Challenges + Opportunities —

After 30 years in a historic urban structure, a creative firm that occupied approximately 12,000sf of office space decided that it was time to leave its fragmented multi-story workplace in search of a new urban space that could support their space needs on a single floor. An opportunity presented itself in a riverfront restaurant within a downtown office tower that had been vacant for decades.

A Study in Contrasts —

The office relocation was an opportunity to explore several design goals:
o Expand formal + informal meeting + collaboration space
o Encourage collisions + cross disciplinary collaboration
o Create a space to spark conversation about identity + anonymity as a corporate office tower tenant

Collaboration + Collisions are addressed through the overall planning strategy. Dedicated meeting and communal spaces that support client and creative staff interactions are located at the front of the space, with the communal work café and outdoor plaza area becoming a transition point for distributed informal spaces. Informal spaces are found throughout the studios, but are primarily clustered at the intersection of two studio zones. At this intersection, a mediated open collaboration niche is balanced by a lounge based work environment that has the best vista of the freighter traffic on the Maumee River.

In order to reinforce identity and spark debate, the design team explored a study in contrasts within the glassy corporate tower. The lay-in ceilings and tile floors of the building’s public spaces were used as a foil to a new workplace defined by its fusion of raw context, fabrication + materiality. Abandoning applied finishes in favor of exposing the massive structure and concrete slabs was the first step away from the office tower atmosphere. The new workplace design highlights natural materials fabricated through an intentional focus on the contrasts between hand crafting and digital fabrication; important parts of our region’s past + future.