Assembling the pieces and putting it all together

We spent the past few months helping the guys at P3 Entertainment with some of the more mundane aspects of our project. Things such as figuring out the budget and schedule for our project are in some way just as critical as having a nice design. Once the lease for the new space was finalized and the construction documentation process officially started, things starts to move quite a bit faster! During the earlier design phase, we tend to keep things a bit open ended but once the drawing starts we’ll need to start making decisions and sticking to them!

Gotham Industrial Warhol

We spent a good amount of time during the design phase searching for different elements that would help complete our theme which we are referring to as the “Gotham Industrial Warhol” look. As separate pieces they are all interesting in their own way but together, like a jigsaw puzzle they create a cohesive design that is both unique and memorable.

So without further ado, I’ll let Kerri our designer go on from here:

Thanks Hsiang, and now comes the fun part!.. Assigning finishes, playing with color, and really diving into making P3’s new space spring to life… Please keep the following in mind:

1: When designing for any commercial interior space, it is always good to think of it as a branding opportunity. Not only is it important to consider what kind of environment you want for your employees, but also for the clients you cater to.

2. The Landlord is providing P3 with a certain dollar/sf amount for tenant improvement, and our design challenge was to try to fit within the said allotment, but still treat it as a ‘designed’ space and an opportunity to enforce P3′s brand identity.  Funds were tight, but there were still a lot of great things we can do with simple and inexpensive details and finishes.

Design Mission: To create an energetic and creative environment infused with light, color and a little attitude.  For that lofty vibe, we decided to have solid oak floors in a natural color, open ceilings with industrial pendant lighting and exposed circular ductwork. The juxtaposition of dark and light spaces with punches of accent colors keeps the energy of the space dynamic.

Onto the Walkthrough:

Let me walk you through the space!   As a visitor comes off the elevator, the initial feeling we wanted is of entering into a “batcave” with all walls painted a dark charcoal grey color and lit with industrial style pendants. By painting all of the walls and doors in the elevator lobby a dark color; it emphasizes the small compactness of the lobby and compresses the visitor towards the bright open area just beyond the glass entry door. The clear glass entry door and sidelight have thin bands of color to tie in the with the bright logo colors.

Open reception area

The charcoal grey wall extends past the entry door, into the open reception area and becomes a backdrop for P3’s logo, a dramatic overscaled ‘batsignal’ for the space . The reception area is highlighted with a custom collaged pendant light, made from industrial grade pipes, conduit, bike chains, camera parts( and whatever else isn’t glued down when P3 moves out of their old space).

The open workstation area is delineated from reception with a low partition which is clad in industrial grade plywood and exposed bolts.

Main entrance and private office

The landlord is providing solid wood floors throughout, (and hopefully they’ll be kind enough to let us do a light oak floor, which will reflect a lot of the natural light along with the open work area and glass offices fronts)

To  reinforce the industrial feel, we’re  keeping the original ink stampings on the plywood doors  and exposed black bolts with a clear coat finish.

Editing rooms and conference room

The main corridor of the space is defined by the editing rooms. In front of the editing rooms are storage shelves hidden by sliding plywood doors on an exposed track. The entrance niches to the editing rooms including the corridor face of the doors are painted a Sunkist-orange color, and the doors are punctuated with a custom portal window.

The conference room is at the end of the main corridor and its’ orange door is framed in a 12” plywood panel with exposed bolt detail.

Accent walls in the editing rooms and offices are a bright olive green color and the pendant lights in these rooms are bare-bulb industrial style fixtures from Etsy.

Project Navigator:

Project P3 is a ongoing workspace renovation project we are working on, with the award winning editing company P3 Entertainment. Follow our progress as we develop our theme of “Gotham Industrial Warhol” look and create a fun work space for the guys at P3.

