Inside JPMorgan Chase’s Historic D.C. Offices by Studios Architecture

The nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., is also one of the oldest, tracing its origins to the late 1700’s. “Respecting history and supporting art and culture have been a part of our DNA since inception,” explains Farzad Boroumand, the bank’s executive director and global real estate head of design. It was only fitting, then, that when choosing a home base for its new mid-Atlantic headquarters, the financial institution would purchase a venerable property: the 1922 Bowen Building in the heart of D.C.’s Historic Fifteenth Street Financial District.

Much like JPMorgan Chase itself, which is a synthesis of many institutions that have merged or been acquired over the years, including First Republic Bank last month, the Bowen is a hybrid of several early 20th-century structures that had been combined and expanded in phases. Although the 12-story limestone edifice is not landmarked, its listed status and contribution to a historic district stipulated a sensitive renovation—and an equally conscientious design partner. After inviting proposals from several firms, the client selected Studios Architecture. “Studios stood out by suggesting innovative interior solutions that were appropriate to the classical exterior,” Boroumand recalls.

For JPMorgan Chase, Studios Architecture Designs a LEED-Certified HQ

The firm’s work at the LEED Silver–certified headquarters, totaling 231,000 square feet, encompassed a subterranean mechanicals level, the lobby and an adjacent ground-floor community center, four levels of employee and executive workspace, and a client center with a terrace. The primary challenge was to deliver the perfect marriage of old and new. “The client sought a modern scheme that spoke to who JPMorgan Chase is and would carry the organization, with its rich history, into the future,” says Studios board chair and principal Marnique Heath, who teamed with the client to lead the project with the support of Studios associate Ethan Levine, both architects from the firm’s D.C. office.

Many of the gestures, Levine notes, “were centered on thresholds, creating opportunities for visitors to pass into the bank and make them feel a sense of belonging.” That starts at the main entry sequence leading from Fifteenth Street. The client requested that it convey welcome and a sense of transparency, which Studios answered by introducing a glazed portal with revolving doors and, above, a glass canopy.

The Office Design Features Restored Details

Studios Architecture Creates a Flexible Workplace for JPMorgan Chase

The client center, up on the building’s 11th floor, houses various conference rooms and meeting areas as well as a generous terrace. Continuing the transparency theme, Studios carved out a double-height volume along the terrace-side perimeter, which serves as an airy waiting area. The firm also made substantial facade alterations here, expanding the glazing to create more openness and invite broader views of the Washington Monument and the White House. A new feature stair, its balustrade incorporating the same metalwork used on the ground floor, leads to the executive level on 12.

An elevator bay with tinted, mirrored panels and a series of LED mobile-esque chandeliers provides access to the three renovated floors of flexible work areas accommodating some 500 employees. Architect and client collaborated to uncover future-oriented strategies for the office proper. “We investigated entirely different models of working, incorporating features such as virtual meeting spaces and more homelike and lounge-y environments,” Heath recalls. A diversity of furniture types and finishes, along with 2,500 square feet of open lounges on each work floor, encourages staff members to access different settings as they shift activities throughout their day.

Ultimately, the Bowen Building stands as an example of how legacy institutions like JPMorgan Chase can build a framework for serving their communities on multiple fronts—one that acknowledges the past while making much-needed modern interventions to cocreate a better future for all.

Behind the Design of JPMorgan Chase’s D.C. Office

Studios Architecture: ashton allan; monica castro; kristian passanita; tammy chan; ruben smudde; jennifer hicks; jesse wetzel; katherine luxner; june zhu; maria percoco; gabriel boyajian

gordon: landscape architect

interior plantscapes: interior plantings

mcla: lighting designer

tce & associates: structural engineer

GHT: mep

columbia woodworking; jefferson millwork & design: millwork

boatman & magnani: stonework

gilbane building company: general contractor

bright chair: sofa, chairs (library)

modernfold: sliding door

B&B Italia: shelving

bernhardt design: tables, credenza (library), sofa (community center), coffee table, white lounge chairs (conference area)

spinneybeck: desk leather (lobby)

shickel corporation: custom screens

flos: custom pendant fixtures (lobby, client center)

bendheim: custom paneling (elevator lobby)

tech lighting: chandeliers

whitegoods: cove lighting

Stellar Works: armchairs (waiting area)

cassina: table

emerald ironworks: custom stair

planter­worx: custom planters (waiting area, terrace)

pilkington: glazing (exterior)

boon edam: revolving door

alpolic: canopy

skyfold: retractable walls (community center)

