Freeze Frame

A closer look at the hottest solutions from October

Staff -- Interior Design, 10/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Hit the beach

For a staff that dresses in flip-flops, HLW played up proximity to sand and surf. The client in question was Electronic Arts, a Los Angeles video-game company that occupies a campus of two buildings—one housing the main reception area.

A 20-foot-long reception desk is fronted by sea grass sandwiched between resin panels, bolted together, while a saltwater aquarium is incorporated into a canted partition of cherrywood. Beech planks compose the floor and the slatted dropped ceiling; beech-framed lounge chairs sit at the center of the space. Just swap the wool upholstery for all-weather, and they'd be relaxing enough for a deck. "Play by Play," page 298. —E.C.

Ground cover

Renovating the Karstadt Arkaden department store near Düsseldorf, Germany, entailed covering eight football fields' worth of space underfoot. For economic and logistical reasons, Jordan Mozer & Associates had to use the same material for most of the vast expanse. So, to make each department look different, the firm turned to Amtico, a British manufacturer that produces custom-cut vinyl tile. The hard-wearing fooring comes in a wide variety of colors and textures, including subtly iridescent metallics.

President Jordan Mozer let his imagination run wild, creating an enormous target, overlapping squiggles and sine waves, and round-cornered oblongs. Digitized, the retro-chic motifs were fed into a computer that controls the tile-cutting process, and the numbered pieces were delivered ready to be arranged and glued down. Mozer compares the process to a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. "Miles of Aisles," page 260. —O.P.