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

Gensler Captures the Spirit of the Midwest for the LinkedIn Office in Omaha, Nebraska

2022 Best of Year Winner for Large Tech Office

Nebraska is not necessarily known as a destination for cutting-edge design and culture. However, the new Omaha office of LinkedIn, the professional networking giant with nearly a billion users, tapped into the deep-seated tradition of innovation and dynamism that has historically defined the Midwestern metropolis. “From the beginning, there was an emphasis on making sure the decisions were an honest reflection of the city,” LinkedIn senior design manager Virginia Alexander recalls. Longtime partner Gensler was a natural choice for the project, as LinkedIn has worked with the firm on interiors and branding for more than a dozen of the company’s offices around the globe.

How Employee Research Informed the LinkedIn Office Design

Concepting for the hybrid work experience was both a technical and a cultural challenge, so Gensler and LinkedIn conducted research, surveys, and workshops with staffers to understand what made them tick, both professionally and personally. “We were challenged to consider how our designs and technology could make working more engaging and equi­table,” Alexander says. Out of the discovery process came a host of amenities including a dynamic tech-ready team space for hybrid collaboration called the Lab, two libraries for heads-down focus work, recreation rooms with a golf simulator and rotating arcade games, music rooms, terraces, and a cafeteria called the Almanac, with revolving food kiosks and LinkedIn’s first all-electric kitchen.

Health, wellness, and resilience emer­ged as key themes, so in addition to an on-site fitness center and an outdoor roof deck, as well as incorporating no- or low-VOC materials and finishes and only reclaimed or FSC–certified timber, the campus contains four respite rooms sprinkled throughout. Ranging in size and design, the tech-free spaces have ambient light to support a variety of ways to re-energize mind and body. “Everyone resets their brains differently,” Dubisar says. “Some need calming spaces, others something more tactile and hands-on. Rather than a generic ‘wellness room,’ we have different spaces so people can choose the one that fits them best.” They also should help the project achieve its pending Fitwel 2 Star certification, along with a fire stair surrounded by bold graphics and with motivational phrases integrated into treads to encourage staff to take them instead of the elevator.

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Office Culture Meets Local Culture 

The final theme to emerge was expressing Omaha’s particularities of place. “We looked to the historical significance of craft in Omaha and the overall notion of going against the current,” Cavaliere says. Civic storytelling begins in the two-story atrium lobby with a stair backed by a double-height wall of whitewashed brick, a traditional building material in Nebraska. Sculptures by Japan-born Omaha artist Jun Kaneko animate the welcome experience on the ground level, as do Gensler’s integrated wall graphics and site-specific art installations that nod to Omaha’s agrarian roots and contemporary culture. Conference-room graphics referencing the Max, a longstanding Omaha LGBTQIA+ nightclub, quickly became a LinkedIn staff favorite. “It’s incredibly meaningful for people to feel represented not just in their city but also their workplace,” Cavaliere states.

Ultimately, this place-based narrative could be a stronger draw for employees to return to the office than more traditional amenities. “The purpose of the workplace today is to reinforce a sense of community and culture,” Dubisar says. “The office should make you better and support the whole self. At the same time, it’s a place for people to come together and strengthen relationships.” As Linked­In’s global real estate portfolio continues to grow, prioritizing personal expression and community connectivity in the workplace seems only fitting for a company that’s staking its claim as the world’s largest professional network.

Gensler: randy howder; laura richardson; chad wyman; marissa everling; ben vela; chad spurlin; samantha lewis; jeffrey ding; fang fang, eric mortensen (interiors); jennifer hamilton; tiffany ricardo; jarrod holt; marie achterhof, Miriam Diaz, victoria chau, Brian newman (branding); Gail napell, nova punongbayan (sustainability advisors)

tucci lighting: lighting consultant

acrylicize: signage

morrissey engineering: mep

urban evolutions through imperial woodworking company: millwork

lockwood construction: general contractor

glen-gery: brick (lobby)

carl hansen & søn: white chairs

muuto: gray chairs (lobby), sofa (coffee bar)

dum: stools (lobby, coffee bar)

grand rapids chair co.: stools (reception, cafeteria)

sancal: lounge chairs (coffee bar)