Lambert&Fils: globe pendants

vibia: pendant fix­tures

datesweiser: worktables

arper: chairs

martin brattrud: banquettes

9wood: ceiling panels (com­munity center, office entry)

londonart: wall­covering (conference area)

walter knoll: blue lounge chairs

axis lighting: linear pen­dants (conference area, lounge)

BuzziSpace: dome pendant (lounge)

spacestor: cus­tom shelving

stylex: coffee table

Scandinavian Spaces: lounge chairs

muuto: sofa, ottomans

astek: wall­covering

naughtone: two-tone sofa

milliken: carpet tile (lounge, workspace)

Andreu World: tables (ter­race)

Janus et Cie: stools, chairs, sofa

Tuuci: umbrella

stepstone: pavers

andrew neyer: pendant fixtures (office entry)

adler display: environmental graphics

Greenmood: petrified moss

viccarbe: benches

herman miller: task chairs (workspace)

knoll: workstations

armstrong: ceiling tile

applied image: privacy graphics

evensonbest: furniture supplier

transwall: glass partitions

guardian glass: exterior glazing, fins

kawneer: curtain wall, storefront system

ege: carpet tile, rugs, broadloom

Sherwin-Williams: paint

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

LSM Modernizes a Multilevel Workplace in Midtown for a Financial Firm

Mid-century office towers are fixtures of the New York skyline. From the MetLife Building to Black Rock, they make up much of the commercial real estate in Midtown but are woefully out of date and ripe for demolition. (Even Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s 270 Park Avenue has met the wrecking ball.) Low ceilings and large floor plates make for dark interiors, while frequent columns and clunky mechanical systems constrict layouts. Yet for Donnie Morphy, senior director at LSM, these 60-year-old buildings have their charm. “They have great expressions of steel and strong organizational templates,” he says. “There are a lot of things you can’t get rid of, but there’s also a lot you can react to and embrace.” He knows this first-hand. Recently, LSM did just that at the ’60’s office space of a financial firm, creatively updating the interiors so they rival those in any skyscraper of today.

The client engaged LSM to conceive a workplace and a conference center across several levels of an International Style building. The goal was to promote interaction among staffers and give them a light, bright environment—both of which would be difficult given the 50,000- to 100,000-square-foot floor plates. LSM was familiar with the challenges of mid-century structures, having transformed offices in the Seagram Building and Lever House. Led by Interior Design Hall of Fame member Debra Lehman Smith and James McLeish, the firm has shown that with a clever use of material and volume, older buildings can become an asset for clients. “Simplicity is deceptive. Our design for this project embraces the complexity of simplicity,” Lehman Smith says.

LSM conceived a plan that encourages employees to move around, connect, and collaborate. The client envisioned various hubs spread across the office, forcing people to take different routes throughout the day and meet colleagues from other teams. At one such intersection, for instance, a terrace—furnished with Richard Schultz’s 1966 table and chairs—meets a pantry with seating by Space Copenhagen and Foster + Partners. The client also sought circulation at the perimeter, rather than private offices, so employees could have access to natural light and take in views of the city as they walked to get coffee.

Though lined with banded windows, the perimeter could feel cramped, with 8-foot ceilings, baseboard heaters, and steel columns every 20 feet. So LSM covered the columns in mirror, a technique the firm has used in new-builds like 55 Hudson Yards. “The idea was that you could demateri­alize the perimeter and make it feel like a new curtain wall,” Morphy notes. Adds partner Terese Wilson, “It reflected the exterior and the light and made everything feel brighter.” The team also carved out the drywall between the ceiling beams, going to the underside of the slab to gain over 2 feet of height. They brought the same technique to the conference center, heightening the ceiling wherever possible to create more breathing room and add alcoves illuminated by LEDs.

LSM employs such curves throughout to soften the building’s structure and 90-degree angles. Meeting rooms and stairwells are rounded, as are furnishings, like reception’s Charlotte Perriand LC7 chairs, marble-topped coffee table, and long ecru sofa. The conference center’s feature stair widens at the top and bottom to form “an elegant curvature that pulls you up,” Morphy says. It’s one of the many subtle touches that gradually reveal themselves to the visitor. “As you walk through, you see layers of detail that create the whole,” Wilson says. As Manhattan reckons with a glut of empty offices and companies increasingly favor new construction, LSM proves there may be life in these old buildings yet.

