HOK Designs Boston Consulting Group’s Canadian Headquarters

Long before the pandemic, Boston Consulting Group had embraced hybrid work, giving employees the freedom to come to the office—which total more than 100 across the globe—meet with clients at their workplaces, or complete certain tasks from home. Whichever made the most sense for the business at hand. That said, collaboration is at the heart of how the management consultancy, often referred to as BCG, operates: Staffers form teams to tackle knotty problems clients are facing and puzzle through the issues to arrive at solutions. And this sort of teamwork, BCG felt, is best carried out face-to-face.

Back in 2017, when the company tapped HOK for its new Canadian headquarters on three floors—46, 47, and 48—of a tower rising in Toronto’s financial district, BCG sought an office that would be dazzling enough to draw employees to the workplace, that would provide a variety of bespoke settings so that teams could be as productive as possible while on-site. All of which is to say that when the pandemic hit in 2020—sending companies around the world scrambling to, first, figure out how to work remotely during lockdowns and, then, how to lure employees back to the office after they’d become accustomed to doing their jobs from home—BCG was way ahead of the game. Sure, there were tweaks to HOK’s concept for the 100,000- square-foot BCG project because of the pandemic—designers had to make sure work- stations were 6 feet apart, for example, and they loaded up meeting rooms with video- conferencing and audiovisual equipment for staffers participating remotely—but the changes amounted to fine-tuning a good plan that was already in place. And the result is this spectacular, ultra-sophisticated space that serves as a showplace for the company and a magnet for a workforce now numbering more than 400. “On the busiest days, we’re approaching pre-pandemic attendance levels,” Nina Abdelmessih, BCG’s chief of operations and external relations in Canada, says. “Everybody is coming in.”

HOK Designs a Hybrid Office for Boston Consulting Group

The plan’s success started with carving out an atrium near the window wall on the two lower floors—one advantage of coming to the project while the building was under construction was that this could be done before the floor plates were in place. Working with the developer, HOK specified an opening measuring a generous 20 by 80 feet, envisioning it as the “heart of the organization,” Caitlin Turner, HOK director of interiors in Canada and the project lead, notes. The atrium fills with light and opens up views of the city and Lake Ontario. Rooms situated off it are sided in glass so everyone shares in the sunshine.

A beckoning staircase steps up through the atrium to the top floor. It encourages employees to walk up and down—healthier for them than taking the elevators—and results in serendipitous encounters that add to the general esprit de corps. “There’s this buzz,” Turner enthuses. As for the seating areas in the base of the atrium, in the café, she adds: “At lunchtime, it’s like a high-school cafeteria.”

But serendipity also played a part: Turner tracked down a black-stained oak credenza she spotted on Instagram for use in a touch- down room, where it joins an oversize pendant fixture by Marcel Wanders and sinuous Italian armchairs. It’s just a sampling of the international, contemporary aesthetic permeating this buzzing workplace—one that is clearly not cookie-cutter but has helped become something of a model for other BCG offices in the throes of relocation and renovation.

Behind the Design of Boston Consulting Group’s Canadian Headquarters

HOK: PAUL GOGAN; BRITTANY TOD; KRISTINA KAMENAR; CALEB SOLOMONS; SALLY SHI; FARIBA SAJADI; ROWENA AUYEUNG; BETHANY FOSS; DANIEL MEEKER

RJC ENGINEERS: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

MITCHELL PARTNERSHIP: MECHANICAL ENGINEER

MULVEY & BANANI LIGHTING: LIGHTING DESIGNER

MCM: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP

Opus Art Projects: Art Consultant

VISO: CUSTOM SCONCES (ATRIUM), CUSTOM CEILING FIXTURES (BOARDROOM)

geiger: WOOD CHAIRS (CAFÉ)

PENGELLY IRON WORKS: CUSTOM SCREENS

KEIL­HAUER: BENCH

EUREKA LIGHTING: RING PENDANT FIX­TURES

STEELACASE: BOOTHS

gervasoni: BRASS PEN­DANT FIXTURES

BILLIANI: GRAY CHAIRS

TRIBU: BROWN/WHITE CHAIRS

CEMENT TILE SHOP: FLOOR TILE

muuto: PENDANT FIXTURES (OFFICE AREA)

