Law Firm Gardner Skelton Sparks Creativity and Collaboration in Former Chocolate Factory

When law firm Gardner Skelton needed a larger space, it was important to partner Nicole Gardner that it could support her team through creativity and teamwork and express their take on what a law firm can be.

“They really envisioned a space that would challenge the expectations of the legal workplace, but they very much wanted to make sure that this space was authentic to who they were,” explained Jennilyn Schuster, studio principal with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, who worked on the project.

The firm moved into its new headquarters in September 2024, a building purchased in Charlotte, North Carolina’s NoDa arts district. With a diverse past known to bring people together, the 20,000-square-foot building has served as a chocolate factory, nightclub, and church.

“The building was a shell, so potential was infinite” when Gardner saw the space. She credited her team, including her brokers and architects, for giving help and advice into what was possible. The new headquarters was an opportunity to express who Gardner Skelton is as a law firm and create a space that feels good to be in, while honoring and nodding to its past, she said.

When the Gardner Skelton team was shown the building, it was a raw shell ripe for transformation, lacking even basic infrastructure. Previously a chocolate factory, nightclub, and church, it would become the new headquarters for the law firm, a colorful and inclusive example of adaptive reuse.

Keeping the ‘Blemishes that Give it Character’

While the neighborhood is transforming from industrial into a mixed-use creative area, the past can be seen through the current space, through updates and the project goals of wellness and inclusivity.

To honor the past and minimize change, many elements were kept as-is, such as maintaining the concrete floors, trusses, exposed brick walls, and high ceilings. Others were updated with a light footprint, such as increasing window sizes for more natural light, added uplighting, or painting and cleaning surfaces.

“The building still has nods to or original items in place, including the blemishes that give it character,” Gardner explained. “It has a patina from the life the building has had. If we try to wipe all that out, it would just look like a new building.”

Schuster also acknowledged the blending of the old and new, where they appreciated and incorporated the energy that the building had carried with previous tenants.

“This sets the tone for how architecture can really lead with intention, connection, and kind of a bit of edginess,” Schuster said. “Celebrating that building's industrial route and the neighborhood culture was very important to Gardner Skelton throughout the process.”

The Gardner Skelton adaptive reuse project is a blend of honoring the past while creating an intentional, creative space. Little Diversified Architectural Consulting wanted to keep as much of the past as possible while creating areas of intention. Here, the floor shows how it’s had a past life, trusses remain exposed and painted pink, windows were enhanced to bring in natural light, and a carpet weaves through the area.

Unexpected Yet Authentic

The Gardner Skelton team set the tone from the beginning, giving everyone permission to push the boundaries of what a law firm could look like and be, and Schuster knew she was going to collaborate with a team that is “bold and brilliant,” setting the trajectory for the project, she recalled.

Gardner instructed everyone to “let themselves loose a little” when working on this project. She challenged them to consider: What would they do with the space if they were able to do something fun and different, but still have functionality for Gardner Skelton?

Gardner Skelton’s project goals of being healthy and inclusive fit well with the adaptive reuse of the building, which has been a welcoming gathering spot for many over the years and tied into the theme of being people-centric and creative.

The female-owned law firm features soft edges and openness not typically associated with the industry. The dog-friendly headquarters has a lot of sections and types of seating for a variety of work opportunities, and pops of color to invite collaboration, thinking, and creativity.

Creativity, Unleashed

Law offices are often rented spaces with neutral palettes and closed areas for private conversations. Gardner challenged that norm, saying that her team is creative problem solvers who need different spaces to work (collaboratively or individually) to stay creative.

“We have an emphasis on creativity, so we need to lean into that,” Gardner said. “There’s not one playbook for every client, we have to be able to flex and think of different solutions with each client. I remind everyone to fully engage in creative problem solving.”

Since Gardner Skelton is a dog-friendly workplace, the office had to accommodate the four-legged friends throughout. Features to accommodate dogs include a fenced yard with a dog door to go in and out, durable furniture, rugged carpet tiles, two outdoor dog water fountains, and more.

When Little was concepting what it means to be a dog-friendly, creative law firm in a space full of history and togetherness, they wanted to “create something unexpected,” Schuster said. “The architectural concept of this project was unleashed, and it embraces the metaphor of a leash as a symbol of connection and fluid movement.”

The entire office features soft lines, rounded edges, and plush materials, inviting people to gather and collaborate. The fluid movement runs through the office by way of a carpet that weaves around, connects to a wall mural, and returns to the floor, leading outside and continuing in the form of lights.

“We wanted to create a space that naturally leads you from one space to the next without abrupt transitions in space,” Schuster explained. “From the entry point through the shared common zones into the focus work zones and out into the exterior space, the entire layout really is meant to encourage exploration and ease. It’s fostering a sense of freedom, openness, a well-paced walk.”

The outside had to accommodate both dogs and their owners, meaning a grade change was transformed into a terraced seating area with a fence, various seating options, and native plants. A garage door creates a shared space between the indoor and outdoor multipurpose cafes for focus work and social gatherings alike.

Budget for Today’s Needs, and Tomorrow’s

One consideration for an adaptive reuse project is that, since it lacked infrastructure, about three-quarters of the budget went to bringing the raw space up to code to be a usable workspace. While a building might have good bones, that’s only one piece of the system to get it going.

That said, this project inspired Schuster and the Little team on what a law firm could be, or what a typical project may look like. “It sets the stage for redefining law,” she said. “I am of the mindset to embrace history—you’re celebrating the past. I would always love to see a building remain vs. demolishing something and eliminating the history of the place.”

When attending the opening of the headquarters, Schuster recalled meeting employees’ offspring. What really stuck out to her was that the teenage children told her how they would come on the weekends to Gardner Skelton’s outdoor workspace to hang out and be together.

For a building that has a storied history serving many different groups of people, Gardner Skelton is already creating a legacy for future generations to remember as a community gathering spot.