Contract - January/February 2013 - (Page 47)

PHOTOGRAPHY: BENNY CHAN/FOTOWORKS (OPPOSITE); DONNA WONG (RIGHT) The Shimoda Design Group includes (seated, from left) Ying-Ling Sun; Susan Chang; Joey Shimoda holding Phoebe, a wire fox terrier; Elizabeth Cao; (standing, from left) David Khuong; Daniel Allen; Todd Tuntland; Chris Carlton; Barkev Daron; and Paul Vu. client demand for transparency so that employees and visitors could see the creative processes happening throughout the building. “We wanted to be able to experience movement and sound, all through finding an authenticity to the space,” Shimoda says. Although retail projects are often small, the firm’s partners enjoy the creativity they allow in unexpected moments. In 2008, the firm completed an award-winning retail interior for a now-defunct Dallas chocolatier, NoKA, where the shape of cocoa pods informed the wall texture. The tiny 500-squarefoot flagship store was designed as a chapel for chocolate—a one-room, single idea entirely focused on the product within. Like many small design practices that had to be nimble in the recent recession, Shimoda is intent on expanding cautiously and taking on projects that are worthwhile. “We are able to work on tailored, bespoke projects that are each quite different intellectually,” Shimoda says. “But we can definitely take on more people and move into larger scales and planning.” holistic, people-centered approach. The TOMS building, Shimoda points out, is “taking TOMS from a company that started in an apartment to a company that is now a globally relevant force for doing good and for creating a product that helps to do good. We wanted to keep the flavor and energy of what TOMS Shoes was about, which was about authenticity in materials and smart use of materials.” A sign of things to come for Shimoda is his latest project, the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Glendale, California. This renovation and expansion project, likely be completed this year, will be Shimoda’s first civic project. On the roof, a 19-footlong neon female diver cantilevers over a proposed water feature in a plaza below. “We wanted to make it feel like she was diving into the water,” Shimoda says. Once completed, MONA will be one of Shimoda’s most accessible projects, and it points in the direction he’d like to take his practice—from the interior and private to the urban and very public. Given the evolving urban nature of L.A. itself and Shimoda’s critical success, the timing for such a move is probably better than ever. c TOMS Shoes: Shimoda’s largest interior The firm recently completed its largest interiors project—50,000 square feet of creative warehouse office space in West L.A. for TOMS Shoes, a company known for matching every pair of shoes sold with a donation of new shoes to a child in need. The TOMS project takes advantage of the Southern California climate with outdoor rooms and landscape in a A senior sustainability consultant at Arup’s office in Los Angeles, Russell Fortmeyer is a regular contributor to Contract magazine. He is a former senior editor at Architectural Record. contract

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - January/February 2013

Contract - January/February 2013
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Product Briefs: Lighting
Product Focus: Bonaire and Buxom
Designer of the Year
Legend Award
34th annual interiors awards
Large Office
Small Office
Hotel
Restaurant
Healthcare
Education
Public Space
Showroom
Entertainment
Sustainable
Adaptive Reuse
Retail
Student
Designers Select: Tables and Desks
Sources
Ad Index
Public Interest Design
Perspective: Michael Graves on the Lost Art of Drawing

Contract - January/February 2013