Contract - December 2016 - 18

Designers
You
Should
Know
Assembly

Early in 2016, the firm Assembly Design Studio
was formed in San Francisco by former Studio O+A
designers Denise Cherry (right) and Liz Guerrero
(middle). They teamed with Omar Toro-Vaca (left),
formerly of SHoP Architects, and quickly grew
what is now a 25-person practice. Assembly
has completed the Uber Advanced Technologies
Group Center in Pittsburgh (page 50) and is
currently designing two workplaces for Uber
in San Francisco and Oakland, California, as
well as a variety of projects ranging from urban
design to branding, interiors, and products.

18

Why the name Assembly?
Assembly best embodies who we are and what we
think about. We brought together a group of designers
who all approach design differently, and we see great
value in that difference. It generates the kind of energy
that leads to better design solutions. It's also an
accurate reflection of how the world works beyond
the boundaries of our office: People negotiate their
interests and aspirations through the built environment,
and if any progress is to be made, they usually have
to come together around something worth fighting for.
What were the key factors for you in deciding
to start your own practice?
We were all in very similar places in terms of our
professional development and seniority at our respective
firms. We also understood that opportunities to start
a business with such a strong foundation don't come
about all that often. The conditions were ripe, and
the rest was already in place. We liked working with
each other, we understood that we had complementary
skills, and we were very passionate about the chance
to put our heads together and build a practice in which
the design of buildings puts human experience first.
We are wholeheartedly focused on bringing humanity
back into design.
What is your firm's approach to design?
We think of design as a broad-ranging set of activities
that relies on creativity and communication to solve
problems. Based on that approach, we resist the
tendency to draw lines between different disciplines
such as interior design, architecture, and graphics.
We're interested in the value of-and the relationship

between-design disciplines that can be employed
to create wonderful experiences and solve functional
problems too. That sounds simple, but the entire industry
is so used to supporting these divisions. We're building
a practice that helps our clients navigate the complexities
between all disciplines without losing focus on the
overall experience.
Describe the mix of projects that Assembly pursues.
We are interested in creating a holistic experience
regardless of project type or size. It's not about whether
a project is workplace or hospitality or residential-
for us, design has no scale. A project is a series of questions,
and the deeper we dive into a project, the more detailed
those questions become. We're simply interested
in exploring the answers to all of a project's questions.
What are your current projects?
We are working on a handful of additional large-scale
projects with Uber. We lead the interior design and
coordination of a public art component for Uber's
global headquarters in the Mission Bay neighborhood
of San Francisco, in a project that is a collaboration
with SHoP Architects. Across the Bay in Oakland, another
office for Uber will be located in a renovated eight-story
former Sears store (below). The Oakland project has
a significant public realm, including a BART connection,
food hall, and community space. We recently designed
the branding, collateral, exhibits, and environmental
graphics for an event with Cisco; teamed up with
IwamotoScott on Pinterest's workspace; completed
a lobby renovation for Quid; and partnered with Human
Scale Studio on a community-led campaign to redesign
Detroit's Roosevelt Park (above).
What is important in design today?
In a word: responsiveness. The relationship between life
and work, between the natural and the built environment,
and between policy and the way we evolve our cities is
changing faster than ever before. That requires designers
to become more agile and flexible in their approach to
problem solving. While aspiring to build an intact vision
for a project is a noble endeavor, we prefer to practice
a more effective mode of harnessing all of the energy
that comes with rapid change. This doesn't mean that
we think of buildings and furniture as disposable; rather,
we engage in the process of understanding our clients'
quickly shifting personal and business needs in order
to design better experiences for them. In many ways,
we're just getting started. c
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DECEM BER 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY: JASPER SANIDAD. RENDERINGS: COURTESY ASSEMBLY

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