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Dimensional Fund Advisors, Forum
Dimensional Fund Advisors, Forum
Santa Monica, CA, United States
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Dimensional Fund Advisors, Forum
Santa Monica, CA, United States
Townscape to Atmospherics:
The national headquarters of this unorthodox, hugely successful asset
management firm occupy five floors of an angular 1970”s office building with
spectacular views of Santa Monica
Bay.
Our designs for workplaces are shaped by our clients’ self image and how
they want to be perceived by others. Along the way our two firms have grown in
awareness of each other’s talents and heightened each other’s expectations for
performance and distinction in the design of workplaces. The shift in interest
from social organization as seen in the townscape of the early plans of
upper floors to the more impressionistic character of later spaces on the ground
floor is an example of our changing perception.
Ground Floor Offices
The Ground Floor Offices is a later renovation that took over an awkward ground floor space in which the
volume is split between a double height banking area and a block of low office
space. A square grid of square columns marches across the parallelogram plan in
an unrelated way. In order to achieve a unified work area, our design obscures
the clarity of actual building form andsubstitutes an interior landscape
that is at once more engaging and better suited to the operations of the
workgroup in this area.
The plan arranges glass office fronts in two fanning
crescents that look out over open workstations which cross over from low to
high-bay space to reduce the sense of transition and unify the two volumes.
Pattern in the terrazzo floor panels accentuates the new geometry and lessens
the difference between the high and low spaces. Square columns that remained
visible became round, non-directional elements, distanced from building form and
part of the new interior landscape. A combination of translucent film applied
to exterior glass and fixed and operable shades evens out the light quality and
allows the terrazzo floor to be highly reflective. A structural glass
conference room, illuminated from within, is the centerpiece.
Juxtaposing:The
Dimensional Forum
The program called for a combined reception / conference
facility for training employees from the far-flung offices this pioneering
asset management firm. A unique idea in the financial industry, The Forum
combines socializing space, food service, and art exhibition with a high-tech
auditorium / video broadcast studio with near perfect acoustics.
Recalling: Not a classroom and not office space, mostly private but partly
public and above all else, memorable as a travel destination, the program is
anomalous, posing questions of expression and compatibility between different
parts. Departing from stiffly disciplined building plans and exteriors, the
sculpted hall aims to surprise and greet in a relaxed, festive way. It derives
in part from memories of an ancient quarry visited by client and architect on
their separate travels on the Nile - a powerful space enclosed by cleft granite
walls and dominated by a huge, unfinished obelisk still attached to live rock.
Dionysian reception: Plywood
planes sketch spaces for reception, waiting, and food service and the
three-color terrazzo floor projects their geometries. Overhead, a continuous
saw-tooth of perforated, grau finished metal acoustic panels with
integral registers, speakers, fire sprinklers, and light fixtures, rolls with
rhythmic, high-tech independence through the space. Track lighting highlights
spots for groupings of Arne Jacobsen “Swan” chairs. Stainless buffet counters
on castors are spread with breakfast / coffee / refreshment service or pushed
out of the way. (Put end to end on the ramp they look like the obelisk).
Apollonian instruction:
Apollonian instruction:Exuberant space for parties and
break-outs immediately gives way to functional calm in the 90-seat auditorium,
visible through a sound-proof glass partition.
Semi-circular risers, desks, and seating combine the boardroom chic of
mahogany and Vitra chairs with grad. school-like interaction among speakers and
attendees. The layout absorbs the column grid of the building frame. Speech acoustics, audio-visual systems,
speaker controls, and lighting get special attention as do HVAC and street
noise. Beams, speakers, lights, registers, and acoustic reflectors are absorbed
into a monochromatic, metal-painted, flat sculpture á la Louise
Nevelson. In nearly total ambient quiet, curved ceiling panels propel
conversation 90 feet. A control booth and sound console support audio-visual
presentations and TV broadcasts.
al fresco dining:
Both spaces open onto a patio
remodeled for outdoor meal service. Its stepped concrete deck was removed and
raised using exposed pebble aggregate. Rootbound planter trees were replaced
with clumped bamboo to allow views over the street to a park and the ocean
beyond. A new glass windscreen with an Ipe wood cap traces the
perimeter. New lighting, space heaters umbrellas, and furniture complete the
makeover of this formerly unused space.