Mattiazzi: chairs

Lindner: ceiling mesh (elevator lobby)

barbican: ceiling fixtures (elevator lobby, cafeteria, neigh­borhood)

pinnacle lighting: pendant fixtures (confererence room)

allermuir: chairs

hollis + morris: pendant fixtures (cafeteria)

blu dot; de vorm; hightower: chairs

Lambert et Fils: pendant fixtures

corral: chairs (canteen)

stylex: sofas

menu: stools (workstation)

andlight: downlights

kvadrat: panel fabric

tretford: carpet

bernhardt design: sofas (neigh­borhood)

pair: custom communal table, custom shelving

most modest: lamp

Maharam: seating fabric

Moore & Giles: seating upholstery

rad furniture: custom tables

filzfelt: felt

one workplace; two furnish: furniture suppliers

er2: custom graphics installation

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

This MKDA-Designed Headquarters in Miami Features Museum-Ready Art

If you live in Miami and care about art and architecture, you’ll be familiar with Jorge M. Pérez and Related Group, the development company he founded in 1979. Born in 1949 in Argentina to Cuban parents, and raised in Colombia, Pérez emigrated in 1968 to this country. After earning a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Michigan, he began his career by constructing affordable housing, graduating to high-rise apartment buildings in both North and South America. Now a billionaire art collector and philanthropist, the “King of the Condo,” as some call him, made such a transformative gift to the former Miami Art Museum that the institution was renamed the Pérez Art Museum Miami when it moved into its new Herzog & de Meuron home in 2013.

In 2021, Related relocated its headquarters to the top two floors of a new LEED-certified concrete-and-glass building in Coconut Grove, Miami’s historically art-minded neighborhood, where Pérez and his wife, Darlene, live—as do Bernardo Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear, the founding principals of Arquitectonica, which designed the eight-story gem. To create the building’s interiors, Pérez turned to the Miami studio of MKDA, a multicity firm that made its reputation by revolutionizing the fashion showrooms of Manhattan’s Garment District. Regional managing principal Amanda Hertzler and her team joined the project early on, working most closely with Related senior vice president Nicholas Pérez, Jorge’s son (his brother Jon Paul is the company’s president), but much of the proceedings were driven by the founder and CEO himself.

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“In addition to the building lobby and the Related offices, we also designed the elevator lobbies, the elevator cabs, restrooms, and a law firm on the fourth floor,” Hertzler reports. “Because we were going to install a lot of art, we kept the materials muted and neutral.” In the ground-floor lobby, for instance, she covered walls with slabs of matte porcelain that resemble marble but used scored, sandblasted gray limestone on the reception desk and other surfaces to create a softening contrast. She then added flashes of Champagne-finished stainless steel for some inimitable Miami elan.

Even more playful is the lobby’s coffered ceiling, a modernized nod to the carved-wood versions found in Coconut Grove’s historic Mediterranean-style mansions. “We changed the shapes of the coffers, so they’re all different,” notes Hertzler, who backed each recess with a sheet of LumaFilm—a flexible, paper-thin membrane incorporating tiny LEDs—to provide soft, ambient light overhead. The building’s mechanical systems are hidden above the glowing fabric, but the lobby’s rotating display of artworks is accommodated with visible gallery-style track lights that can be refocused remotely.

Related’s main reception area—its massive stainless-steel and marble desk set off by a wall of backlit rosewood panels—and executive offices occupy the top floor, while employee work spaces and facilities, including a collaborative area and a lounge, fill the floor below. “The building has an offset core,” Hertzler observes, “which would tend to make the interior of each floor quite dark.” On the other hand, it allowed Arquitectonica to sink a two-story glass-enclosed atrium at the center of the headquarters. “Related has a traditional corporate culture,” continues Hertzler, “so we installed the usual per­imeter offices, but the atrium floods the interiors with light. The transparency comes with a connectivity, because you can see people working on the other side.” On both floors, she created communal spaces that take full advantage of the atrium’s natural light.

There is art everywhere, some 300 pieces that range in form from the traditional oil on canvas to every imaginable “alternative” medium, including an Ai Weiwei “painting” composed of Lego bricks. A 16-foot-long bench in reception that appears to be a cast-bronze version of a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona daybed is, in fact, a metallic-painted fiberglass-and-steel piece created by Judy Niedermaier in the 1990’s for the lobby of the Mies-designed IBM building in Chicago. The bench had to be craned into place because it wouldn’t fit in the freight elevator.