STUDIO OTHER: WORK­ STATIONS

knoll: CHAIRS (OFFICE AREA, LIBRARY)

SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP: CARPET TILE (OFFICE AREA, NOOK)

herman miller: CHAIRS (DIGITAL ROOM)

HALCON FUR­NITURE: TABLES

flos: CEILING FIXTURES

Interface: CARPET TILE

nienkamper: TABLES (TOUCH­DOWN, COFFEE BAR)

GALLOTTI&RADICE: CHAIRS (TOUCH­DOWN)

POIAT: CREDENZA

AREA ENVIRONMENTS: WALLCOVERING

flos: PENDANT FIXTURE

CASALA: CHAIR (NOOK)

cappellini: CHAIRS (BOARDROOM)

PRISMATIQUE: CUSTOM TABLE

CREATIVE MATTERS: CUSTOM RUG

Davis Furniture: BENCH

filzfelt: PANELING (MEETING ROOM)

Haworth: DEMOUNTABLE WALLS

Allied Maker: PENDANT FIXTURES (COFFEE BAR)

ARRMET: CHAIRS

MOSAÏQUE SURFACE: WALL TILE

STONETILE: VINYL FLOOR TILE

BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.; SHERWIN­ WILLIAMS: PAINT

Meyer Davis Designs a Sprawling Manhattan Penthouse

2023 Best of Year Honoree for Large Apartment

A chance encounter started the ball rolling on the redesign of a full-floor penthouse atop one of New York’s most avant-garde structures. The glittering 56 Leonard in TriBeCa, completed in 2017 by Herzog & de Meuron, is often affectionately likened to a stack of Jenga blocks. The cantilevered upper floors make the 57-story building a standout on the downtown skyline and give its lucky residents uninterrupted 360-degree views.

“One weeknight, I was out having drinks with friends when a potential client happened to pop in,” recalls Will Meyer, principal of Meyer Davis. The men were acquainted but had not seen each other in years. “It was midnight, but he said, ‘I just bought this new apartment. Let’s go look at it.’” Up they went several dozen stories, emerging into a 5,500-square-foot aerie surrounded by 14-foot-tall windows. “Imagine coming out of the elevator and seeing these outrageous views. It was a white box with nothing going on but also the most amazing blank slate possible.”

Soon after, Meyer and fellow principal Gray Davis—jointly inducted last year into the Interior Design Hall of Fame—met with the homeowner to share their thoughts on making the vast residence more human-scale and inviting. “The client appreciates good design,” Davis says, “and loves music and hosting parties. But the apartment also had to feel comfortable when he’s there alone or with his kids.”

Meyer Davis Creates a Warm and Approachable Penthouse Design

“The client had a clear idea of how it should feel: warm and approachable,” says Meyer Davis associate Shannon Senyk, senior design lead on the project and at the firm. “The views were there, but the space itself was quite cold and austere. We needed to add layers through architectural finishes and soft, lush textures.” Conjuring welcome is a practiced skill for the firm, which places not only 60th on our 100 Giants list but also 24th among the Hospitality Giants.

Meyer Davis Transforms a Loftlike Layout into Functional Zones

The team devised a number of strategies to tame the open, loftlike layout, which is augmented by two terraces and a balcony totaling 1,600 square feet of outdoor real estate. “A super-large space should be zoned in subtle ways, making rooms without making walls,” Meyer observes. The designers arranged the furniture informally, with three separate seating groups in the main living area “so you can hop around and sit in different places,” as Davis puts it. Chief among the architectural upgrades—and there were many, including four-and-a-half renovated baths and an oak-and-marble kitchen beneath an existing statement stove hood—was a zoning gesture Meyer reports “made all the difference in the world”: a raised oak platform that spans about a quarter of the living area.

Furnishings Reflect a Relaxed Luxury Aesthetic 

The furnishings—predominantly new or custom pieces with a couple of vintage items thrown into the mix—all contribute to Meyer Davis’s trademark relaxed luxury, providing deep comfort while hold­ing their own against the grandeur of the architecture and the glory of the setting. Modern classics like Pierre Paulin lounge chairs and Ingo Mauer pendant fixtures join such contemporary pieces as a BassamFellows daybed and a Kelly Wearstler desk, the ensemble arranged so as not to disturb the pervasive feeling of cloud-borne calm. At the same time, the designers were mindful of placing the furniture in a way that, Meyer notes, “enhances your ability to take it all in.” The overall palette is neutral but far from colorless, comprising mostly blues, grays, and browns. The rust color of the velvet upholstery on a sofa in the den is the boldest hue in the apartment. “We brought in colors from the city and the sky,” Meyer concludes, “so as not to compete with the main event.”