LSM: james mcleish; mario degisi; mark andre; nathan strieter; nilay akbas; sofia zavala; zibo zhou

fisher marantz stone: lighting consultant

ojb landscape architecture: landscape architect

thornton tomasetti: structural engineer

jb&b: mep

Island architectural woodwork: millwork

mcgrory glass: glasswork

commodore construction: metalwork

unifor: custom furniture workshop

structuretone: general contractor

cassina: chairs (reception)

svend nielsen: custom desk

knoll: benches (reception), side tables (reception, conference center), chairs (meeting room), furniture (terrace)

walters: custom stair (conference center)

stelton: bowls (conference center)

herman miller: chairs (conference room)

Tarkett: carpet (conference room, meeting room)

oluce: lamp (meeting room)

wausau tiles: pavers (terrace)

milliken: carpet (hall)

tile bar: floor tile (pantry)

viccarbe: stools

ultraleather: stool upholstery

campo­longhi: marble supplier

spinneybeck: leather upholstery, paneling

These Task Chairs by Herman Miller and Studio 7.5 Are Anything But Boring

The 1960s: Celebrating 90 Years of Design

In Copenhagen, Arne Jacobsen builds and furnishes the SAS Royal Hotel in 1960. The next year, Jack Lenor Larsen introduces stretch fabric, and Salone del Mobile debuts in Milan. In 1962, Eero Saarinen & Associates completes Idlewild Airport’s TWA Terminal. Mario Bellini begins consulting for companies such as Cassina and Olivetti in Italy in 1963; back in the U.S., Billy Baldwin redesigns New York’s Tiffany & Co., and the Interior Design Educators Council formed. Davis Allen of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill completes Hawaii’s Maui Kea Beach Hotel in 1965. The decade’s premier book of theory, Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, comes out in 1966, the same year Art Gensler opens his namesake firm in San Francisco. In 1967, New York City’s Ford Foundation interiors by Roche & Dinkeloo’s Warren Platner, and Billy Baldwin win designs the Onassis villa in Skorpios, Greece. The first NeoCon (National Exhibition of Contract Furnishings) is held in Chicago in 1969.

Editor’s note: Explore more coverage of design through the decades here. 

Design Highlights

1963 – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designs a headquarters for Armstrong Cork in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

1964 – George Nelson and Robert Propst’s Action Office furniture for Herman Miller responds to the work habits of nine-to-fivers, while Jeremiah Goodman’s illustration of C. Eugene Stephenson design takes the cover of Interior Design‘s February issue.

1965 – Alvar and Elissa Aalto design conference rooms for the Institute of International Education in New York.

1966 – The Whitney Museum of American Art by Marcel Breuer & Associates is a new icon for New York, and Nicos Zographos’s CH-66 chair offers a novel take on tubular steel.

1967 – With De Pas, D’Urbino, & Lomazzi’s inflatable Blow chairs for Zanotta, change is in the air.

1969 – The Metamorphosis beauty salon by Design Coalition’s Alan Buchsbaum opens in Great Neck, New York.

Time Pieces

Words: Jen DeRose

These reissues are as good as new—or better.

Handcrafted in 1963, when he was a childlike 56, Alexander Girard’s whimsical figures capture his most emblematic traits: playfulness and wonder. Now, Virtra offers exact replicas to delight even the most grown-up of adults.

Girard and his wife began collecting folk art in Mexico. Eventually, the collection grew to legendary proportions-and visibly influenced dolls the designer made for his own home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

With the help of the Vitra Design Museum’s documents, 11 dolls have been reproduced accurately and marketed under the name Wooden Dolls. Like the earlier versions, the new toys are hand-carved from pine and spruce, hand painted, and ornamented with feathers and string. Heights range from 6¼ to 12 inches.

A Different Time: Thank You for Smoking

What did we know, and when did we know it? Hard to say.

On January 11, 1964, the U.S. surgeon general announced that tobacco could kill. We didn’t think he was lying, but an awful lot of us chose not to believe him anyway. Ashtrays continued to march down the center of conference tables on the pages Interior Design—occasionally showing up in medical venues as well. 

Throughout the lifetime of this magazine, liquor has also had its place. In 1941, an ad offered a combination bar and vanity. Later, innovations included bars on wheels, bars hidden in entertainment centers, and, appropriately, bars built into cocktail tables. There were bars at home and bars at the office. One publishing company had a bar, repleted with stools, right off a conference room. Imagine that!

1963 – A hand puppet, based on the popular Señor Wences variety-show act, hawks office furniture by Desks.

1967 – At the Blair Club in Silver Spring, Maryland, the TV room featured one ashtray per seat.

1969 – It was de rigueur for executives to have bars, but Robert Reynolds even equipped this New Jersey publishing company with Chairmasters bar stools.