04.04.11 Project P3: Finding the color scheme that completes the theme

01.07.11 Project P3: Lighting layouts and well, just layouts!

12.09.10 Project P3: How to properly garnish a work space. Add light fixtures!

12.02.10 Projects P3: Getting what we want, when we want it, and at a good price!

11.22.10 Projects P3: Creative and Flexible Layout part 3

11.18.10 Projects P3: the Fine art of Finding Fine Finishes

11.11.10 Projects P3: Creative and Flexible Layout part 2

11.04.10 Projects P3: Creative and flexible office layout

EZarchitecture

We answer questions regularly both on our site as well as Allexperts.com and occasionally something pop up that we felt would be interesting to expand a bit more on, Let us know if you like the format and if you would like to see more answers like this!

Craig asked: I recently purchased this 1889 House. It needs color and to be livened up. The exterior has siding except for the porch and balcony. I would like to paint the porch, balcony, trim and columns, but have no idea what color scheme would look good on a house like this. Most houses on my street are white, light blue and somewhat drab.

Can you offer any ideas?

Our Answer:

Hi Craig, thanks for your question.

I thought a bit more about your question and instead of answering the question myself; but I decided to refer it to a friend whom I felt had a even better color sense than I, my friend Kerry, who’s an interior designer;

Kerry wrote:

Congrats on wanting a little more color in your life! So is the whole house vinyl siding or wood? I was a little confused as to what you were referring to, but here are some initial suggestions and rules of thumb when picking colors:

1. Being that the home was built in 1889, it might be considered either a landmarked property or on a historical preservation list. If so, there are usually regulations as to how you can fix up your house. These regulations can include the kinds of renovations you can do the exterior, (types of windows, landscaping, trim moldings, stairway balustrades, and yes, even down to what color your house can be!) Your neighbors might have actually been forced to pick a ‘drab’ color.
2. So unless your home is landmarked, there is no rule that says you can’t paint your home whatever color you want! It just depends on how expressive you want to be! The key with color is to strategically place it so that it complements the architecture.  Also keep in mind that its important to complement the architectural elements that aren’t going away, like the color of the roof and rock foundation.
3. Here are some initial color suggestions:

A. Classic (Safe) Color Scheme: You mentioned that there is vinyl siding on the sides.. If that’s the case, I would really only consider painting some the architectural elements a color (window trim, balustrades, and  soffit) and keep the whole house white and the columns white in order to make the house look cohesive. I think anything in a dark saturated slate blue or olive green range would look really pretty against the white. You can also consider painting (what I’m assuming is your garage in the back) the accent color as well.

However, if it’s not quite enough color and you want to get a little daring, try the next one:

.
B. Stepping Outside -Scheme If you keep the sides of the house white, perhaps you could paint the front of the house a nice, warm, butter cream yellow (as long as it’s not vinyl siding!)    Keep all of the architectural elements (Columns, soffits, railings, window trims) white to accentuate the architecture. If its not vinyl siding, then I would say go for painting the whole house this yellow color, minus the architectural elements. And if its STILL not enough color for you, attached are some photos for inspiration!

Rule of thumb for selecting colors:  When picking the swatch color for the exterior of your home, remember that the lighting of the hardware store is different that daylight, and will make the paint chip look completely different. Grab as many sample chips as you can and select under the proper lighting. And even after selecting, make sure you paint a swatch in a hidden area of your home first!

I hope this was helpful!

STEP 4: Research and Implementation

With the purging and sorting steps complete, it became crystal clear that the organizing materials being used in the closet were actually a part of the problem. The drawer unit that held my purses was clunky, too deep and it was difficult to see the purses as they were layered one on top of the other. The hanging shoe cubbies were helpful in theory, but in practice they were too small for many of my shoes (I wear a size 10-I’m tall!). Hsiang brought to my attention that while the upper shelf was the right size to hold the luggage, that having such big items stored up high gave the closet a claustrophobic-feel, and the illusion that they might fall down on my head at any moment. Finally, the floor space felt cramped and ill-used with all the boots (that didn’t fit in the shoe cubbies) piled on top of one another.

In researching some storage upgrades, I came across a remarkable shoe caddy: The Container Store’s 22 Compartment Eco-Fabric Shoe Bag. It is an extremely efficient design where the shoes tilt down (maximizing space and allowing you to see the shoes) and the entire unit revolves so you can access it from both sides. Two of these units could replace the five hanging shoe cubbies that were currently in use.