The bench sits next to the grand Calacatta Toscana marble staircase that connects the floors and also acts as a platform for artworks, which undergo a monthly rotation. “That doesn’t mean every piece is changed every month,” Hertzler explains, “but a lot of the art travels and needs to be swapped out.” Pérez has promised his collection to the museum that now bears his name. “One of the nicest things about the art installation is how approachable it is, even in the common areas.”

Along with their own lounge, employees get two outdoor spaces in which to relax: a courtyard terrace at the base of the atrium and an expansive Arquitectonica-designed roof garden, which includes a covered area and open zones with enviable views of Biscayne Bay. “The roof is lush and eclectic, with beautiful, old, exterior-grade furniture,” Hertzler concludes. “At Related, even the seating is art.”

MKDA: kamilah bermudez; tonya watts; erin london

jalrw engineering group: mep

hyton engineering: civil engineer

advanced millwork: woodwork

city construction: general contractor

knoll: chairs, daybed (lobby)

Rimex Metals: reception desk (lobby), paneling (elevator lobby)

galaxy glass: glass panels (ele­vator lobby)

through 1stdibs: custom bench (reception)

exotic hardwoods + veneers: paneling

Coalesse: stools (collaboration)

Kvadrat Maharam: stool fabric

cf stinson: lounge chair fabric

acoufelt: ceiling baffles

gable roofs: lounge chairs, high tables (collaboration), desks (offices)

besa lighting: sconces (employee lounge)

perennials fabrics: booth fabric

woodtech: custom table (conference room), custom desk (ceo office)

stylex seating: task chairs

muuto: chairs (employee lounge)

designtex: banquette fabric

ben soleimani: sofa (ceo office)

carl hansen & søn: lounge chairs

piero lissoni: coffee table

robert kuo: red table (lounge)

empire office: furniture supplier

muraflex: storefront systems

florim: floor tile, wall slabs

architile: marble, quartz, terrazzo supplier

universal tile & marble enterprises: lime­stone supplier

heilux: stretch fabric lighting

Finelite: lighting

lightheaded: lighting

liton lighting:: lighting

bentley: carpet

benjamin moore & co.: 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

DesignAgency Conjures a Spirited and Idiosyncratic Addition to Toronto’s Drake Hotel

Toronto’s Drake Hotel opened 17 years ago with interiors by +tongtong and became an instant “art hotel classic”: playful, creative, and deeply contextual to its West Queen West neighborhood that’s rife with indie galleries, graffiti murals, and vintage stores. The new Modern Wing at the Drake—a five-story addition to the original nineteenth-century Classic Wing—is just as rooted in place. “Everyone came to the project with a deep knowledge of the brand, the fabric of the neighbourhood and the cultural momentum of the area and the city at large,” says Anwar Mekhayech, a founding partner at DesignAgency, which spearheaded the new interiors. “In fact, all our team both lives and works in the neighbourhood.” That stood the firm, which also has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Barcelona, in good stead when ideating the hotel’s new lobby lounge and bar, meeting and event spaces, rooftop penthouse suite, and standard guest suites (32 additional rooms for a total of 51 overall). 

Working with original Drake hotel designer John Tong of +tongtong, the Drake’s in-house design team and building architect Diamond Schmitt Architects, DesignAgency drew inspiration from Art Deco, Hollywood glam, and Mid-Century Modern. “This intentional clashing is what gives a sense of fun and a luxuriously eclectic feeling,” says Mekhayech. In the lobby, which sits at the intersection of the new building with the old, a walnut tambour banquette juxtaposes the organic roughness of a white-painted brick fireplace. Vintage furniture and lighting, contemporary art (much of it site specific), and terrazzo flooring composed of sweeping swirls fosters a lively, curated sensibility. “An important goal for this project was to make the Modern Wing feel exciting and new yet also as though it had always been there—and will always be there,” the designer explains.