---

---

Inside the Manhattan Penthouse With Expansive Views

meyer davis: anastasia bersetova; lindsay leonard

daniel demarco & associates; premium millwork: woodwork

silverlining: general contractor

jg switzer: beanbags (platform)

contardi: floor lamp

mellah: rug

William Gray: stools (kit­chen)

troscan design: table

gärsnäs: armchairs

erickson æsthetics: lounge chairs (living area)

tibetano: rug

BassamFellows: day­bed

rh: sectionals (living area, terrace)

andrianna shamaris: black side table (living area), console (entry)

jenni kayne: vase (entry)

flos: pen­dant fixture

sacco: rugs (entry, main bedroom)

rw guild: pendant fixtures (hall)

apparatus: sconces (hall, powder room), pendant fixtures (dining area, closet)

armada new york: custom table (dining area)

massproductions: chairs

Allied Maker: pendant fixture (bathroom)

seed design: table lamps (bedroom)

studio dunn: pendant fixture

castel; pollack: daybed fabric, pillow fabrics (den)

Montauk: sectional

ruemmler: pendant fixture

brooklyn workroom: custom daybed (den), custom headboard, custom sofa (main bedroom)

mokum: sectional fab­ric (Den), curtain fabric

menu design shop: mirrors (closet, powder room)

phillip jeffries: wallcovering (closet, powder room)

Gubi: chairs (main bedroom)

blackcreek mercantile & trading co.: coffee table

Ingo Maurer: pendant fixture

perennials fabrics: wallcovering

c&m shade: curtains

benjamin moore & co.: paint

Agence DL-M Sets a Left Bank Paris Apartment on a Colorful New Course

In recent years, interior designer Damien Langlois-Meurinne has worked on a series of Paris apartments that enjoy mind-blowing views. The dining room of one flat close to Place du Trocadéro is in direct axis with the Eiffel Tower. Another sits atop a hill in the city’s 16th arrondissement and offers sweeping vistas of almost all the French capital’s monuments, extending to Notre-Dame in the distance. Yet none of them has such a direct link to the Seine as this 3,500-square-foot four-bedroom located right on the river’s Left Bank. Look through the trees to the right and you see the Louvre; to the left, the Place de la Concorde. On July 26, 2024, its fourth-floor windows will no doubt be a privileged perch: That is the day earmarked for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, when some 10,500 athletes will sail past on boats from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Pont d’Iéna.

The project stands out for another reason, too. Since setting up his own practice, Agence DL-M, back in 2003, Langlois-Meurinne has displayed a gift for reworking floor plans and spatial volumes. Often, he’ll gut an apartment and start things over completely from scratch. For a recent commission, he even had to remove a 215-square-foot swimming pool that had been installed, rather incongruously, on the fifth floor of a typical Haussmannian building.

There are, however, exceptions to every rule, and this project, for an art-collecting couple from the Middle East, was one of them. “For once, there was a natural balance to the existing layout,” Langlois-Meurinne recalls. “I didn’t really change much apart from connecting the primary bedroom to the adjoining bathroom.” The new birch-clad portal between the two is particularly deep. “It gives the space a sense of protection and intimacy,” Langlois-Meurinne notes. He also modified the shape of the walls in the kitchen, replacing jagged angles with enveloping curves.

What was lacking, though, was much in the way of architectural personality; the space was almost completely devoid of historical elements. So, Langlois-Meurinne designed new ones largely inspired by the Art Deco style of the 1920s and ’30s. He installed wainscoting and cornices in the large double sitting room as well as a host of elements in staff, a type of plaster he particularly loves working with. “It’s extremely supple and allows you to create rounded forms more easily than you can with wood or marble,” Langlois-Meurinne explains. The material was used to create the sculptural fireplace that anchors one end of the living space, the ribbed walls in the entry hall, and the domed ceiling in the dining room, among other details.

