Contract - May 2014 - 162

sources

BarentsKrans
Michiel Hofman, co-principal of Hofman Dujardin Architects, has
a simple take on the interiors his Amsterdam firm creates for its private
and government clients: "We don't want to overpower people with
design; it should just work well and feel good," he says. "The clients
should even have the idea they could have done it themselves." That
commonsense approach won the firm the commission to transform
a four-story 1950s office block in The Hague into a new, light, and
airy headquarters for the prestigious BarentsKrans law firm.

Olson

By JoAnn Greco
Photography by
Peter Sieger

Gensler designed a new
staircase (this page) to
physically connect all levels
of the office and allow for
serendipitous connections
to happen between Olson
staff members, which can
continue in adjacent lounge
areas (opposite). Hundreds
of mirrors in various sizes
hang in the stairwell and
create a shimmering effect.
98

Letting light in
The 56,000-square-foot building had previously been leased by the
Ministry of Justice and contained a warren of offices divided by two
central light wells. As Hofman recalls, the light wells "were the only
distinctive feature of the building, but they were sealed off and looked
awful. We saw the potential to open them up and connect them."
The architects called for turning the light wells into atriums
surrounded by balconies on the three upper levels. That simple move
gave the building a heart, provided abundant natural light, and fulfilled
the client's goal of bringing all 150 employees together, centrally. One
of the atriums contains a library with long worktables and bookshelves;
the other serves as a coffee bar with high stools for staff and visitors.
This area hosts happy hours on Friday evenings, encouraging a mix
of work and play.
"We needed far more space for seminars, business events, and
social interaction," says Cosima Stroeve, BarentsKrans's director of
operations. "We wanted a fresh look with a warm, friendly feel."
The welcoming tone of the office is set by the elliptical, light-oak
reception desk inside the entry, and the dramatic black steel staircase
that spirals up to the fifth-level penthouse. Hofman calls this helix "the
DNA of the building" and justified the cost and difficulty of installation
by explaining to the client that it would ensure the central meeting
areas were fully used. He was proved right: Most BarentsKrans
employees prefer this vertical link to the elevators and conventional
staircases at the front and back of the building.
The low-ceilinged reception area is furnished with Vitra
sofas and a changing selection of art rented from a private gallery,

Gensler designs a Minneapolis ad agency office
that celebrates historical and modern craft

contractdesign.com

MAY 2014

After a recent merger, Olson, a Minneapolis-based marketing agency
that has created everything from social media campaigns for Oscar
Meyer to rewards programs for L'Oréal, found itself bursting at
the seams. Its 375 employees were scattered over two locations,
and teams-organized by disciplines such as public relations and
database analytics-were often separated. "We were feeling
increasingly fragmented," says Sue Williams, Olson's director
of operations. "We just had to come together."
They came together in a new office designed by Gensler within
a building that is intricately linked to the robust manufacturing heritage
of the Midwest. Built in 1912 as a vertical assembly plant and showroom
for Ford Motor Company, The Ford Center is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places as part of the Minneapolis Warehouse
Historic District, and it boasts high ceilings and large windows-assets
that helped its renovation and adaptive reuse by developer Union
Properties earn LEED Gold status. Starting from scratch in this building,
which is in a vibrant area adjacent to downtown and the Minnesota

Twins' Target Field, sent a powerful signal. As one of the top 10
independent, full-service agencies in North America, Olson had
moved to the "national stage," observes Bill Lyons, principal and
managing director of Gensler's Minneapolis office. "This building
was charged with serving as a symbol of that growth."
Connecting to history
For the most part, the historicity of the property was a plus. "It's such
a unique building with huge floorplates," Lyons says. "It was perfect
for a creative tenant like Olson." Because the interior was an empty
shell, the Gensler team could define everything from bottom to top,
beginning with the installation of reclaimed oak flooring-milled
from logs found at the bottom of Lake Superior-and continuing
with the Corten steel dividers that weave their way through the
space to separate function areas. "We tried to root all of the
materials in the industrial qualities that are so important to
the building's history," Lyons says.