The 1950s: Celebrating 90 Years of Design

Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., publishes What Is Modern Design? and launches the “Good Design” series at both Chicago’s Merchandise Mart and New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1950. As exhibitions designers for the debut year, he chooses Charles and Ray Eames; Finn Juhl will follow in 1951. Also in ’51, Ludwig View van der Rohe completes the Farnsworth house outside Chicago. In 1952, Jack Lenor Larsen opens a textiles studio-his first commission being New York’s Lever House by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-and Arne Jacobsen designs his Ant chair for Fritz Hansen. The ever prolific Kaufmann returns with What is Modern Interior Design? in 1953. Two years later, Billy Baldwin decorates Cole Porter’s suite at the Waldorf Towers in New York, and Le Corbusier finishes his Store-Dame-du-Haut chapel in Roncamp, France. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York opens in 1959.

Editor’s note: Explore more coverage of design through the decades here. 

Design Highlights

1950 – Charles and Ray Eames design storage units for Herman Miller.

1952 – Marcel Breuer completes this cottage in Lakeville, Connecticut; for Fritz Hansen, Arne Jacobsen designs the Ant chair.

1955 – The January issue of Interior Design features sculptural ceramics by Luke and Rolland Lietzke; Le Corbuiser’s Notre-Dame-du-Haut chapel is finished in Ronchamp, France.

1956 – George Nelson’s Marshmallow sofa for Herman Miller comes out.

1958 – Philip Johnson and William Pahlmann’s New York restaurant, the Four Seasons, gets ready for its close-up.

1959 – Paul Rudolf smiles for the camera, while Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens in New York.

CannonDesign Transforms the Interiors of a Former Newspaper Building into Modern Tech Offices

Back in 1878, when the West was still wild and the U.S. had only 38 states, Joseph Pulitzer, a self-made Hungarian immigrant, acquired two struggling Missouri newspapers and merged them into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which has been publishing ever since. In 1959, the paper moved its newsroom and printing plant into a 1930 art deco-style building by prominent local architects Mauran, Russell and Crowell for another, now-defunct news daily. The Post-Dispatch sold the building in 2018 and now occupies smaller facilities nearby.

Today, after a $70 million overall makeover, the building houses 850 employees of Square and Cash App, two divisions of Block, Inc., the high-tech financial services and digital payments company. The staff had previously been working in three different locations, and the corporation’s primary objective was to centralize this workforce in one user-friendly space.

Now based in San Francisco, Block was founded in St. Louis in 2009 by two natives of the Gateway City: Jack Dorsey (also a co-founder of Twitter) and Jim McKelvey, a tech-head, entrepreneur, and glass artist. To create its new Missouri digs, the company hired CannonDesign, one of the nation’s largest architectural firms.

Block was clear about its remit for the 225,000-square-foot building, which comprises six stories and two basement levels: “The client was looking to create a home for its employees,” reports project director Ken Crabiel, vice president and commercial and civic market leader at Cannon’s St. Louis office. “A place where they could be connected with one another in a variety of ways.” Like a home, the plan called for a series of connected spaces, both large and small, public and private, to accommodate multiple activities.

The large spaces include three multilevel atria that connect to the more intimate areas by a series of interior staircases. Employees can choose to work at a traditional desk or on a sofa or lounge chair, and meetings can range from intimate tête-à-têtes to company-wide confabs in the vast all-hands area. The building can accommodate up to 1,200 workers, so Block has room to grow in place. (Currently, most employees are free to work from home or in the office, as they choose.)

In a project-defining move, the original newspaper printing press has been left in place—a steampunkish behemoth that stretches roughly 80 feet along the ground floor. Project designer and Cannon associate Olivia Gebben is especially enamored of the small basement-level lounge spaces tucked among the massive steel columns and beams that support the machinery above. “In these lounges, you can look up and literally touch the buttons and wheels that made the presses tick,” she enthuses.

“It’s hard to overestimate the role that press has in the collective memory of St. Louis,” Crabiel observes, noting that the machinery was clearly visible behind large street-level windows. “People used to come to watch the presses cranking out the paper. Nowadays the use of the building may be different, but you can still see activity in and around the press through those same windows, especially at night.”

The renovation also preserved a spiral staircase, much of Pulitzer’s office, and areas of decorative terrazzo flooring. Otherwise, floors throughout are the original concrete, with all their evolved patina showing. “We just refinished them with a low-grit polish,” Gebben notes. Adaptive reuse is nothing new to Cannon, which operates its St. Louis practice out of a similarly gutted and reinvented 1928 power station. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of that kind of building stock in our city,” Crabiel acknowledges. “And much of it is getting new life.”

The interior program was intentionally kept timeless, both natural and neutral. “We featured exposed concrete and natural oak against a lot of black and white,” Gebben says. “The bright blue printing press is a huge presence, so we didn’t add much color.” Most of the color, in fact, comes from numerous art installations.