Offices Photographer: Grant
Mudford
Forum Photographer: Benny
Chan, Fotoworks
The national headquarters of this unorthodox, hugely successful asset
management firm occupy five floors of an angular 1970”s office building with
spectacular views of Santa Monica
Bay.
Our designs for workplaces are shaped by our clients’ self image and how
they want to be perceived by others. Along the way our two firms have grown in
awareness of each other’s talents and heightened each other’s expectations for
performance and distinction in the design of workplaces. The shift in interest
from social organization as seen in the townscape of the early plans of
upper floors to the more impressionistic character of later spaces on the ground
floor is an example of our changing perception.
Ground Floor Offices
The Ground Floor Offices is a later renovation that took over an awkward ground floor space in which the
volume is split between a double height banking area and a block of low office
space. A square grid of square columns marches across the parallelogram plan in
an unrelated way. In order to achieve a unified work area, our design obscures
the clarity of actual building form andsubstitutes an interior landscape
that is at once more engaging and better suited to the operations of the
workgroup in this area.
The plan arranges glass office fronts in two fanning
crescents that look out over open workstations which cross over from low to
high-bay space to reduce the sense of transition and unify the two volumes.
Pattern in the terrazzo floor panels accentuates the new geometry and lessens
the difference between the high and low spaces. Square columns that remained
visible became round, non-directional elements, distanced from building form and
part of the new interior landscape. A combination of translucent film applied
to exterior glass and fixed and operable shades evens out the light quality and
allows the terrazzo floor to be highly reflective. A structural glass
conference room, illuminated from within, is the centerpiece.
Juxtaposing:The
Dimensional Forum
The program called for a combined reception / conference
facility for training employees from the far-flung offices this pioneering
asset management firm. A unique idea in the financial industry, The Forum
combines socializing space, food service, and art exhibition with a high-tech
auditorium / video broadcast studio with near perfect acoustics.
Recalling: Not a classroom and not office space, mostly private but partly
public and above all else, memorable as a travel destination, the program is
anomalous, posing questions of expression and compatibility between different
parts. Departing from stiffly disciplined building plans and exteriors, the
sculpted hall aims to surprise and greet in a relaxed, festive way. It derives
in part from memories of an ancient quarry visited by client and architect on
their separate travels on the Nile - a powerful space enclosed by cleft granite
walls and dominated by a huge, unfinished obelisk still attached to live rock.
Dionysian reception: Plywood
planes sketch spaces for reception, waiting, and food service and the
three-color terrazzo floor projects their geometries. Overhead, a continuous
saw-tooth of perforated, grau finished metal acoustic panels with
integral registers, speakers, fire sprinklers, and light fixtures, rolls with
rhythmic, high-tech independence through the space. Track lighting highlights
spots for groupings of Arne Jacobsen “Swan” chairs. Stainless buffet counters
on castors are spread with breakfast / coffee / refreshment service or pushed
out of the way. (Put end to end on the ramp they look like the obelisk).
Apollonian instruction:
Apollonian instruction:Exuberant space for parties and
break-outs immediately gives way to functional calm in the 90-seat auditorium,
visible through a sound-proof glass partition.
Semi-circular risers, desks, and seating combine the boardroom chic of
mahogany and Vitra chairs with grad. school-like interaction among speakers and
attendees. The layout absorbs the column grid of the building frame. Speech acoustics, audio-visual systems,
speaker controls, and lighting get special attention as do HVAC and street
noise. Beams, speakers, lights, registers, and acoustic reflectors are absorbed
into a monochromatic, metal-painted, flat sculpture á la Louise
Nevelson. In nearly total ambient quiet, curved ceiling panels propel
conversation 90 feet. A control booth and sound console support audio-visual
presentations and TV broadcasts.
al fresco dining:
Both spaces open onto a patio
remodeled for outdoor meal service. Its stepped concrete deck was removed and
raised using exposed pebble aggregate. Rootbound planter trees were replaced
with clumped bamboo to allow views over the street to a park and the ocean
beyond. A new glass windscreen with an Ipe wood cap traces the
perimeter. New lighting, space heaters umbrellas, and furniture complete the
makeover of this formerly unused space.
Offices Photographer: Grant
Mudford
Forum Photographer: Benny
Chan, Fotoworks
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