of spatial openness.

A key technical and aesthetic element of the façade strategy is the use of Solarban® R100 Solargray® glass by Vitro Architectural Glass, applied on new windows and the two-story curtain wall expansion. Selected following energy modelling, this high-performance glazing package delivers both comfort and performance: when configured in one-inch insulating glass units (IGUs), Solarban® R100 paired with Solargray® achieves a Visible Light Transmittance (VLT) of 21% and a Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of 0.17.

The result is a neutral reflective, low-e exterior that improves privacy, reduces glare, and supports project-wide energy efficiency targets, without sacrificing the crisp, modern expression demanded by the new office programme.

Sustainability and solar control are reinforced through site-responsive façade planning. The building’s long front elevation faces northeast, naturally reducing direct solar heat gain, while the newly built Maple Terrace Residences tower nearby adds meaningful shade. The southwest-facing curtain wall benefits most dramatically, receiving shade from the residential tower for roughly 65% of daylight hours, and experiencing less than one hour per day of full direct sun exposure.

Above, the new levels eight and nine cantilever beyond the existing roofline to create an elevated rooftop lounge and terrace with panoramic skyline views. A large, northeast-facing moveable glass wall system enhances indoor-outdoor connectivity, while terrace spaces wrap around the curtain wall volume on three sides, strengthening the project’s lifestyle-driven office identity.

On street level, a double-height glazed entrance visually links the lobby to a redesigned pedestrian-focused public realm, reinforced by two new street-facing restaurants and underground parking. With its careful balance of historic restoration and modern envelope performance, Maple Terrace stands as a strong case study in how advanced glazing can enable adaptive reuse, preserving architectural legacy while delivering a building that performs like a contemporary commercial asset.

Project Credits
Architect: 5G Studio Collaborative
Fabricator: Tristar Glass Inc.
Glazing Contractor: Denison Glass LLC
General Contractor: Archer Western
Photography: Hong Photography