“Art is in the DNA of our company,” says Jay Scheinman, Block’s global municipal affairs lead. “Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey came up with the idea of Square when Jim couldn’t complete the sale of one of his glass pieces because he didn’t have the ability to take a credit card.” In keeping with this strong connection to art, a contest was run for local artists to come up with pieces reflecting the company’s mission of economic empowerment. The 10 winning entries are now incorporated into the fabric of the building. Third Degree Glass Factory, founded by McKelvey in a reclaimed 1920’s service station, devised a striking ceiling installation—a constellation of suspended vitreous globes—for the third-to-fourth-floor atrium. “The blue color is as close a match to the press as possible,” Crabiel explains. “And the individual handblown ‘bubbles’ are meant to represent ink droplets.”

“So often in design, you look at the physical form and can see the connections between the original building and the renovation,” Crabiel continues. “But sometimes there’s an underlying philosophical connection, too.” Pulitzer believed that providing information enabled readers to make responsible choices. “Block is centered on the same principle,” the architect says, “and we wanted that notion to have a presence in the new iteration of the Post-Dispatch building.”

Cannon­Design: Ken Crabiel; Olivia Gebben, michael bonomo; nicole andreu; kevin zwick; elise novak; enge sun; melissa pirtle; stephen gantner; carmen ruiz cruz; kelsey mack; heather rosen; michelle rotherham; rita radley; brendan smith; jocelyn wildman; alex oliver; alyssa packard; barrett newell

trivers architecture: architect of record

mcclure engineering: MEP

KPFF Consulting Engineers: Structural Engineer

tarlton corp.: general contractor

Andreu World: café tables (all hands)

davis: chairs

ofs: high tables

coalesce: stools

flos: lighting system

plyboo: paneling (all hands, atrium 2)

knollstudio: chairs (game room)

gestalt: side tables (game room, lounge area 1)

kasthall: rugs (lounge areas)

Hay: sofa (lounge area 1), side chairs (terrace)

ecosense: pendant fixture (conference room)

tretford: carpet

herman miller: side chairs (con­ference room), task chairs (office area)

stylex: sofa (lounge area 2)

bernhardt: coffee table (lounge area 2), side tables (atrium 1), ottomans (atrium 2)

modloft: lounge chairs (atrium 1)

mafi: stairs, flooring (atria)

poe: storefront systems

Janus et Cie: tables (terrace)

Paola Lenti: lounge chairs

kettal: side tables, lounger

landscape forms: benches

pair: workstations (office area)

fine mod imports: lounge chairs

de padova: coffee tables

anthropologie: rug

focal point: pendant fixtures

Interface: carpet tile

woodtech: café tables (atrium 2)

Fredericia: side chairs

resident: sofa

vitra: lounge chairs

Ethnicraft: coffee table

vibia: floor lamp

growing green: planters

ppg industries: paint

Architecture Research Office Creates a Soothing Manhattan Headquarters for Mattress Maker Casper

Casper, the mattress maker that calls itself the Sleep Company, wouldn’t want to do anything jarring. “It was important to present a relaxing environment,” says Kim Yao, a principal of Architecture Research Office, which designed the company’s lower Manhattan headquarters. “Our use of curves and arches helps set the tone.” There is no showroom in the space, but as Yao’s co-principal Adam Yarinsky points out, “We’re presenting the brand through its workplace.”

Luckily ARO had already designed a product for FilzFelt called Plank, a pillowlike acoustical panel covered in felt. An oversize version of it now surrounds Casper’s reception desk. Beyond reception, ARO had to provide space for 300 or so workers—who are there on a hybrid basis—while maintaining the quality of softness associated with the brand.
There are few private offices, in part because the views from the headquarters, which occupies 37,500 square feet on the 39th and 40th floors of 3 World Trade Center by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, are as spectacular as the sunlight pouring in. With the floor-to-ceiling glass entirely exposed, everyone at Casper gets to enjoy those amenities. Away from the windows, personal workstations alternate with pods, or collaboration booths, that are about 5 feet high. “When you’re in one, you feel very sheltered,” Yao notes.

Conference rooms and telephone booths hug the building’s core. Upper and lower common areas include a café big enough for all-company meetings. The new stairway connecting them, sheathed in solid white oak planks, contains a circular felt-lined cutout for somebody to lounge in.

Casper wants its workers to be aware of how it presents products to consumers, so retail vignettes pepper the space, including one near reception. Other furniture, which ARO chose in conjunction with Casper’s in-house design team, is a mix of pieces from Muuto and Herman Miller.