DesignAgency’s team consists of avid travelers who understand the elements of a great hotel stay, which informed the multi-year design of the guest suites. Bold colors, intriguing wallpapers ranging from traditional Arts and Crafts to geometrics, and featured artists and artisans change from floor to floor. In each guest room, a built-in bed-bench-desk plays tribute to the original railcar-inspired rooms in the Drake Classic Wing. Topping it all off, quite literally, is the two-bedroom 1,000-square-foot rooftop suite, with wall-to-wall glass doors overlooking a large terrace and sartorial finishes, like a silver-gray wallcovering, that recall classic men’s suiting fabrics.

RIOS Turns to Healing Elements for the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine in Los Angeles

If ever there were a multilayered hybrid collaboration, it is the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine. A long, narrow new-build oriented on a north-south axis not far from the University of Southern California’s campus, it encompasses 84,000 square feet across five floors, and includes 3,500 square feet of coveted outdoor space. HLW completed the structure’s core and shell architecture. RIOS, under the leadership of creative director and partner Sebastian Salvadó, handled the remainder of the project, which took three years to complete, just as COVID-19 hit the scene.

Primarily a cancer research initiative, the institute is led by founding director and CEO David Agus, a physician and researcher, and was spearheaded by Oracle Corporation cofounder and noted billionaire Larry Ellison’s $200 million donation. A place for both labs and clinical services, it is a healthcare facility, but it’s also a workplace requiring offices, conference rooms, lounges, and staff amenities. Adding to the hybrid designation is the project’s educational component, which consists of a gallery celebrating medicine’s history and advances and an event space for symposia, and a repertoire of blue-chip artwork, much of it coming from Ellison’s private collection.

“The program is broken into three types of spaces,” Salvadó begins. Solitary rooms are for focused work. Lounges encouraging collaboration are dubbed transitionary spaces. They adjoin public zones, which include conference rooms and a kitchen. Arriving at the concept was not only Salvadó and the RIOS team but also the doctor and the donor. “Sebastian was amazing in figuring out a way to include me in every decision,” Agus enthuses. “He made models so I could understand.” And Larry, who Agus first met while treating his nephew, was “involved in every decision, too.” To which Salvadó adds, “Our goal was to take Agus’s vision and translate it into a built space.” It’s a holistic vision, including wellness programs and nutrition counseling, that acknowledges nature as a healer, while also integrating AI, physics, biology, math, and engineering.

Labs hold the key to the project’s organization. They are visually open to everyone on all floors and on all sides of the building. It was an expensive move but worth every penny: It not only anchors internal neighborhoods but also guarantees interdependency and that user paths intersect. Circulation is anything but orthogonal and the scheme is quite a departure from standard silo situations. The predominant use of wood—in the white-oak exposed ceiling and beams, thermally modified ash-slat partitions, and brushed oak flooring—is unusual, too. The setting is warm and “reminiscent of old warehouses,” Salvadó notes, and also underscores the project’s nature-centered theme.

Set atop a two-story parking garage, the institute centers on a three-story atrium. A pair of stairways lined with live plants (as well as elevators) lead up to reception on the atrium’s second floor, where the gallery is also located. From there, a path proceeds to a lab fronted by a large glass expanse so that even visitors can see in. Nearby is the donor wall, its brass plaques arranged in the form of an olive branch, the ancient symbol of healing. Toward the back of this floor is Agus’s office, a bright aerie complete with a Charles and Ray Eames lounge chair upholstered in indigo corduroy, a slatted wood ceiling, and access to a landscaped terrace. It’s here that, among other work, Agus meets with donors, broadcasts lectures, and writes; his fourth book is a deep dive into nature, which he believes holds all the answers.

That’s in step with the large, Pacific Ocean–facing terrace off the building’s skylit top floor, half of which is devoted to office areas and staff amenities, including a combined gym and yoga studio and a librarylike lounge with shelves of books holding the entire sequencing of the human genome. The other half of the floor is dedicated to patient care. Although more clinical and white than the institute’s other areas, forms, such as the check-in desk, are rounded, and vertical surfaces are wrapped in grass cloth-esque wallcovering. A bridge spanning the atrium connects the two sides and adjoins the project’s experiential aspect: a grass and rock garden built on top of one of the labs. “It’s not Japanese but more West L.A,” Salvadó says. “The gravel looks like beach sand and the greenery is bright like what’s found in the Santa Monica Mountain canyons.”

