Heart of The Home

A dream use for one is a haven for many.

- By Pat Eby / Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

From the time she was a teen, Kristin Frieben Whittle wanted to live in a gracious home. She envisioned it as an airy loft filled with family and friends, a place with enough space to display the art and curious objects she’d collected throughout her life.

She held fast to her vision after graduating from college and then law school. Even while running her own one-woman law firm, she spent weekends scouring neighborhoods in search of properties.

In 2004, Frieben Whittle found her future home. “I was driving around Overland when I saw this warehouse with 10 beautiful arched windows,” she recalls. “I took my mother on a walk-through, and she said, ‘Kristin, please don’t buy this building.’”

Eighteen offices and a low drop ceiling cluttered the space, leaving it with a maze of corridors and little natural light. “The building was a mess,” Frieben Whittle says. “The roof leaked, there was asbestos, it was full of debris—but I could see it had great bones.” She bought it, she says, “for a good price.”

Constructed in 1924 by Southwestern Bell as a switching station, by 1947 the building had undergone three additions. Over time, it was sold and resold, then sat vacant until 2004, when Frieben Whittle bought it. During a 10-year negotiation to change its zoning, she had the structure stabilized, the roof replaced, custom windows installed, and the interiors stripped down to the brick. Since 2017, Frieben Whittle has lived and worked from a home office there as a lawyer and as a mediator for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.