The rest of the decor is typical of Langlois-Meurinne’s style, from the strong axes to the integration of niches and alcoves to the bronze door frames that help structure the space. In many of his projects, the designer favors generously proportioned hallways. “For me, they’re essential,” he says. “They’re the backbone of a flat and need to be lively and have their very own personality.” Bestowing visual impact in the main hall, which serves as a gallery, is a mesmerizing moonlike work in bright red by Dutch artist Corine van Voorbergen. Langlois-Meurinne also created a rhythmic pattern on the floor below by insetting the Tundra Gray marble slabs with brass bands arranged in a syncopated fashion. “Their reflections help bring light to the heart of the apartment,” he says.

Light was a concern in the primary bathroom due to an absence of windows. The striking Panda White marble floor, which Langlois-Meurinne compares to a contemporary artwork, helps to distract attention from the fact. “The veining is very dynamic,” he says, “almost like an India ink drawing.” The designer also installed a plaster ceiling dome above the tub, into which he recessed indirect lighting. “When it’s switched on, it becomes quite immaterial and conjures the sensation of a light well or skylight,” he declares.

For aficionados of Langlois-Meurinne’s work, the color palette throughout the apartment may come as something of a surprise. He has long accustomed us to cooler tones, marked by a predilection for shades of blue. “I have a very strong attachment to the sea and the Mediterranean,” he says, explaining that he spent many a childhood vacation in the Cyclades of Greece. Here, however, he decided to play with warmer tones. The walls of the dining room were painted a pale salmon hue, and a monochromatic orange acrylic on canvas—Circus Peanut, by the art collective Henry Codax—dominates one end of the living room. “I don’t know where the inspiration came from,” Langlois-Meurinne admits. “I guess it’s a question of desire, of simply wanting to try out something a little different.”

Mark Alexander: straight sofa fabric (living room)

Lorenzo Castillo: armchair fabric, curved sofa fabric

Versmissen: side tables

Porta Romana: glass lamps (living room, entry, bedroom)

Barbara Lormelle: vases (living room)

Karen Swami: blue ceramics

Nicholas Haslam: chandelier (gallery), wall lights (powder room, bedroom)

TFA: bench fabric (gallery)

Creativ Light: pendant light (kitchen)

arteriors: table

Marc Uzan: ceramics

Graff: sink fittings (powder room, primary bathroom)

Schwung: pendant light (dining room)

Circa Lighting: lamp

Nobilis: chair fabric

HK Living: console (entrance)

Allied Maker: chandelier

Tom Kirk: chandelier (corridor)

Christophe Delcourt: nightstands (bedroom)

Lambert&Fils: pendant light (primary bathroom)

Chromatic: wall paint

Galerie Hussenot, Galerie Greta Meert, Galerie Filles du Calvaire, Galerie Scéne Ouverte, Galerie Maison Rapin: artwork

Hommeboys’ Marine Layer Wines Hipifies Staid Sonoma County

The Hommeboys have put the word out on the streets of Sonoma: there’s a new design culture in the County. Locally-based duo Austin Carrier and Alex Mutter-Rottmayer combined coastal and vineyard vernaculars to create a contemporary California style with a Healdsburg Plaza tasting room for Marine Layer Wines, a new producer of vineyard-designate pinot noirs and chardonnays.

The winemaker has amassed a small, devoted following of industry insiders and locals over the past year, who have embraced the upstart brand’s artisanal, approachable wines. The Hommeboys captured that spirit by departing from the formal tasting rooms of the past. “We knew that we needed a place to gather and enjoy wine and life with friends,” winery founder Baron Ziegler says.

As the original boxy space was very tall and long and lacked architectural features, Hommeboys wanted to incorporate unique elements and bring curves throughout the tasting room. There are four semi-arched columns that scoop up into the ceiling as guests walk in, centering a long barrel arch at the back of the space. The columns ground both the bar and bench seating in the middle of the space, with lounges at the front and back. Natural mixed oak tones for the bar and bench seating are coupled with the deep ocean blues, inspired by the surrounding coastal region, of the cobalt paneling that envelopes the space. Throughout myriad light fixtures accentuated by a collection of multi-sized Vietnamese fishing baskets hung at different heights to break up the expansive 16’ ceilings. Above the bar are oversized sculptural ceramic light fixtures from an Oaxacan artist.  The two smaller lounges feature five-bulb cord-wrapped sconces from Cuff Studio. There is an element of surprise when guests walk into the restroom, with the three replicated deep barrel arch alcoves for the vanities. 