Despite some initial misgivings I decided to rid the closet of the Elfa drawer unit that I had brought with me from my last 4 apartments. Those mesh basket units always seem like such a good idea but they never really look that great. After purging the purses it was clear I didn’t need that much storage for bags. I only had three to four bags I used regularly anyway. I decided installing hooks on the walls to hold the purses would make them more accessible and more attractive than a new piece of organizing furniture could.

Finally, while I felt like the upper shelf was still the perfect place to store the large rolling luggage bags that I use infrequently, I did want to soften their appearance to lighten up the feel of the interior of the closet. Hsiang had mentioned a curtain or panel to hide them from view, and armed with that idea I tried two different fabrics on a tension rod. I settled with a blue fish pattern I found in my scrap sewing supplies.

As an organizer my focus is creating efficient attractive spaces as affordably as possible. My goal is always to return to the initial assessment and see if we’ve solved the problems brought up when we first looked critically at the closet.  Those initial problems in the previous post were about accessibility (it was hard to find and remove shoes and bags) and a cramped feeling when looking at the items. We dealt with all of these things with just a few changes and some purging.

Project wrap up:

Time: 6 hrs

Cost: $65  ($35 under budget!)

Finished product: A shoe/purse/luggage closet that is airy, easy to navigate and where everything is quickly accessible.

What’s next? Now that we’ve solved the initial, basic organizing problems Hsiang will approach the upgraded closet with an eye for enhancing beauty. This is where we get to take the leap from an organized and functional closet to a Dream Closet!

Stay tuned!

Liz Dahmen is a professional organizer owner of Make Space LLC. She loves working on multi-use spaces and finds no greater joy than making order out of chaos. Her bicycle’s name is The Black Stallion and her favorite food is (currently) guacamole.

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Having the right fixtures and knowing where they should go

Now that we know the light fixtures we would like to use, the next step would be to figure out where they would go, and how many we would need. Since we are modifying the standard layout and fixture the landlord is providing we will use the lighting layout from them as a starting point. And since the budget is a major concern with our project we are planning to look at a few options on how we can optimize our layout to achieve the maximum effect.

Also, this is an initial rough layout for where the light fixture will go. As the project progress the lighting layout will also need to be review by the electrical engineer and check against all the relevant codes to make sure that they comply with the proper requirements. But for now, a rough location that give us a fixture count should be fine.

Here’s the lighting layout provided by the landlord, there are two types of fixtures present. 2×2 recess fluorescent fixtures and 8’ long linear fixtures.

On to the Options!

Option A:

This was our response done in accordance to our initial idea of where the Halophane fixtures should go. With the only exception being the pantry area, since the ceiling is low here we have decided to keep the 2×2 recess fixtures.

The Halophane fixtures were roughly the same cost as the light fixtures supplied by the landlord. As long as we have the same number, there shouldn’t be any additional cost. But since the linear fixtures covers more area we did ended up with more fixtures. In this option we ended up with an additional 5 fixtures.

Option B:

After giving it some thought we felt like we needed a lower cost alternative in case if the cost of the additional fixtures turn out to be high. For this option we decided to leave the linear fixtures supplied by the landlord in the corridors and focus our resource on the conference room and the open work area. For this option we ended up with an additional 2 fixtures.

So what’s missing?

For the editing room and the private offices we will be using ceiling mounted plug in light fixtures we found. And also don’t forget, we are still planning to go with our signature pendant fixture from bahdeebahdu for our small seating areas.

And speaking of the Small Seating Area

Since we are finalizing the floor plan for the lease, we thought that we should carefully consider all the areas to make sure that they work properly. After a quick tele-huddle yesterday we felt that the issue regarding the entry areas that worried us a bit. By having the corridor on the window side it requires that people pass through the small seating areas which makes it less usable as a place to meet. We looked at the original corridor layout which eliminates the pass-thru and it does make this area more usable. This came down the question of how the small seating area would be used, if more than 2 or 3 people would be using this area as a meeting place. And whether or not the additional room provide a good trade off against the insulation the offices will receive from the noises and heat off of the windows.