“Our goal was a very direct connection to the architecture,” Yarinsky says, explaining the decision to expose the concrete floor slabs throughout and leave mechanical equipment visible overhead. Also hanging from the ceiling are boat-shape acoustical panels, covered in felt and targeted by LED uplights. The panels bring noise down to a soothing level, which is exactly what a sleep company deserves.

geiger: armchairs (lounge)

carvart: workstations (of­fice area)

vode: custom linear fixtures

softline: armchairs

Interface: carpet tile

c.r. laurence: doors (entry)

rockwood: door pulls

muuto: dining chairs, dining tables, sofas, ot­to­mans, rugs

kvadrat: sofa fabric, ottoman fabric

filzfelt: felt, acoustical panels

herman miller: high tables, task chairs, desks

Shinnoki: paneling

amerlux; flos: recessed ceiling fixtures

hdlc: lighting consultant

longman lindsey: acoustical consultant

tmt: audiovisual consul­tant

benhar office interiors: furniture sup­plier

wsp: structural engineer

ama: mep

metropolitan architec­tural woodwork: wood­work

clune construction: general contractor

Pophouse Captures the Collaborative Spirit of Rock Ventures for its Detroit Headquarters

2022 Best of Year Winner for Medium Corporate Office

The infill of an office building in a downtown Detroit complex had just been completed when Pophouse decided to blast an enormous hole through two floors of it. The firm was planning the new headquarters of Rock Ventures and the Rock Family of Companies, and the designers envisioned a monumental spiral staircase at the point where angled sides of the complex meet. The staircase, the central feature of the project, would not only connect the lower and upper levels of the 50,000- square-foot office but also unite the multiple teams housed there, creating serendipitous opportunities for employees who don’t normally work together to come into contact while going up and down the stairs, fostering a sense of being part of a larger enterprise. But, of course, demolishing brand-new construction would be expensive and disruptive.

Another client would almost certainly have said no. But Jennifer Gilbert, the founder and creative director of Pophouse, had the ear of her client, Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rock Ventures, Rock FOC, and Rocket Companies, to whom she has long been married. And as his wife and partner in many ventures, she is part boss, too, and was thus able to call the shots much more than is usually the case on the commercial projects the studio works on—with stunning results. “Wearing the creative director hat and some of the owner hat was great,” she recalls.

Not that she was doing the work alone. Just as her husband’s business has grown—it began with his founding of what would become Quicken Loans in 1985, and the Rock Family of Companies now includes a portfolio of more than 100 diverse entities including Rocket Companies, 100 Thieves, Stock X, Dictionary.com, and the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers—so, too, has Pophouse. The firm, which is also part of the Rock FOC, prides itself on a data-driven approach to design that incorporates the latest findings on things like biophilia. So when Rock Ventures and the Rock FOC were ready to move from cramped former quarters elsewhere in the complex to a roomier, more sophisticated space, Pophouse was up to the job.

Chrissy Fehan, the firm’s design director, and her colleagues fleshed out a scheme that incorporates multiple circular spaces, not the least being the spiral stair in its airy atrium, based in part on research suggesting that such spaces spur creativity. The first is in reception, on the lower floor. Here, under backlit stretched fabric, a terrazzo floor is modeled on Detroit’s hub-and-spoke street grid. The waiting-area gallery just beyond is circular, too. Where circles were not possible, Pophouse rounded the corners of private offices and installed curvy furniture through­out, notably plump Pierre Paulin chairs in reception, a long and winding sofa by Koz Susani Design in a lounge, and an impressive 16-foot-diameter conference table in the boardroom, which itself is round in shape.

Also key to the office’s concept is lively artwork, on which Pophouse collaborated with Library Street Collective, a downtown Detroit gallery that focuses on artists, both local and not, who push boundaries. One standout piece, by Faile, anchors the grand staircase: It spirals down to a colorful round of inlaid mosaic tile incorporating such words as “heart,” “hope,” and “dream.” “It embodies all the great work happening in our city,” says Fehan, who came to Detroit for college and then stayed. Pophouse surrounded the installation with a C-shape bench made of modular sections that can be removed so the area can be used for events. The inclusion of works by local artists Jason Revok and the late Charles McGee underscore the Detroit-proud theme.

Then there are the basketball-related installations. A wall in Dan Gilbert’s office is devoted to a Tyrrell Winston assemblage comprised of dozens of deflated basketballs, including, of course, a couple from the Cavaliers. Outside his office, a room-size walk-in closet has a shelf with autographed balls plus, hanging from clothing rods, various team jerseys from which a lucky visitor might get to make a selection to take home. “We used to have all the Cavs things stuffed in a storage closet,” Jennifer Gilbert says. “Why not celebrate it?”