contract

Opening two existing atriums
allows natural light to filter
through the building and
creates a central meeting
place for BarentsKrans
employees. A light-colored
palette, including oak finishes,
sets a welcoming tone.
106

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MAY 2014

By Lydia Lee
Photography by
Jasper Sanidad

OFFICE

Capital One Labs

Hofman Dujardin Architects transforms
an office block into an open, bright
headquarters for a Dutch law firm

A financial services
powerhouse opens up
to the power of design

and serves as a portal to the soaring volumes on either side. "In
architecture, there are four things people are looking for," Hofman
says. "They need to breathe, so there has to be air and light; they crave
protection and quietness; they want to be in touch, and, on occasion, to
be surprised. They constantly seek a balance of these four elements."

Imagine you are a banker who has just traveled from your corporate
headquarters in Virginia, leaving your suit behind to attend a training
seminar at the San Francisco office in the Union Square district. You
arrive in a bright space with exposed ductwork, a neon yellow metal
staircase, and bicycles stacked vertically up the wall. You can
immediately tell you are not in a typical bank, and that this is not
your normal executive training seminar.
This jolt of surprise that falls outside of a banker's comfort zone
in a financial institution is the whole point of Capital One's new design
studio. Capital One Labs is focused on creating consumer banking
products and experiences that are 18 months ahead of the market.
"Typically, we conceive a space as a 3-D experience of a
company's brand," says Primo Orpilla, principal of San Francisco-based
design firm Studio O+A, which is known for designing hip startup
offices-most recently for Uber, Yelp, and Giant Pixel (Contract, June
2013). In this case, the firm designed a frolic-inspiring space that would
spur innovation: "It's an indication of how corporate America is thinking
these days."

Open plan versus private offices
When designing space for a respected law firm, the challenge is
to balance innovation and legacy-without mistaking legacy for
stodginess. "We tossed tradition into a ravine," Stroeve says. "What
matters to us is that the office works as well as it looks." Hofman was
surprised to discover that older staff members were in favor of an open
plan that would encourage people to work in teams, while the younger
lawyers were looking for the status of a private office.
After much discussion, it was agreed that partners would have
individual, glass-fronted rooms to achieve a mix of transparency and
enclosure, and associates would share a double. Each was invited to
choose chairs, finishes, lamps, and colors from a menu the architects
compiled, and to make their own choice of art. Clerical staff members
work in flexible workstations. "I would have welcomed more diversity,
but the client wanted rooms that would work for new partners when
the old ones left," Hofman says.
The neutral tones of the walls and marble floors are warmed by
the extensive use of oak and other natural woods, especially at the core,
and upholstery adds splashes of bright color. Bands of acoustic plaster
and perforated ceilings absorb sound in the atriums and open meeting
areas. There is an easy flow of space up and across, so that users feel
they are moving through one expansive cocoon, sheltered from the
elements but open to the sky. c

Flexible furnishings support brainstorming
To design the 3,500-square-foot space so that it could accommodate
a group of 50 executives as well as teams of two to four people, Studio
O+A worked with Evelyn Huang, Capital One's senior director of design
thinking and strategy. Huang had previously been in charge of the
executive education program at Stanford University's renowned Hasso
Plattner Institute of Design, also known as the d.school. "We wanted an
open, flexible space where Labs members could collaborate with
people from other business units-where these small pop-up teams
could set up," she says. "And we also wanted to be able to teach the rest
of the organization design thinking in a very experiential way."
"We created the ultimate multipurpose room," says Denise Cherry,
Studio O+A's design director. Similar to the d.school, furniture is
designed to be moved around easily. Custom wooden tables are on
casters so they can be arranged in rows or pulled apart. Exemplifying
the iterative process of design thinking, the team went through 30

This is not your typical training
space within a corporate bank.
Against a raw material palette
of white-ash wall and ceiling
panels and a concrete floor,
pops of color infuse the break
area in the form of a neon
yellow Smeg refrigerator
and hot pink stripes
applied to the floor.
contract