Either option shouldn’t effect pricing but it would be helpful to make the choice now so our lease documents reflect the preferred layout.

Project Navigator:

Project P3 is a ongoing workspace renovation project we are working on, with the award winning editing company P3 Entertainment. Follow our progress as we develop our theme of “Gotham Industrial Warhol” look and create a fun work space for the guys at P3.

01.07.11 Project P3: Lighting layouts and well, just layouts!

12.09.10 Project P3: How to properly garnish a work space. Add light fixtures!

12.02.10 Projects P3: Getting what we want, when we want it, and at a good price!

11.22.10 Projects P3: Creative and Flexible Layout part 3

11.18.10 Projects P3: the Fine art of Finding Fine Finishes

11.11.10 Projects P3: Creative and Flexible Layout part 2

11.04.10 Projects P3: Creative and flexible office layout

EZarchitecture

the Dream Closet Makeover by Liz Dahmen

As a professional organizer I take pride in the way my house is organized. It is a reflection of the principles that I use to help my clients. Does that mean it looks like a CB2 catalogue? No way!  Just like everyone else, areas of my home range from being extremely organized to verging on the chaotic. And some spaces work fine, but aren’t realizing their potential.

This closet is one of those areas. Hsiang and I decided it would be fun to focus our combined professional skills towards this particular area of my house and transform into a dream closet.

STEP 1: Assess

The process begins with answering some pretty standard organizing questions:

1) What is the closet used for?  Shoes, luggage and handbags.

2)    Is there anything in the closet that is no longer worn or used? Yes.

3)    Is there anything in this closet that is easonal, and could be stored elsewhere and switched out as the weather changes? Yes.

4)    Am I attached to (or unwilling to change) the current storage layout, furniture or supplies? No.

5)    What is the budget for new supplies, if necessary? (~$100)

6)    What do I love about this closet? The light bulb and the height.

7)    What is most frustrating about this closet? Difficult to remove shoes and access bags. Visually, it is very unattractive and feels cluttered even though I can find everything easily.

The answers to these questions define our next steps. Clearly, STEP 2 is going to be a good, old-fashioned purging session!

STEP 2: Purge

1)    Go through the contents of the closet and get rid of anything that is broken, out of style, doesn’t fit, and/or hasn’t been worn in over a year.
2)    Take items to consignment store or donation center.

With STEP 2 complete, already a striking difference is visible in the closet.

STEP 3: Sort

I pulled out a few pairs of shoes and bags that I only use in the summer. I will store them with the rest of my summer clothes.

Now things are really starting to shape up. With so many items purged, and the summer clothes out of there, the cramped and cluttered feeling is starting to evaporate.

.

So what’s Next??

In the next Blog entry we’ll explore the next steps that include researching new storage options, brainstorming solutions and implementing new designs. Stay tuned!

Liz Dahmen is a professional organizer owner of Make Space LLC. She loves working on multi-use spaces and finds no greater joy than making order out of chaos. Her bicycle’s name is The Black Stallion and her favorite food is (currently) guacamole.

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It is that time of the year again, smile for the camera!

We couldn’t believe that it’s the end of 2010 already! Even though we do have to say that it certainly has been an eventful year full of ups and downs for us. We experimented with lots of new things, created a whole new website and met lots of wonderful people along the way. We are humble and excited by the tasks and challenges that lay ahead of us, and we hope that our friends and associates will continue to have faith in us and enjoy this little ride that we built call EZarchitecture.

Have a wonderful holidays, and enjoy the outtakes from our Christmas Card photo shoot.

And Finally the good one, put down the coffee mug Hsiang!

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The cherry on your icing and the hot pepper on your tamale, for your space!

We had talked about the idea of using a “design totem” to inspire and strengthen a theme in a prior post. Often time we find that light fixtures makes for great candidates since they naturally draws your attention to them, plus their object like quality and repeated nature further reinforce the idea  behind your theme.

Which also means that finding the right light fixtures can make or break a design!