The residentially-minded Hommeboys set out to design a restroom that felt different yet connected to the main tasting space. Opting for an open washroom with private unisex stalls, vanities are in tiles with a rich and deep teal and dark graphite coloring—each unique tile creates a waterlike feeling throughout the bathroom floor. The walls feel just as special with a Rococo lime wash. Mixing into these two finishes is a slab of emerald quartzite for the vanity tops, contrasted with walnut cabinet panels and brass hardware. 

“Commercial settings are great for us because they give us more freedom to be creative because the client doesn’t have to live in the project so they’re great for dipping toe in water and showing what we can do,” Carrier says. “Plus, Baron gave us the freedom to flip fussy Healdsburg wine culture, which can be dark and boring, on its head,” Mutter-Rottmayer adds. 

Dutch East Design Brings Chef Melissa Kelly’s Italian Heritage Full Circle for a Restaurant at the JW Marriott Orlando

When the JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes offered two-time James Beard award-winning chef Melissa Kelly the chance to follow up her blockbuster Primo restaurant in Maine with a second, southern location, there was one thing she wouldn’t change: her farm-to-table philosophy. Everything else about the 7,800-square-foot space would be utterly transformed, under the careful hands of Dutch East Design, into a tribute to her Italian roots.

“Our design brings forth the hand quality of the land, and the celebration of the Italian courtyard,” says Dutch East Design cofounder Larah Moravek, of the 215-seat restaurant and 50-seat terrace. The team conceived a layout of dining salons connected by archways and brick thresholds. “The interior envelope uses sculptural gestures of undulating Terracotta brick, earthenware, and ceramics,” Moravek says, “all carried out with a chic, artisanal sensibility.”

Custom collections of casegoods, lighting, and seating furnish the dining areas. Out on the terrace, guests dine among a new trellis and herb planter boxes beneath flowering plants—visual apertivo for the main event, a farm almost as big, and certainly as important, as the restaurant interiors themselves. 

Sella Concept Creates Inspiring Office Design in NYC

For their first project in the United States, executed and completed with architects at Gensler, London-based design studio Sella Concept tackled the challenge of working from across the Atlantic during the pandemic. Offering an ode to American design with a British touch, the team created the new 3,000-square-foot office of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners in New York City, which is nestled in a glass, steel, and brick building by ODA.

“We designed the project remotely after our first site visit, which took place prior to lockdown rules,” remembers Tatjana von Stein, director and cofounder of Sella Concept. “Responding to a new era of office values, we emphasized on gentle movements and apertures within the space.”

Flexibility and connectivity for employees and clients are at the heart of the concept. Nods to industrial design, reflected through the exposed brick columns, combine with Sella Concept’s aesthetic, which is characterized by soft curves and raw textural elements, such as the poured concrete floor and curved plaster wall. Dedar and Maharam fabrics coat the Sella Concept-designed bespoke banquettes while soft leather-like tabletops, Allied Maker lighting fixtures, and Fireclay tiles add warmth to the space. Complete with a live tree, the office makes for an inviting space that stimulates creative thinking.

Huntsman, Pfau Long, RMW, and SHoP Deliver a Five-Star Campus for Uber Headquarters in San Francisco

It’s been 12 years since Uber disrupted the transportation system with its ride-hailing technology that’s now ubiquitous. Today, the company proves itself another disruptor, this time in workplace architecture and design. Uber’s new San Francisco headquarters is a consortium of four towers, not by one or even two firms, but four internationally renowned studios. Like dating, Uber paired them in a harmonious match. For MB1 and MB2, Uber’s first commissioned ground-up headquarters, SHoP Architects conceived the original building plan, and then RMW came aboard for interiors. Huntsman Architectural Group was mainly responsible for the interiors of MB3 and MB4, originally created on spec by Pfau Long (which has since merged with Perkins&Will). Then Huntsman and RMW collaborated with Uber on the campus master plan. MB, by the way, stands for Mission Bay, the city’s burgeoning, formerly industrial neighborhood. As for stats: MB1 is 11 stories, MB2 seven, including the partially enclosed rooftop, and buildings three and four rise 11 stories each. All told, interiors total just over 1 million square feet and will eventually bring together some 6,000 staffers. “We saw this as an opportunity to unite employees within a campus setting rather than have them scattered throughout the city,” begins Uber director of workplace and real estate Tracie Kelly, who worked alongside project executive Michael Huaco, Uber’s VP of global real estate. As for the design teams? “It was a happy marriage,” Huntsman associate principal Nicole Everett reflects.