Hope and love, also crucial to healing, are literally spelled out in Robert Indiana’s immense sculptures, both located in the atrium lobby. They’re joined by pieces elsewhere in the hospital by such bold-face names as Jim Dine, Keith Haring, and Ai Weiwei.

Le Corbusier famously said, “A house is a machine for living in.” Agus proffers his version. “RIOS made a building that enables us to work. The building is not separate from the work, it’s part of it.” He hopes it encourages the next generation to enter science and medicine to discover a cure.

Art Therapy

At L.A.’s Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, concerns for health and wellness extend beyond research, labs, and treatment clinics. Art plays a part in healing, too—at least it does to the institute’s founder and CEO David Agus and establishing donor Larry Ellison, also known as the cofounder of Oracle. Together they conceived of a plan in which art would pervade—and elevate—the premises. Among the artists featured are Bunny Burson, Jim Dine, Donald Sultan, and Ai Weiwei.

“I had the privilege to work with Steve Jobs,” Agus says. “He implanted in my brain that every detail matters.” Jobs’s fellow tech titan Ellison donated many of the center’s pieces from his collection. So far, they number 35 and encompass a range of mediums, including a granite bust by Jaume Plensa. Some even allude to cancer, the institute’s primary research initiative. One is Jeff Koons’s 12-foot-tall magenta sculpture of an elephant; the animal has genetic mutations precluding it from developing the disease. Another is Jacob van der Bruegel’s mixed medium covering a wall on the building’s top floor. Its components resemble cancerous cells as seen under a microscope while searching for better treatment.

RIOS: clarissa lee; devin miyasaki; erin williams; haoran liu; laura kos; melanie freeland; misato hamazaki; nicole robinson; tom myers

Oculus Lighting: Lighting Consultant

Harold Jones Landscape: Landscaping Consultant

Risha Engineering: Structural Engineer

CRB Engineering: mep

Systems Source: furniture dealer

Andrea Feldman Falcione: art consultant

KBDA: gallery consultant

Sierra Pacific Constructors: general contractor

Tom Dixon: tables (lounge)

Bla Station: sofas

tech lighting: pendant fixtures

muuto: chairs (lounge), rug (library)

Design Within Reach: chairs (library)

Indo: table

Luminii: linear fixtures (gym)

Regupol: flooring

Kvadrat Maharam: curtain fabric

Louis Poulsen: pendant fixtures (lounge)

tacchini: white sofa, ottoman

bernhardt design: lounge chair

Hay: side chair

Pierre Augustin Rose: coffee table

Green Furn­iture Company: benches

MDC: wallcovering (hall, clinic reception)

Miller Knoll: chairs, ottoman (office)

Systems Source: custom desk

armstrong: ceiling

XAL: recessed ceiling fixture

bentley: carpet

Amerlux; Lucifer: lighting

Ariana Rugs: custom carpet

Thermory: wall slats, ash flooring

Galleher: custom oak floor planks

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

Kingston Lafferty Design Infuses a House in Cork, Ireland With Soothing Shades of Green

When the design history of the pandemic is written, it will be told with tales of firms completing projects without ever physically meeting clients, setting foot inside job sites before they’re finished, and other protracted, unexpected developments. Lovers Walk—a residence in Cork, Ireland, by Kingston Lafferty Design—is one of those stories. “It started as a small decoration job for us,” founder and creative director Róisín Lafferty recounts. “But it grew legs and ended up as a substantial design project.” The two-story, four-bedroom suburban house was purchased by a couple looking to return to Ireland from abroad to raise their young son. As the pandemic struck and timelines extended, the scope kept evolving to encompass every element of the house. “We had to think on our feet,” Lafferty concedes.

At first, the house looked solidly built, but project collaborators Kiosk Architects discovered that the structure had major issues with energy efficiency. Original flooring needed to be removed, and the exterior required extra work to meet current standards. “The clients put a lot of trust in us,” Lafferty says, “which was bold and brave considering that we didn’t meet in person until the end of construction.”