OFFICE

By Jean Nayar
Photography by
Mathieu Choiselat

118

112

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MAY 2014

OFFICE

Gardera-D transforms
a pair of industrial sheds
into a new-wave workspace

It takes a surfer to know a surfer. So it's hardly surprising that the
Surfrider Foundation's French chapter in Biarritz, France, would enlist
an architect who is also a die-hard surfer to design its office space.
"I was sharing waves with an old friend of mine-the president
of Surfrider France-when he told me they were looking for help," says
architect Patrice Gardera, principal of the Parisian architecture firm
Gardera-D. He immediately rose to the challenge, not only because
of his passion for surfing, but also because of his respect for the
nonprofit foundation's raison d'être.
Founded in 1984 by a group of visionary surfers in Malibu,
California, the Surfrider Foundation's mission is "the protection and
enjoyment of oceans, waves, and beaches through a powerful activist
network." It now shepherds more than 50,000 members and 90
chapters worldwide. The Surfrider Foundation Europe was founded
in Biarritz in 1990, and the 70 employees of the French chapter, who
had been working ad hoc in various locations, including garages,
were sorely in need of a unified place to conduct their business.

Two clients, two programmatic objectives
Thanks to the innovative new work and exhibition space Gardera
designed, the foundation now has an inspiring place to fulfill its
endeavors and showcase its efforts to the local and global communities.
The development of the new offices is also a credit to the city of Biarritz,
which funded the renovation of two large industrial sheds-totaling
10,500 square feet-that previously housed trucks.
The arrangement ultimately meant Gardera had two clients-
Surfrider and the city. "I had to please the city with a project that would
be cost-effective, and I had to aid Surfrider in defining its goals and
defining a program, including space for 70 people, meeting areas,
and exhibit space," Gardera says, adding that Surfrider also had
wanted to create a strong physical identity for the foundation.
After reviewing the programmatic issues with Surfrider,
Gardera recognized that the team would embrace the idea of
working collaboratively in an open space, "rather than being
scattered in a set of different, smaller office spaces that would
drag them back to their former 'garage' years," he says. "The
challenge, then, was the cohabitation in a single space of a noisy
program-the exhibition space welcoming young schoolchildren
to visit-and a quieter one, the working space." Instead of placing
these program elements in separate sheds, the architect opted to
have the wall separating the two structures removed to create
one large space that would house both.
Innovation and identity
The centerpiece of the newly combined space is a sculptural, wavelike
element, which establishes a clear sense of identity and houses the
exhibition area, separating it acoustically from the work, meeting,

and cafe spaces on either side. The structure of the wavelike element
is made of a complex assembly of maritime pine, with cellulose foam
and a one-inch-thick phenolic resin panel as insulation. Lacquered,
perforated MDF panels mounted on top of mineral wool panels
form the inner skin, while the outer skin is made of composite birch
plywood panels. The "wave" works as an insulating screen from the
workspaces, and has sound-insulating properties equivalent to
a five-inch-thick brick wall.
To make the rest of the space viable for working, the architect
doubled the thickness of the walls and roofs of the existing sheds.
He also called for the original concrete flooring to be cleaned, de-oiled,
and sandblasted, then left raw. Cellulose-fiber insulation panels were
faced with plaster drywall mounted on walls, and Fibracoustic panels
of recycled wood and paper were transformed into a huge soundabsorbing membrane once they were installed beneath the roofs.
Gardera designed polycarbonate translucent roof elements that
provide natural light: One shed is pierced with a long canopy that
measures approximately 20 by 66 feet and the other with a series of
twelve 5-foot-by-5-foot roof windows that can be opened for natural
ventilation. Tables in the workspace, made of local maritime pine wood,
have been designed as large, freestanding plates seemingly "plugged"
into the wave, like surfboards. The existing warehouse lights were
replaced with similar industrial fixtures.
Since opening, the space has transformed the way Surfriders'
Biarritz employees do business by enabling them to easily collaborate
under one roof in a flexible setting and by allowing them to
effectively showcase the efforts they undertake in fulfilling
a noble mission. c

