When we first toured this office space, we noticed that the previous tenant's office had a similar layout to what our client was looking for. After studying the floor plan further, we decided to keep a large portion of the office lobby and conference rooms which would save our client time and money. It's rare that an old space fits today's office standards, but in this case, we got lucky and capitalized on the idea.
The design for this Chicago office space was inspired by the industrial nature of the building, yet refined to fit the client's brand. They wanted a professional, yet industrial look that is impressive and inviting for visitors. Pictured above is the office reception and the first thing visitors see when they walk in the space. In order to warm up a mostly black and white interior, we sourced a rustic slab of wood for the front panel of the desk.
Behind the desk is a small seating area for guests to wait, take a phone call, or have a casual meeting. We designed a partial height wall to divide the reception desk from this waiting area. The design of the wall marries the brand with the industrial interior aesthetic. A perforated, black metal screen is backlit with a brand-blue interior giving a soft blue glow
The seating area is also located nearby several meeting and phone rooms. This allows for groups to gather before or after a meeting, in a semi-private space.
We designed a few different phone room layouts to allow employees and visitors choice in the type of room they use.
The material palette is minimal, cool and inspired by the brand. A palette of grays and light blues were drawn directly from the brand palette and the circular patterns were inspired by the brand logo. We fell in love with the faux marble round tiles below!
Beyond the reception and meeting room suite is the workspace area. Keeping with the minimal, professional, yet industrial concept, we designed a very sleek office front that blends perfectly with the raw concrete columns. The private offices were efficiently designed to have ample meeting and focus space. Small tables and chairs are adjacent to tv's for quick video conference. White boards are placed throughout the office for notes and collaboration.
The open office workstations were designed as a smaller version of the private office. Large for today's standards, but uniquely designed for how this company works. Opposite the desk space in each workstation is a built in bench and table so employees can meet within their workspace.
Full team collaboration happens often here, so we designed a semi-circular seating area adjacent to the workspace for quick all-hands meetings.
I mentioned above that we fell in love with this round, faux marble tile. It creates the perfect textural, yet high end aesthetic in the office bathrooms. And since we love to mix things up with bathroom design, we sourced large round mirrors and wooden pendant lights for each vanity.
This Chicago office design is definitely unique in that we mixed old and new as well as industrial with modern. We love the final mix of materials and overall clean aesthetic!
Project: Chicago Venture Capital Office
Completion: 2020
Photographer: Kendall McCaugherty, copyright Hall + Merrick Photographers
Designed in collaboration with Valerio Dewalt Train