The house was built in the 1940s. What attracted the homeowners—and informed KLD’s concept—was the central staircase, part of a ’70s addition and somewhat in that era’s style. Lafferty loved its warm, almost orange-toned oak joinery, which creates a strong impression on both levels. “It’s quite dominant,” notes the designer, to whom the clients had first turned for her firm’s signature look. The 11-year-old practice has earned a reputation for experimenting with bold swaths of solid color, mostly in paint: blood-red walls for a café in London; a deep-blue theater for a corporate office in Skerries, Ireland; and, most notably, a widely published Victorian house in Dublin with blue walls, a green ceiling, and a ruby-red dining table.

The house, located on a cliff overlooking the city, is surrounded by large oak trees. “We wanted to bring in that depth of green,” says Lafferty, who, along with KLD lead designer Fiona Stone, went beyond paint to inject the rooms with warmth and color that complemented the site. Hence much of the living room is wrapped in moss-green marble; forest-green heavy wool curtains hang in the child’s room, which is painted a similar shade, his favorite color; and the primary bedroom’s headboard wall is clad in jade porcelain tiles (by Gio Ponti, no less).

The layout of the living room, which had been fussy, was streamlined. A sofa upholstered in deep-navy velvet adds punch to the space. Similar jewel tones were chosen to balance the room’s marble-rich palette, which reminded Lafferty of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. “We needed a poppiness to jar against that,” she notes. Adding another layer to the mix, the clients allowed their contemporary art collection—mostly playful, abstract works—to be positioned throughout the house as the design best allowed. “They weren’t precious about it,” Lafferty reports.

To add drama to the journey from the entry hall to the kitchen and dining area, Lafferty and Stone inserted a tunnellike portal lined with red finger tiles between the spaces. The clients didn’t want the kitchen to be overwhelmed with storage cabinets, so the designers kept them at base level, covering the countertops, island, and two wall-size backsplashes with pink quartzite that’s “like rock candy,” Lafferty says—a move that places added emphasis on the above-sink picture window and its view out onto nature. While Lafferty admits some might consider the rosewood-veneer cabinetry to be outdated, she relished the idea of pushing the materials so they’re “almost on the cusp of clashing.”

Upstairs, each of the three bedrooms—for the couple, their son, and guests, respectively—has its own color story. Riffing off the ’70s vibe, the guest room juxtaposes cobalt blue curtains against walls painted a buff pink called Dead Salmon; a navy shaglike carpet adds to the theme, which Lafferty describes as “almost disgusting.” The designers are particularly proud of the primary bedroom, “a small space that needed to look sleek and effortless,” Stone notes. Access is via a wide, open passageway with chevron-pattern oak flooring and three large, angled skylights set into the sloped roofline. A vanity of burgundy marble is tucked under the eaves on one side of the room; a walk-in closet and the bathroom lie behind the opposite wall, which is faced in lacquered walnut-burl veneer that abuts the green tile of the headboard wall around the corner. “It’s like a jewelry box with so many materials used,” Stone continues. “But it feels incredibly calm. There’s almost a nostalgic air about it”—a verdict with which the clients agree. It seems their trust in KLD’s boldly unconventional aesthetic has paid off handsomely.

Kiosk Architects: architect of record

herrick electrical: mep

dfl: woodwork

miller brothers: stonework

cameleo: plasterwork

rose construction: general contractor

arflex: sofa, ottoman (living room)

modern hill furniture: orange chair

oluce: lamp

moore o’gorman joinery: custom cocktail table

fest amsterdam: side table

urban nature culture: vase

muurla: gray bowl

hkliving: blue bowl

Juanma Lizana: chandelier

jover: curtain fabric (living room, kitchen)

flos: pendant fixture (kitchen)

miele: cooktop, ovens, r­e­frigerator

Blanco: sink

quooker: sink fittings

cinca: finger tile (portal)

astep: pendant fix­ture (entry hall)

wow design: vanity front tile (main bathroom)

rmc: shower wall tile

through 1stdibs: chair (guest bedroom)

Hay: pendant fixture

edmund bell: curtain fabric

scatter box: bedspread

jacaranda carpets: carpet (guest, child bedrooms)

driade: chair (child bedroom)

muuto: pendant fixture

kvadrat: curtain fabric

trunk floor: custom wood flooring (child, main bedrooms)

&tradition: sofa (dining area)

yarwood leather: banquette upholstery

zava luce: sconces (dining area, portal)

Courtesy of Gubi: vanity chair (main bedroom)

natuzzi italia: bed, nightstand

salviati: sconce

tal: spotlights

teamwork italy: wall tile

louise roe copenhagen: vases

mason editions: pendant fixture (family bathroom)

crosswater: towel ring

nic design: sink (family, guest bathrooms)

astro lighting: downlights

stone seal: concrete flooring

cork glass center: bathroom glass, mirror, shower screens

vos: bathroom sink fittings

minima home: furniture supplier

farrow & ball: paint

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.