On a grand scale, Uber is conceived as a micro-city, one within and connected to the urban area at large where the two pairs of towers align. This micro-city breaks down into boroughs signified by the towers, communities analogous to floors, and neighborhoods as sig­naled by teams. It’s a broad organizational device allowing for—and encouraging—qualities of contributing to a “sense of place bring­ing people together to a positive environment,” Alison Woolf, also a Huntsman associate principal, notes.

Thus everyone, no matter where their location, experiences a shared panoply of indoor-outdoor junctions: public spaces, collaboration areas, and quiet zones in the form of libraries, wellness facilities, terraces, cafés, and break rooms—specifically designed to be communal and active, or focused and calm. Each pair of buildings shares an approximately 30,000-square-foot cafeteria, supplemented by four coffee bars. All together the setting offers a work-from-anywhere scenario, albeit one with dedicated workstations, indicative of an autonomous office paradigm. The fact that each environment presents a uniquely textured fabric induces folks to interconnect and continuously explore the entire campus—much as they would San Francisco’s heterogenous streetscape.

• 

• 

Given their origins, the two sets of buildings are entirely different. Logic has the introduction start at MB1 and MB2, since the gateway to the campus occurs at the latter. Double-glass facades create layered transparency as a vertical atrium weaving through all floors be­tween the two skins—and a literal and metaphorical connection to the city. The design teams refer to this interstitial space as solariums, for gathering or working. “They give people the choice to choose their own adventure,” SHoP associate principal Shannon Han says. They also add the asset of fresh air. Computer-controlled, operable windows respond to weather conditions creating what she terms “breathing facades.” Yet, adds RMW design principal Hakee Chang, “We were essentially presented with 17 different floor plates due to the various ways in which the solariums engage with the building core.” Unlike typical buildings with a central core, he continues, “Circulation is concentrated along the sides to high­light the bridge connections.” Two reflective glass sky bridges, mirrored on the bottom and visible from outside the buildings, span levels four to six and five to seven with pathways both covered and uncovered.

Inside, the main lobby is a digital experience. “Conduits run from the feature wall behind the 40-foot-long concrete desk, up to the ceiling and along the length of the space,” RMW senior designer Jenna Szczech explains. Then come choices. Grab a coffee or proceed directly to the events space occupying most of the rest of the floor. Like moths to a flame, visitors are pulled to it, since it’s wrapped in a backlit and perforated white screen. Inside, the room is multifunctional and divisible, made so by an accordion-pleated partition that can rise to the ceiling.

These are two of what RMW calls “iconic spaces,” meaning places with campus-wide draw. The cafeteria is another. In MB2, it occupies the entire second floor in a setting every bit the hip restaurant: polished concrete flooring, serpentine white-oak banquettes overlooked by a curvaceous installation of acrylic tubes, and brass floater strips. Up on the sixth floor is the second and main events space. The Forum, preceded by an icy white pre-function environment with a mossy back wall hinting at the rooftop terrace above, counts as an all-hands venue. “The architecture is a beauty,” Szczech states. Indeed it is: a bright, double-height room enclosed on two sides by a floor-to-ceiling window system capped by a grid of skylights.

Work areas, with each team neighborhood introduced by a “front porch” and privy to break rooms, are focused and calm. Quieter still is the cobalt cocoon punctuated by oak and walnut millwork. Sssh, this is the fifth floor’s head’s-down library devoid of any AV component. What’s missing from this complex scenario? Art, as true walls are scarce. For that, all commissioned from locals, cross over to Huntsman’s component. The two buildings face each other across a plaza; MB3 has a terrace off its seventh floor. While the SHoP-RMW parcel has built-in wow factors, “We had to create these spaces after the fact,” Woolf recalls.