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAÚL RIVERA OF ARCH PHOTO

By Michael Webb
Photography by
Matthijs van Roon

OFFICE

surfrider
foundation
europe

OFFICE

Li & Fung Global
Brands Group

By Lydia Lee
Photography by
Eric Staudenmaier

OFFICE

Industrial elegance civilizes a large floorplate
for fashion brands in the Empire State Building

Venture Capital
Office Headquarters

The smart money in
Silicon Valley has
a surprising new home

Menlo Park's Sand Hill Road is famously home to many venture capital
firms-the economic engines that power California's Silicon Valley and
the Bay Area by providing funding for startup companies. In keeping
with the area's carefully cultivated unpretentiousness, all that can
be seen from the road are wooded foothills and some nondescript
buildings. However, for one of the latest buildings to be constructed on
this rarefied stretch of real estate, appearances are deceiving. From the
outside, this new building looks like a large house with a backyard; on
the inside, it's a dynamic workspace for a major venture capital firm with
50 employees. Designed by Paul Murdoch Architects, the project has
received a 2014 AIA Institute Honor Award for Interior Architecture.
Originally, the client (who prefers to remain anonymous) wanted
to implement prefab construction on the tight infill site, in part to
minimize disruption to the surrounding residential neighborhood.
He asked celebrated California architect Ray Kappe, who had designed
a line of residences for LivingHomes-a prefab modular home builder
based in Santa Monica-to come up with an office configuration.
But it soon became apparent that the prefab approach would not
produce the finely detailed, seamless spaces that the client was
seeking. Paul Murdoch Architects, which had designed the client's
own home previously, was brought in to flesh out the office concept.
Based in Beverly Hills, Murdoch has an impressive body of academic
and civic work that includes the Flight 93 National Memorial in
southwestern Pennsylvania.

By James S. Russell, FAIA
Photography by Paúl Rivera and Jarad Kleinberg

A wavelike element houses
exhibition space and is the
focal point of the office. It is
made from maritime pine,
cellulose foam, and phenolic
resin panels. It is skinned
with perforated MDF panels
mounted on top of mineral
wool panels on the inside and
composite birch plywood
panels on the outside.
contractdesign.com

MAY 2014

contract

Though exposed ductwork and scraped-bare brick walls have become
familiar commercial interior ingredients, they can introduce the visitor
to a low-key grandeur. Hong Kong-based B&Co. and New York-based
Spacesmith collaborated to celebrate these stripped-down elements in
the design of a new office and showrooms in the Empire State Building
in New York for Hong Kong-based Li & Fung Global Brands Group,
which sources and makes clothing for hundreds of brands.
"We envision, design, produce, and sell wholesale," says Haim
Dabah, the company's executive director and group president. And in
the volatile apparel retailing market, much rides on how fluidly in-house
designers can collaborate with marketers, buyers, and far-flung

Li & Fung's space within the
Empire State Building features
17-foot-high ceilings. The
architects chose to celebrate
the height by leaving
infrastructural elements
exposed. Showrooms and
meeting spaces line wide
corridors, which incorporate
lounge and breakout areas.
122

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MAY 2014

Prefab-inspired building design
The office, certified LEED Silver, captures the essence of the Kappe
design, with delicate cedar screens and trellis overhangs that soften
a minimalist box. "We wanted to fit into the modernist tradition of the
Bay Area, which is of a certain era, but refresh it and make it current,"
Murdoch says. In back, the two-story, 12,500-square-foot office
appears to the neighbors as a terraced garden. The roof of the whole
building is covered in sedum; the second story is set back and looks
onto a roof terrace planted with grass; and the ground floor opens onto
a spacious, landscaped backyard that makes up about 40 percent
of the site footprint. Below the yard and building is an underground
garage that can house 50 cars, with an automated car-lift system
to stack them two-deep. Real estate here is too precious to waste
on surface parking.

contractors. The Empire State Building didn't draw the company so
much with its lofty presence in the skyline, but with the 100,000square-foot sixth floor that could place these players in close
proximity with one another.
Evoking a manufacturing environment
Given the cacophony that greets mall shoppers these days, the
consistent palette of neutral colors and background textures that
the designers selected for Li & Fung's space comes as a surprise.
The concept was developed by Branko Pahor of B&Co., and has
been fleshed out with subtle discipline by Spacesmith, led by principal

Sculptural purple lounge
chairs introduce a pop of
color into the otherwise
neutral hallways, which are
lined with natural wood and
warm-hued concrete floors.