As we have mentioned in our previous post “Fine art of finding Fine Finishes” (boy are we proud of that title) the name of the theme we’re building towards is the “Gotham Industrial Warhol” look. The name represents a mix of the three different elemental styles we are using as the building blocks and although they are represented throughout all areas, the proportion do varies from spaces to spaces as we will explain in more detail below.

As a baseline we are using the Halophane fixture from Landmark Lighting in the elevator vestibule, open work areas, corridor and conference room. It is more Gotham Industrial and less Warhol but we liked the more refine look of this particular fixture and felt that it would be a good fit for the open areas.

Areas covered by the Halophane fixtures in brown.

Our Signature Fixture for our Signature area.

Now that we have the baseline fixture covered, it’s time to find our signature fixture for our work space. I am referring to the main fixture for the entrance seating area, it’ll be the first thing you see when you enter the space and in many way will have to convey the sense of energy and creativity that take place within.

We looked at fixtures from several designers and artists including the awesome chandelier from Carolina which were made entirely out of bicycle parts. A bit too Gothic we thought, completely strange considering that we are talking about bike parts.. but we digress.

Bike chain Chandelier from Carolina Fontoura Alzaga

We end up choosing the light sculpture/ chandeliers from Warren Muller of bahdeebahdu whom of course made the mind blowing chandelier out of a mini station wagon shown in our title photo. Muller is a Philadelphia based artist who creates dynamic and one-of-kind chandeliers using found objects and personal items from his clients. His work strikes just the right balance of inspired chaos and industrial sensibility we were looking for.

“Feast your Eyes” and “Out to Lunch” from Muller

We can totally see Muller creating some really interesting light sculptures using the great varieties of mementos and left-overs from the various projects the guys had worked on in the past.

Onto the “Get it Done” department

We felt that the individual editing rooms and offices are characterized by a stronger sense of purposes and pragmatism, and underlying it all we wanted to express the same sense of creative thinking in a more subdue but yet unconventional manner. It’s a concept somewhat more difficult to grasp than the outright exuberance of our signature fixture above. We need something simple, straight forward but yet original and unexpected. And we think we found just the right fixture;

Rain from thebluecabinet

Thebluecabinet is an Etsy based shop that specialize in creating unique light fixtures out of electrical supplies. The “Rain” fixture specifically encapsulated a lot of the style and quality we were looking for and on top of it provide a great deal of flexibilities since the height and location of each of the light fixtures can be easily adjusted according to needs. We will use this fixture for the editor and provide a separate task light for the director for his use.

Tent from thebluecabinet

We wanted something that reflected the more personal nature of the individual offices but still wanted to keep a lot of qualities we look for in the editing room. So we decide to go with a different fixture also from the same shop, the “Tent” fixture.

The combination of these four fixtures should go a long way towards helping us creating a cohesive theme for our work space. We like some of these fixtures so much we wish we can get them for our own work space!

Project Navigator:

Project P3 is a ongoing workspace renovation project we are working on, with the award winning editing company P3 Entertainment. Follow our progress as we develop our theme of “Gotham Industrial Warhol” look and create a fun work space for the guys at P3.

01.07.11 Project P3: Lighting layouts and well, just layouts!

12.09.10 Project P3: How to properly garnish a work space. Add light fixtures!

12.02.10 Projects P3: Getting what we want, when we want it, and at a good price!

11.22.10 Projects P3: Creative and Flexible Layout part 3

11.18.10 Projects P3: the Fine art of Finding Fine Finishes

11.11.10 Projects P3: Creative and Flexible Layout part 2

11.04.10 Projects P3: Creative and flexible office layout

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awesome mystery closet drawing via wilkrause

A new mystery contributor has appeared!

As promised, the dream closet project is returning with a bang! Over the next few weeks we will introduce a new guest contributor and a whole slew of new projects and ideas, so huddle close and stay tuned!

Speaking of our guest contributor, here at the Dream Closet project we felt strongly that the only way to get to know someone is by staring deep into their closet, inhale its scent and try to decipher their deepest desire and secrets.. we kid, we kid! But we do feel that to be true to our theme, the best way for us to introduce our new guest contributor is by showing you his (or her) closet!