For starters, the firm cut through slabs in multiple locations. Now both structures have double-height lobbies, the larger with a slatted wood statement stairway, the smaller a cube framed with dichroic glass tubes, their colors changing according to one’s viewing stance. The ceiling above the bleachers, beneficiary of a cutout between floors four and five, has more fluctuating colors. A double-height break room, itself a novel amenity for the top 10th and 11th floors, has a fiber artwork extending upward over the expanse. Meanwhile, a vibrant, multi-panel painting is installed at the connector stair from yet another break room to the wellness suite.

Uber is particularly proud of this initiative. Almost every floor campus-wide has a mother’s room, but the big push is the mirrored studio for yoga, barre, or dance classes with a bird’s-eye view of the terrace below thanks to glass sliders. There are also adjacent pre- or post-workout chill zones that beckon with hanging wickerlike chairs.

Back inside, the cafeteria serving this part of the quad is anything but corporate. It presents a cheeky take on the green wall with verde tiles. The ceramics combine with stitched, white-bolster fabric to form a dimensional divider between servery and seating. Post-prandial, staffers can head to MB4’s makers’ room for collaborative work or MB3’s library for heads-down work. This version is “a digital and tech-enabled space prompting different neurological stimuli,” Woolf says. Regardless, Huntsman paid some homage to the old-school library format by furnishing it with long tables and carrels. It turns out, some things don’t need disrupting.

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

huntsman architectural group: david link; david meckley; rene calara; adam murphy; greg dumont; edna wang; jena kissinger; saruyna leano; amy stock; sierra goetz; hadley bell; patrycja dragan; david hevesi; julio gutierrez; edward sweeney; elias horat; pam robinson; takrit jirawudomchai; joanna heringer; eric nelson

RMW: terry kwik; karen letteney; jin park; owen huang; britni williams; darren barboza; janet braden; sal wikke; oscar catarino; felice rosario; gloria n. rasmussen; annette litle; josh carrell; maurice farinas; jonathan chow; yinong liu

quezada architecture: architect of record (core, shell)

alfa tech: lighting consultant, mep

there: graphics consultant

swa group: landscaping consultant

hush: digital experience design

thornton tomasetti: structural engineer

salter: acoustical engineer

atelier ten: leed consultant, well consultant

acco: mep

mission bell; montbleu: woodwork

concreteworks: concretework

dpr construction; truebeck: general contractors

Yellow Goat Design: custom screen (events space); custom ceiling installation (cafeteria)

steelcase through west elm workspace: bench, tables (lobby)

zehnder rittling: ceiling panels (library)

Interface: carpet tile

Allied Maker: sconces

watson: table

muuto: armchairs

gus modern: side chairs

& Tradition: stools

associated terrazzo co.: flooring (pre-function)

apparatus: pendant fixtures

menu: stools

skandiform: chairs

kristalia: table

filzfelt: acoustic wall panels

designtex: banquette back fabric

Knoll Textiles: banquette seat fabric

minus tio: tables (event space)

arper: stacking chairs

decoustics: ceiling panels

carnegie: wall panel fabric

bendheim: glass panel (break room)

martin brattrud: custom banquettes

global lighting: pendant fixtures (cafeteria)

molo: pendent fixtures: (coffee bar)

goldray industries: dichroic glass panels

pedrali: chairs

west coast industries: tables

muuto: stools (coffee bar, break room, counter)

hbf textiles: cushion fabric (stadium seating)

fermob: chairs (terrace)

kettal: sofas

CB2: tables

landscape forms: custom trellis

woodtech: tables, benches (makers’ room)

solid manufacturing co.: stools

lightolier: ceiling fixtures

ton: chairs (café)

V2 lighting group: pendant fixtures

statements: wall tile

geiger: wall fabric

garret: banquette fabric

sika design: hanging chairs (wellness center)

mafi: flooring

garden trellis co.: custom ceiling

Finelite: linear fixtures

schiavello: screens (library)

turnstone: tables

Hay: chairs

studio trevelyan: pendant fixtures (wellness)

caesarstone: solild surfacing

Mannington Commercial: flooring

grato: wood slats

stone source: stone

dunn-edwards paints: paint

Richardson Pribuss Architects Designs an Artists’ Residence in Mill Valley, California

When a New York–based artist couple decided they needed an exurban getaway, they opted out of the usual suspects. No Hamptons, Hudson Valley, or Berkshires. Instead, they cast their net some 3,000 miles away and landed in Mill Valley, California, where they purchased a diminutive cottage, one of four built almost a century ago along Corte Madera Creek. Considering that the wife is originally from Carmel Valley, the destination wasn’t such a stretch. What might have been, though, was their choice of Richardson Pribuss Architects. The owners came upon the local firm simply through Googling. “The clients’ executive assistant called, set up an interview and site meeting, and we were hired the next day,” principal Heidi Richardson recalls.