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contract

MAY 2014

olson
(page 98)

BarentsKrans
(page 106)

capital one Labs
(page 112)

surfrider Foundation
(page 118)

Li & Fung Global Brands Group
(page 122)

Venture capital office
Headquarters
(page 128)

who Architect and interior
designer: Gensler. Project team:
Bill Lyons, principal; Betsy Vohs,
senior associate; Jason Hall,
senior associate; Beth Nist; Amy
Barthel; Beth Mosenthal; Mark
Spencer; Kate Levine. Contractor:
RJM Construction. Consultants:
Nelson Tietz & Hoye; Jones Lang
LaSalle; Hess Roise. Lighting:
Gensler with Hunt Electric.
Engineering: BKBM. Graphics:
Gensler with SDDI fabricator.
what Movable wall: Dorma
Wall. Hard flooring: Timeless
Timber. Resilient flooring: Forbo;
Chilewich flooring. Carpet: Pure
Contract Carpet; Milliken
Carpet; Shaw Contract Group.
Ceiling: Armstrong Ceiling Tiles;
Industrial Felt. Lighting: Gotham
Architectural Lighting; Peerless
Lighting; Found; Nelson Bubble
Lamps; Artemide; Braided
Copper Cord Pendant; Vibra
Lighting; Barn Light Electric;
Tom Dixon. Hardware: CR
Lawrence. Doors: Custom.
Window treatments: Knoll
Textiles; Carnegie. Workstations:
Steelcase. Workstation/task
seating: Steelcase. Conference
seating: Knoll Studio; Coalesse;
Steelcase. Lounge/reception
seating: Knoll Studio. Cafeteria/
dining seating: Shelby Williams;
Steelcase. Auditorium seating:
Custom by Artfiex Millwork.
Upholstery: Knoll; Maharam;
Designtex; HBF Textiles;
Cambria. Conference tables:
Coalesse; Knoll Studio; HBF;
Steelcase; Custom by Artfiex
Millwork. Dining tables: Crate
& Barrel; Steelcase.
Training tables: Steelcase.
Reception desk: Custom by
Artfiex Millwork. Side tables:
Knoll Studio; Made Goods.
Accessories: ABC Home;
Made Goods. Signage: SDDI.
Plumbing: Kohler.

who Architect: Hofman Dujardin
Architects. Project team: Michiel
Hofman; Barbara Dujardin; Bo
Winnubst; Pieter Mulder; Nicola
Placella; Stan Flohr; Jeroen
Semeijn. Contractor: Du Prie
bouw & ontwikkeling. Project
management: CBRE. Lighting:
PD Lighting. Structural engineer:
Arcadis. Installation engineer:
Halmos Adviseurs. Acoustics
engineer: Peutz. Fire safety
engineer: Peutz. Restaurant
advisor: Horequip. Contractors:
Intos Interieurbouw; Schalkwijk
Interieurbouw.
what Furniture: Arper; Vitra;
Unifor. Oak veneer: Kuiper
plaatveredeling. Upholstery:
Kvadrat, Arper; Vitra. Stairs:
Wolter Tijdink. Walls: Sepawand.
Lighting: Marset; Foscarini;
DeltaLight. Sun protection:
M+N Projecten. Ceiling:
Ecophon. Ceiling acoustic:
OWA. Floor marble: Du Prie
bouw & ontwikkeling. Floor oak:
Finesse Parket. Carpet: EGE.

