Staging Ground

New York, NY, United States

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Lifted Lid

Staging Ground

New York, NY, United States

Firm

Model Practice

Type

Commercial › Office
Industrial › Laboratory

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2024

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Located in the Garment District of New York City, Staging Ground represents TAD’s continued growth. Occupying 8,000 square feet of a 1920 Lefcourt loft building, the project continues the tradition of light manufacturing in the city center. With 5 distinct interventions, the project enables TAD to tailor the space to their needs and explore the boundaries of the workplace.

The Entry Portal
The Entry Portal features two 900-pound, 2-sided LED clad doors, as well as LED clad walls and ceiling, to create a dynamic and immersive tunnel experience. These doors are essential for managing the flow of traffic and ensuring a controlled entry sequence. Additionally, they offer alternate viewing perspectives, potentially showcasing digital content or artistic displays. When closed, the doors provide security, safeguarding the entrance and deterring unauthorized access.
The Stage
The Stage is an open floor with calibrated floor graphics serving as both a navigational tool and a visual anchor. Referencing the use of “spike tape” in theater, the wayfinding graphics are designed in collaboration with Once-Future Office. These floor graphics serve as both a navigational tool and a visual anchor. The graphics outline five distinct furniture configuration scenarios, define zones for different modes of collaboration, and incorporate intuitive signage and wayfinding elements.
The Grid
The Grid is composed of a suspended pipe grid, commonly used in stagecraft. All lighting, audio, power, and data is provided from The Grid, providing ultimate flexibility on The Stage below. Systems are wirelessly controlled via a bespoke control system developed by the client. Plug-and-play connections to power and data are accessed through a series of retractable cable reels. The Grid is the infrastructure that allows for new possibilities.
The Stage Scenery
Inhabiting The Stage is a series of architectural-scale mobile furniture pieces including Worktables, Workbenches, and Omni-directional Clamshells. These Stage Scenery elements are reconfigured to facilitate a series of scenarios that facilitate widely varying use, e.g. symposium, workplace, or research laboratory. Stage Scenery is custom-designed using standard t-slot extrusions. The Grid provides power and data from above, while bespoke UL-approved technology enables daisy-chaining elements without risk of electrical shock. This logic of flexibility and modularity extends to smaller more human scale furnishings; chairs are stackable and stored on rolling trollies, tools and supplies are stored in mobile tool chests. All is choreographed with the rules of operation established by considered yet playful wayfinding graphics.
The Curtains
A series of curtains hung from The Grid enable users to accommodate more intimate and focused activities. The curtains not only allow for physical and visual separation, but are also designed to provide acoustic attenuation.

Staging Ground: Where Collaboration and Innovation Converge
Staging Ground, a project born from a highly collaborative process, pushed the boundaries of conventional design. The team's resourcefulness and innovative spirit led to solutions that transformed potential challenges into remarkable design features.

The Entry Portal, with its immersive LED tunnel, exemplifies this approach. Collaboration among experts in aerospace engineering, fabrication, installation, and systems integration ensured the seamless fusion of hardware, custom fittings, and the base building structure. The team's use of a digital twin facilitated the testing and integration of custom components before installation. The intricate mapping of visual content onto the two-sided LED doors was meticulously calibrated to allow for versatile and dynamic displays.

The Grid, the project's structural and infrastructural backbone, presented a spatial challenge due to existing ceiling heights. The team's collaborative approach ensured that all systems were integrated seamlessly into the tight ceiling assembly. The innovative K-Array Rail, an LED light integrated with a high-quality audio speaker and emergency lighting functions, exemplifies the project's commitment to both aesthetics and functionality.

Technology was integral to the design of the space. To create a smart office, a wireless, battery-operated sensor system from Haltian was integrated with the client’s TAD.monitor platform. The platform brings together data from the facility such as occupancy, air quality, and temperature together with health status of the security, AV, and IT equipment. In a single dashboard, the client can assess real-time data, forecast future states, and predictively maintain all their building systems.

The Stage Scenery, custom-designed reconfigurable furnishings, emerged as a solution to the lack of available large-scale adaptable furniture. The flexibility of 8020 aluminum extrusions allowed for the creation of versatile pieces like Worktables, Workbenches, and Omni-directional Clamshells, each serving multiple functions and adaptable to various scenarios.

Staging Ground stands as a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation in design, showcasing how creative problem-solving can lead to remarkable and functional spaces.