She and her team also paid homage to her husband’s “isms”—sayings such as “yes before no” and “simplicity is genius”—in the auditorium, where Cody Hudson rendered them on acoustical wall panels; rift-cut white-oak millwork here and throughout the headquarters further dampen sound. For the auditorium’s seating, the designers used sleight of hand: a benching system that incorporates Eames Molded Plywood Dining Chairs, minus their chrome legs.

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Equally inventive is a wall of preserved moss near a part of the office devoted to the Rocket Community Fund and the Gilbert Family Foundation, the philanthropic organizations the couple run that are devoted to growing opportunity and equity in Detroit as well as other national and international causes. The moss maps out Detroit’s municipal districts in varying shades of yellow and green. Small wooden boards that slide in and out of sleeves embedded in the plant matter are laser-engraved with stories about the work being done by their organizations.

If it’s not already clear, Dan Gilbert is a Detroit native, his wife grew up in one of its suburbs, and together they are dedicated to revitalizing the Motor City. A dozen years ago, Dan Gilbert relocated Rock Ventures and the Rock FOC to the then-languishing downtown, and, in the years since, Bedrock, a real estate company he controls, has been redeveloping properties in the area. Last year, the couple announced a $500 million pledge to build opportunity and equity for all Detroit residents who have faced systemic barriers to economic and social mobility. The city’s comeback and the Gilberts appear to be inextricably entwined.

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Pophouse: jordan wills; sarah davis; allen largin; monica pace; lauren burnheimer; nicole pelton; brandon bartel; makyle welke; alessandro pagura

ghafari associates: architect of record.

library street collective: art consultant

abd engineering & design: acoustician

bluewater technologies group: audiovisual

mod interiors: woodwork

whiting-turner: general contractor

m cohen and sons: stair fabrication (atrium)

nienkamper: sofa (gallery)

Kvadrat Maharam: sofa upholstery

ligne roset: chairs (gallery, reception), tables (boardroom lounge)

massproductions: tables (lounge)

noom home: chairs

kvadrat: chair fabric

urban electric co.: sconces

axis lighting: linear fixtures

vogue furniture: custom desk (reception)

artisan tile inc.: custom terrazzo

bernhardt design: ottoman (reception), guest chairs, table (office), chairs, ottomans, table (breakout

herman miller: task chair (reception), workstations (work area)

Cumberland Furniture: sofa (boardroom lounge)

artifort: chairs

grand rapids chair company: chair (phone room)

matter made: lamp

Arte: wallcovering

planterra conservatory: moss wall (philanthropy gallery)

halcon furniture: casegoods (office)

fiandre: floor tile (auditorium, boardroom)

acoufelt: acoustical baffles (office area)

Tom Dixon: ceiling fixtures (closet)

Coalesse: chairs (boardroom)

carlisle wide plank floors: engineered flooring

fusion lighting; luminii; prudential lighting company; usai lighting: lighting

barrisol: stretched ceiling

armstrong: acoustical ceiling

Add tag via side panel:

certainteed; navy island: acoustical paneling

Benjamin Moore & Co.; Dunn-Edwards; Farrow & Ball; Sherwin-Williams Company: paint

Johnson Favaro and Diane Lam Design Eschew the Expected for the Riverside Main Library in California

America’s postwar suburbanization has not been kind to its downtowns. But some U.S. city centers are staging a quiet comeback. In a certain Southern California city with a population of 326,000, the new Riverside Main Library by Johnson Favaro is catalyzing the turnaround of a downtown now aimed at more business, greater walkability, and increasing residents in more sustainably designed buildings.

The handsome, sculptural library, its squared mass raised two stories over a public plaza, is the first part of a 2½-acre, mixed-use development with high-rise housing and retail stores, all of which the firm master planned after winning a 2017 competition. At the turn of the last century, the City Beautiful movement used beaux arts buildings to shape dignified public spaces; now Johnson Favaro is using modernist design to create comparably grand structures to dignify the civic environment.

Just down the street, Riverside already boasted the sprawling Mission Inn, an extravaganza of Spanish revival styles built over several decades in the early 20th century. The imaginative building, a designated national historic landmark, elevated expectations for the 38,670-square-foot library. “But the city had seen enough knock-offs, so we emphasized the need for something authentic that would contribute a statement of our time and could match the stature of the buildings they love,” notes principal Steve Johnson, who met co-principal Jim Favaro when they were both students at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

The full-block site, occupied by an old police station and parking lots, had deteriorated. “There was no there there,” Johnson observes. “We sought to make a downtown neighborhood.” To integrate the library and mixed-use buildings into the adjacent business and Mission Inn areas, Johnson Favaro proposed a paseo running down the middle of the development, connecting the avenues on either side. A shaded plaza under the elevated library would serve as a general event space for a farmer’s market, book and food fairs, and festivals. The ensemble would become a destination for the entire town.