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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.

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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

Studio Plow Designs a Meditative Headquarters for a Startup in San Francisco

Born in rural Oklahoma, and a graduate of Kansas State University, Brit Epperson’s Midwest roots run deep. But the architect is now based in San Francisco, which is where she founded Studio Plow, the firm name an homage to her heritage, five years ago. Her small team has been busy during the pandemic, including, perhaps surprisingly, with workplace projects, namely the 70,000-square-foot, three-story headquarters for Faire.

The office marks Plow’s second go-around for the digital platform, which connects makers with local and global retailers. The earlier project, completed in early 2019, “was a Craigslist special—a vanilla shell for a maximum capacity of 126,” Epperson recalls. Fast forward less than a year. The Faire office 2.0, prompted by “massive employee growth,” is the antithesis, thanks to the site, Epperson’s response to it, and her client’s vision toward a collegial change in how people work.

Faire now occupies a 1910 brick-and-timber former warehouse. After the architect of record addressed the necessary seismic and infrastructure upgrades, Epperson embraced the building’s rich, architectural history with the maxim: “Let’s lean into it.” Work spaces, mostly benching configurations, span the three levels. Nothing is crowded: Epperson made sure to limit neighborhoods to 25 employees and intersperse them with amenities. Lounges, a total of 22 throughout, are rife with seating options, beckoning as alternative work zones. Ad-hoc meeting areas can be cordoned off with textile partitions. Dozens of conference rooms plus a boardroom offer more traditional gathering outlets.

There are also multiple spots for recharging. The airy commissary, which doubles as the all-hands space, is populated with minimalist white steel picnic benches and pendant globes along with warmer Windsor-style ash chairs and round teak tables. Just past reception, again warm with a sectional sofa upholstered in brassy velvet, is Petit Faire, a French bistro–inspired coffee bar with a white-oak communal table and accessories from Faire wholesale vendors. Pantries, one per floor, are well-stocked, and live interior landscaping by a local LGBTQ-owned business is everywhere. (There’s also a pop-up with rotating Faire merchandise.)

But the real recharging happens in the dedicated meditation room, a tidy brick vault that Epperson transformed into a restful aerie with built-in oak benches, plush cream meditation cushions and carpet, and integrated speakers for staff to tune into Headspace or Breethe. Employees started trickling in last April, first at 5 percent, then up to 25 on a reservation basis in June. “We gave them lots of places to gather,” Epperson comments, “but it’s all so open that everything feels safe.” Calming indeed.

Add tag via side panel: sconces (meditation room)

to market: carpet

sage meditation: cushions

Bentley Mills: carpet (lounges, conference room)

rh contract: coffee tables

urban outfitters: chairs (corner lounge)

West Elm: side table

eq3: sofa (corner lounge), rug (lounge), chairs (commissary)

armadillo: rugs (corner lounge, reception)

workstead: sconces (reception)

menu: sofa, table (reception), pendant fixtures (coffee bar), chairs (meeting area)

Blu Dot: sofas (lounge)

triple seven home: sconces (coffee bar)

ann sacks: floor tile

ceasarstone: bar top

skagerak: stools

klein agency: custom tables (coffee bar, meeting area)

alcon lighting: pendant globes (commissary)

muuto: white benches, tables

kave home: round tables

designtex: curtain fabric (boardroom)

hpl contract: custom table

laura furniture: chairs

molo: partition (meeting area)

carnegie: curtain fabric

through minton door company: doors

mission glass: windows, storefront

benjamin moore & co.: paint

wac lighting: leds

huntsman architectural group: architect of record

murphy burr curry: structural engineer

plant fairies: interior landscaping

commercial casework: woodwork

nova partners: project management

bcci construction: general contractor