We also like to mention the fact that we are planning on starting a project using this very closet, so all the more reason for us to take a look at it.

I see.. a regulation size NYC closet with a swing door.

On the similarity of interior design and dream interpretation.

Dream interpretation? What does that have to do with interior design? Well, for one it’s been said that a great designer will know what it is their client is looking for, before the client even realize it themselves. Sound like a psychic ability? Are we consulting crystal balls and astrological charts?

The secret is simple, architect and interior designer understand the power of the built environment and how they both shape and are shaped by the occupant of the space. Knowing how to read a space tells you a lot about the preference of the person and like interpreting dreams, you start by parring down the specifics to find the underlying theme and ideas that ultimately connect you to the personality.

For example, we tend to keep what we value the most physically higher in our home. This is why people keeps family photos and mementos on their wall. Similar thoughts occurs inside closets as well. And since I see luggages on the top shelves here, I am going to guess that the person in question enjoy traveling quite a bit.

On with even more speculative guessworks!

The closet is also well sorted using the hanging shoes organizer from Ikea, quite a few of them showing a strong preference. As oppose to open horizontal shelving, the shoes organizer provide distinct cubbies for individual pair of shoes. Which implies to me that the person in question is a list maker, since list metaphorically speaking provide cubbies for individual tasks.

But I am really cheating since I know who it is already! Not that we wouldn’t welcome idle speculation in our comment section..

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Some time Flat White is just not going to do!

This nice airy apartment came us from the interior design blog Freshome, it is nicely furnished with some interesting artworks and furnishings but after looking through all the photos something bothered us. There are a lot of awesome details on the interior of this apartment but they sort of just fade into the background because of the flat white paint. We couldn’t help wondering if there are some ways where contrasting color could be used to increase the sense of depth and pop.

So here’s what we suggests:

The original,

with black edging and accent.

Original:

with black edging and accent.

Just some quick thoughts on what’s possible, a lighter shade of gray could be used also in lieu of black to match the shades of the carpet.

So what do you think?

An open and transparent approach to  corporate offices workspace!

In  this week’s EZarchitecture-Work podcast,  we will discuss the design for the Bloomberg LP Headquarters building , located in Midtown NYC.

It is the headquarters of one of the largest financial software, media, and data companies of the world.

The building was designed by the Architect Cesar Pelli and Associates, and the Interior Architects were Studios Architecture and Pentagram.

Here is our discussion regarding the building and Bloomberg Headquarters LP. Check out our Podcast!

The offices are located at the lower level of the 1.4 million square feet Bloomberg tower development project, or One Beacon Court Building( nobody refers to it that way !).The company provides financial software tools such as analytics and equity trading platform, data services and news to financial companies and organizations around the world.

The One Beacon Court building, hosts also retail stores such as Home Depot, HM and The Container Store to refer some of them.

Views of the mid block between 58th and 59th Street.

Detail of the facade atrium

View of the Lobby with its stairs and atrium facing the outside piazza

Digital Display and lobby stairs

Pantry dominating the space  and views of the street and the sky

Open workstations

Stairs facing atrium and reception

Another Pantry in the Lower level

Transparent and open image, for an icon of the news( and off course, creator of the famous Bloomberg terminals)

Transparency and openness is essential to the design concept of the Bloomberg headquarters. The entrance court both acted as a spatial unified as well as a metamorphic one. It remains us as a urban piazza, where all the attention is directed, from outside and inside the building. We found however, that the piazza seems to look empty.

The building lobby entrance is on the west side of the piazza, losing the attention and the noise that could have if it was facing the street.

Open, energetic and aggressive news maker.

For Bloomberg, the image its office and newsroom projected to the public and its employees is just as important as its operational requirements.

In the entrance courtyard at Bloomberg, a visitor’s focus is naturally drawn upwards to the sky lobby and the giant data display that symbolize the company’s focus, data.

We have been looking to several examples of Corporate Offices, from the more classic Law firm offices, to the Cool/Modern companies workspaces, and finally to the fashion and information giants.

Then, what do you think about these designs and functional approaches? Let us know what do you think.

Till next Office time!