The architects maximized the library’s presence by designing the front facade as a bold, declarative block surfaced in porcelain tile printed like marble, all lifted on blocklike concrete cores housing the building systems. They wrapped the blocks with smaller structures—aluminum-and-glass boxes or red metal–clad rectangular prisms containing a friends-of-the-library bookstore, the city archives, a community room, and other complementary facilities.

The 50-foot-high, 200-foot-long facade acts like an Old West storefront behind which the building transforms into arching prows that scoop out a wide, landscaped terrace and a long balcony overlooking the future paseo. The squared, straight-edged facade, centered on a distorted, parabolic view window, is a foil and datum for the scalloped rear facade, which reads as a monumental piece of public art pedestalized on its base like an elevated Henry Moore sculpture.

A glass-enclosed elevator takes visitors from the plaza to the library entrance on the balcony. The adult reading section occupies the upper floor of the lifted volume, and the children’s and young adult section, the lower. A generous, open interior staircase connects the levels, domesticating the interior as if it were a two-story house. Traditionally, libraries are organized around a large reading room, but Johnson Favaro turned the interior inside out, like a sock, placing seating and study carrels in the double-height perimeter for viewing the spectacular San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and Box Spring mountains to the north, and Mt. Rubidoux to the west.

Because libraries no longer simply warehouse books but also act as community centers, the firm broke up the stacks into a landscape of neighborhoods devoted to different activities for various age groups. That suggested different approaches for each of the spaces to Diane Lam, principal of her eponymous studio specializing in library design, a frequent collaborator who led the interiors team. “I looked at each room individually,” Lam says. “I placed tangerine Panton chairs at the end of the visual corridor in the children’s area to complement the explosion of orange, yellow, blue, and green in that whimsical space. In the entrance ‘marketplace,’ the white shells of the lounge chairs echo the soft curves of the window and the white exterior. Furnishings that picked out architectural details made the spaces feel more complete.”

The handsomely designed stacks are generously scaled with wide corridors, some furnished. The clean detailing of the white, gently vaulted upper-floor ceiling sails over the space, unifying sections. The lower-floor ceiling is painted with rectangles of bright colors that refer to the different cultures of Riverside’s diverse constituencies. The architects and the designer have fused form and program inside and out to coalesce a sense of community and urbanize the library with activity. The programming and physical placement on the site help create a connective social and urban tissue with nearby Market Street and the Mission Inn.

“The challenge was to design a building of stature that still adheres to a public budget—to defend things like double-height spaces and porcelain tiles against value engineering,” Favaro observes. “Our goal was to accomplish something as good as those old beaux arts buildings, but in a modern vocabulary.”

To see more about the design process from planning to opening, watch the full video.

Johnson Favaro: brian davis; kevin geraghty; dexter walcott; hongjie li

linda demmers: library consultant

EPT Design: landscape consultant

Randy Walker: graphics consultant

darkhorse light­works: lighting consultant

Antonio Acoustics: acoustic consultant

Englekirk Institutional: structural engineer

interface engineer­ing: mep

sherwood design engineers: civil engineer

cima west: woodwork

yamada enterprises: furniture supplier

MGAC: construc­tion manager

icon-west: general contractor

davis: sofa, chairs, low tables (entry), black chairs (innovation)

arper: white task chairs (entry)

naughtone: GRAY lounge chairs (ENTRY, children’s)

Steelcase: white side tables (ENTRY, children’s), furniture (terrace), tables (children’s)

bloom lighting: custom ceiling fixture (children’s)

Arcadia: modular bench

TMC: gray ottomans

Bentley Mills: rug

urban accessories: tree grates (terrace)

Bega: sconces, in-ground floodlights

vitra: side chairs (chil­dren’s)

delray lighting: pendant fixtures

ocl architectural lighting: pendant fixtures (innovation)

designtex: wallcovering

Mannington Commercial: floor tile

bernhardt design: lounge chairs

momentum textiles: chair upholstery

herman miller: table

stonepeak ceramics: exterior tile

sto corp.: exterior limestone finish

kawneer: curtain wall

alpolic: exterior panels

pyrok: acoustical ceiling plaster

estey shelving: custom book­shelves

worden casegoods: custom carrels

umenwerx; philips light­ing: lighting

vista paint: paint