Marmol Radziner received the
commission to renovate TBWA\Chiat\Day's new 27,000 square-foot, multi-story
brick office space in San Francisco’s Embarcadero district. The client’s vision
for the new work spaces included creating an entry that engages visitors and
staff, expanding the vertical connection between floors, infusing the building
with natural light, fostering a collaborative work environment, and
distinguishing this office from other advertising agencies as well as other
TBWA\Chiat\Day branches.
Rooted in the narrative of the extant
building and the layers below street level, Marmol Radziner’s design concept
takes the site’s history as a point of departure. Remains of ships were found
underneath the old warehouse complexes and harbor, which for the firm, was an
added visual allusion. Today, the former warehouse district is an active
neighborhood of advertising agencies, public relations firms, and dot.com
companies, where ideas rather than cargo are traded.
The architectural forms and materials
reference the ships buried beneath the building as well as the cargo crates
stored in the former warehouse. The selection of finishes and flooring
materials – including seagrass mats, cork,
Douglas Fir planking, plywood wall panels and workstations, tackable burlap
wall panels, and steel cable-railing systems –
was informed by metaphors of ships and industrial shipping canisters.
What were once crates for cargo have become translucent containers in the form
of workstations, project rooms, and private offices. Low, box-like sofas allude
to containment, as they are modular, moveable, and informal, and the custom
furniture was designed to encourage people to sit in a relaxed manner,
conducive for the flow of ideas.
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