who Interior designer: Studio
O+A. Architect: Clem Soga, AIA.
Interior design project team:
Primo Orpilla, principal in charge;
Denise Cherry, principal; Chris
Lindes, senior project manager;
Alma Lopez, designer; Alfred
Socias, technical designer;
Sarah Dziuba, designer; Oren
Aks, graphic designer; Jeorge
Jordan, graphic designer;
Elizabeth Guerrero, senior
designer; Chase Lunt, project
assistant. Contractor: BCCI
Construction Company.
Engineering: Vaziri Structural
Engineers. MEP: Amit Wadhwa
& Associates.
what Paint: Sherwin Williams;
IdeaPaint. Laminate: Formica;
Abet Laminati. Carpet: Milliken.
Recessed lighting: Pinnacle
Architectural Lighting.
Pendants/chandeliers: Iacoli and
McCallister; Fontana Arte; Design
Within Reach. Other decorative:
Lumini; Lithonia. Workstation/
task seating: Haworth;
Modernica. Conference seating:
Haworth; Room and Board.
Lounge/reception seating:
Environment Furniture; Room
and Board; Modernica. Cafeteria/
dining seating: In Mod; Industry
West. Other seating: Garza
Furniture. Upholstery: Maharam;
Knoll Textiles; BuzziFelt.
Conference tables: MASH
Studios; Misewell. Dining: MASH
Studios; West Coast Industries.
Side tables: West Elm; ABC
Carpet and Home. Other tables:
Garza Furniture. Custom
woodworking: Junckers.
Plumbing fixtures/fittings:
Insinkerator; Vigo; Vola;
Asko; Smeg.

who Architect: Gardera-D.
Project team: Patrice Gardera,
principal; Stéphane Bauche,
project manager. Acoustician:
Point D'orgue acoustique,
Damien Dupouy.
what Floor/table lamps:
IKEA. Workstation/task
seating: SOKOA. Work
tables: Custom built of
local maritime pine

who Design architect: B&Co.
Design architect team: Branko
Pahor. Associate Architect:
Spacesmith. Associate architect
project team: Marc Gordon,
AIA, partner in charge; William
Wong, Assoc. AIA, project
manager; Ambar Margarida, IIDA,
design project manager. Project
manager: Gardiner & Theobald,
Tamela Johnson. Contractor:
Icon Interiors. LEED: Code Green
Solutions. Lighting: Lighting
Workshop. Engineering: Robert
Derector Associates. Graphics:
Coyle & Co.
what Paint: Benjamin Moore.
Drywall: DFB Sales. Hard
flooring: Drytek; LV Wood
Floors. Carpet: Milliken.
Ceiling: Armstrong. Lighting:
Capital Light; Restoration
Hardware; Hightower; Baselite
Corp. Hardware: CRL; Dorma.
Architectural glass: Alur Glass
Walls. Decorative glass: Carvart.
Window treatments: DFB Sales.
Workstations: Lamex; Workwell
Partners. Lounge seating: ABC
Home; Restoration Hardware.
Conference tables: Haworth.
Dining tables: Restoration
Hardware. Training tables:
Haworth. Reception desk:
Custom. Side tables: Room &
Board. Shelving: Lamex. Custom
woodworking: Metropolitan
Woodworking and Modworxx.
Signage: Coyle & Co. Acoustic
wallcovering: Tri-Kes.

who Architect and interior
designer: Paul Murdoch
Architects. Concept design:
Kappe Architects/Planners.
MEP: ACCO Engineered
Systems. Electrical engineer:
Morrow-Meadows Corp.
Civil engineer: BKF Engineers.
Landscape architect: HMH
Landscape Architecture.
Lighting design: Sean O'Connor
Lighting. Prefabrication
consultant: LivingHomes.
Project manager: Ranchworks.
Structural engineer: Simpson
Grumpertz & Heger.
what Planted exterior screening:
Greenscreen. Architectural glass/
glazing: Frener & Reifer; Glasspro,
View Inc. Operable skylight:
Rollamatic. Automated car lifts:
Klaus Multiparking Inc. Ceiling
panels: Ceilings Plus. Elevator:
Kone. Demountable partitions:
Dirtt. Casework: Poliform. LED
lighting: Zumtobel. Lighting
controls: Encellium. Paper light
LED: SGF Associates Inc. Lounge
seating: Moroso. Seating:
Keilhauer; Extremis. Tables:
Extremis. Custom millwork:
Creative Wood.

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