The client designs and produces high quality office furniture at this facility.
The existing factory was a shabby brick structure on a street of utilitarian buildings and parking lots, set back and disassociated from the street by an expanse of raised lawn. The brief called for an exterior appearance appropriate to a “design” business, a larger, better appointed office area, and guest parking at front.
Budget dictated work be limited to a few exterior gestures, simple materials and detailing. Economical black steel siding is used horizontally along the street face, with aluminum strip glazing. An aluminum clad canopy with a warm cedar soffit leads westward to staff parking. A low concrete retaining wall/guard atop a planted berm makes a "porch" with the canopy. A vertical glass "lantern" vestibule marks the main entry. Guest parking is treated as a kind of entry forecourt with a concrete sidewalk through the pavement to tie the city sidewalk to the entry.
