Swing-State Switch

Steven Litt -- Interior Design, 5/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Cleveland has a long history of architectural excellence, albeit with a conservative slant. Neither Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, nor Eero Saarinen ever won a commission in town, despite their relative proximity. Vocon, a growing interiors and architecture firm with a local and national practice, played against that tradition in moving to a larger space in the city's revitalizing Midtown district.

The firm chose a two-story commercial building constructed in 1921 for an automobile company now long defunct. The facade is splashed with neoclassical details, but, as Vocon recognized, the exterior architecture masks a robust industrial aesthetic signaled by a 21-foot ceiling and vast display windows. To step inside today is to experience a pleasant jolt produced by the contrast between old and new.

The 18,900-square-foot office features a bracing combination of smooth surfaces, light colors, and carefully chosen modern and contemporary furniture. "It feels like you're not in Cleveland," says principal Debbie McCann, who shares leadership of the 46-member firm with her brother, Paul Voinovich. At the same time, it's clear that they and their colleagues are intent on showing how an aging rust-belt city can reinvent itself.

Designed by studio director Richard Dillon, the interior is a textbook case of visual and spatial effects achieved on a tight budget of $38 per square foot. Reception, for example, is airy and clean-lined with a light-gray epoxy floor, soaring white walls, and George Nelson's Cigar pendant fixtures. Dillon furnished the corner seating area with Michiel van der Kley's pale-blue Bird sofa and Harry Bertoia's white Bird chair—an unintentional coincidence—plus Warren Platner's low table in glass and steel.

"I love mid-century furniture," Dillon says. "It's my own passion sneaking in."

Behind the maple reception desk, topped by a slab of Carrara marble, hangs a curtain of bronze-finished beads trimmed at varying lengths to create a pointillist cascade. The delicacy of this gesture contrasts with the brute strength of a board-formed concrete column nearby as well as with the soaring lightness of Dillon's white-painted steel staircase, its treads a pale bamboo laminate.

Throughout the interior, the emphasis on spatial flow supports the firm's culture, which McCann describes as "family." Work areas on the first and second floors are both open-plan. When employees take a break from their workstations, it's often to gather around the kidney-shape stainless-steel top of a table in the second-floor café.

The firm holds casual client meetings in the Red Room, a lounge drenched in the signature color, from the dropped ceiling on down. Here, Dillon inserted a playful touch, a shelf packed with neatly organized Pez dispensers. Such flourishes are undeniably personal. But McCann believes they create an atmosphere that frees clients to explore new ideas.

From top: In the reception area at this Cleveland firm, a linen-shaded iron lamp stands next to Michiel van der Kley's wool-covered Bird sofa; above it hangs an oil on canvas by Marilyn Farinacci. George Nelson's Cigar pendant fixtures are suspended from reception's 21-foot ceiling, casting reflections on the epoxy floor; a bronze-finished bead curtain hangs behind the custom desk in maple and Carrara marble.

From top: The painted-steel staircase has bamboo treads. The upstairs design studio is 9,000 square feet. Light pockets sculpted by artist Erika Hanson add interest to the outer wall of the lounge. The lounge is furnished with vintage chairs by Charles Pollock and a sofa by 5D Studio.

From left: The upstairs café features a custom 10-foot-long table, topped in stainless steel, and ceiling fixtures by Isamu Noguchi. Vocon's interior contrasts with the neoclassical facade of the 1921 commercial building.

FLOOR LAMP (RECEPTION): WEST ELM. SOFA: ARTIFORT; KVADRAT (FABRIC). PILLOWS: JONATHAN ADLER. PENDANT FIXTURES: MODERNICA THROUGH DESIGN WITHIN REACH. CUSTOM RUG: BENTLEY PRINCE STREET. CUSTOM CURTAIN: SHIMMERSCREEN. CHAIR, TABLE (RECEPTION), CHAIRS, TABLE, SOFA FABRIC (LOUNGE), WALL COVERING (CAF): KNOLL. WORKSTATIONS, CHAIRS (STUDIO): HERMAN MILLER. CARPET: INTERFACE. SOFA (LOUNGE): TUOHY. STOOLS (CAF): EMECO. CEILING FIXTURES: AKARI THROUGH NOGUCHI MUSEUM STORE. PAINT: SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY. MILLWORK: AILES MILLWORK. STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: HETMAN ENGINEERING. MEP: INTEGRATED ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: DONLEYS.