This 2,440 square foot interior build out of an office space is located within the first floor of a speculative office building in Beachwood, Ohio. The clients, three partners of a real estate investment management company, were opening their first office space in the Cleveland, Ohio area for the newly established company. Their program consisted of three private offices, four workstations, reception area, conference room, break room, storage and data rooms. They settled on a small demised space that had never been built out, landlocked between two existing leased office spaces.
Conceptually, an alternate suite entry location was developed rather than the building owner’s proposed entry from the common corridor. This created 1) a private entry area specifically for this tenant, 2) organized the separation between entry, work area and support functions, and 3) created a midpoint suite entry with multidirectional views. A rift cut white oak “sign wall” at the end of the tenant corridor creates a focal point and directional change. The sign wall slides into the actual tenant space separated by a vertical LED light slot. A thickened purple venetian plaster wall further defines the separation of the public spaces from the actual staff/partner work spaces.
The three partner offices, conference room and entry all have floor to ceiling glass (within clear aluminum frames) expanding spaces into one another. This also lengthens visual sightlines from space to space and directly to the exterior. Borrowed natural light comes deep into the space. The ceiling heights were set as high as possible to create a volume within the office. Ten foot high rift cut white oak doors help to accentuate the height of the space. A slightly lower ceiling plane defines the public entry outside the space and slides through the reception area terminating and folding down the far conference wall. Besides white oak millwork, the desks, credenzas and tables were all custom designed. Table/desk tops and returns are 2 ¼” thick slabs that mimic the ceiling planes. The reception desk consists of a folded plate that hovers over a wooden box. The same folded plate is repeated in the conference table design.
The lowered ceiling plane within the public areas contains 2” flush strip down-light fixtures of varying lengths set in an alternating pattern. The open office and private offices are lit with indirect fixtures creating illuminated ceilings. A limited finish palate is used throughout the space.