At that initial encounter, Richardson and principal Andrew Pribuss mentioned original drawings would be helpful. The couple pulled them from a closet, and Richardson discovered a prior owner to have been erstwhile clients for whom they’d rehabbed a nearby property. Kismet aside, initial plans for mere renovation morphed into a full-on rebuilding effort—COVID-challenged, at that. Along with preserving the locale’s giant redwoods and optimizing views of them, the overarching intent was to remain true to the cabin vernacular while “boiling down the essence of domesticity to just 1,600 square feet,” Richardson notes.

A gamechanger was easing up the entry sequence from the carport, bedeviled by clunky staircases and changes in grade. “We took a ton of dirt and back-filled a corner of the property at the far side of the porch to level things and create a meandering path,” Pribuss explains. Another big move entailed restoring and enhancing the dwelling’s standout architectural element: its gables, which had been subjected to an awkward addition and framing-over during previous renovations.

Everything else is new. That means butt-joined cedar siding, its verdant color appropriately selected by the artists. Cedar, too, are porch railings and decking; the custom front door is hemlock. Blackened steel surrounds enlarged openings and a quartet of new skylights situated “to nail views of those trees,” Pribuss continues.

PrevNext

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The architects reconfigured the floor plan, providing new walls and finishes throughout. Three bedrooms became two, resulting in an expanded living-dining-kitchen area plus an entry-adjacent mudroom zone. Client requests included wide-plank European white oak flooring and a wood-burning fireplace to replace the chunky river-rock original. As for the kitchen, the wife had photos to back up her mind’s-eye vision of the island: part butcher block, part Brazilian soapstone, its plywood cabinetry painted a blue-green shade whose appearance changes according to the light. (Speaking of lighting, the couple wanted it low tech, ergo the white-oak pendants and spots.) The minimal palette is simplified to the max. Walls are limestone plaster that is slightly reflective. The primary bath is predominantly Fontainebleau limestone. Main sleeping quarters have a hemlock bed niche.

With the advent of COVID, the owners were constrained to just one more job-site visit, which occurred during framing. That was it for in-person communication. “But they had so much trust in us,” Richardson says. “In turn, we had to fall back on our instincts and drill down on the details.” Only at the end of the year-and-a-half process did the owners come to see results. They discovered the firm had gone beyond its architecture purview to stage furnishings—including Lievore Altherr Molina’s Alya chairs in the dining area and the Sunbrella-covered two-seater on the front porch—meant as suggestions for future purchases.

Design Within Reach: Chair (Porch); Sofa (Living Area)

Blu Dot: Sofa (Porch)

Ore: Firepit

Stickbulb: Lighting Pendants (Living Area)

Ortal: Fireplace

Lulu And Georgia: Coffee Table

Hd Buttercup: Lounge Chairs

Burke Decor: Round Side Table (Living Area); Stools (Kitchen)

West Elm: Square Side Table (Living Area); Chair (Bedroom)

M. Teixeira: Soapstone (Kitchen)

Blanco: Sink

Dornbracht: Sink Fittings (Kitchen); Tub Fittings (Bathroom)

Rocky Mountain Hardware: Cabinet Pulls (Kitchen, Bathroom); Sink Fittings (Bathroom)

Andreu World: Chairs (Dining Area); Table (Bedroom)

Through Moma Design Store: Art Print (Dining Area)

Sun Valley Bronze: Door Lever (Entry)

Kohler: Tub

Michael’s Upholstery: Custom Ottoman (Bedroom)

Allied Maker: Spotlights

Dinesen: Flooring

Jada: Windows

Royalite: Skylights

Ecostucco: Wall Plaster

Haussmann: Stone

Abacus Builders: General Contractor

Turbin Structural Engineering: Structural Engineer

Arterra Landscape Architects: Landscape Design