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Music in the Air

HOK combines downtown style with a professional look in the new offices for Warner Music Canada.

Sheila Kim-Jamet -- Interior Design, 6/6/2006 11:01:00 AM

At Warner Music Canada, hip and professional design meet, demonstrating that if you have to take the company out of downtown, you don’t necessarily have to take downtown out of the company. That work was the genius of HOK, led by the firm vice president, Don Crichton. Situated on a 25,000-square-foot ground floor of a former technology campus in the greater Toronto area, the project site “was the furthest thing from what you think a music company would want,” says Crichton. “They wanted to get back to the root of the business by celebrating the music and the artists. So they needed to somehow replicate the cool, downtown feeling through the interiors.”

First impressions in the reception

Like most office designs, the reception is crucial in making a statement to visitors and clients. In order to convey a hip—yet refined—feel in this space, the project team looked to clean lines and a materials palette that mingles industrial-chic with warmth. Polished and tinted concrete flooring was paired with a sleek 14-foot-long oak desk that dons a brushed stainless steel counter. The same brushed stainless was laser-cut and backlit for signage behind the desk, along an oak-paneled wall. A portion of the 15-foot-high ceiling was left exposed, but the firm inserted a dropped canopy-like ceiling plane above the desk; wood beams protrude from just above it. In one corner of the zone is a seating area, where HOK grouped a walnut table with an upholstered sofa and bench. The lighting fixture, constructed of molded birch, gives a “musical” vibe and rounds out the mix.

To celebrate the music and roots of the company, Warner Music execs, together with the design team, sifted through thousands of photographic images of live performances by such Warner artists as Led Zeppelin and Neil Young, and selected ten for display within the office. “They wanted energy, and to replicate a performance feel,” says Crichton. The project team suggested the locations in which these images might best work and create that desired vibrant environment—the reception being one such zone. Here, photographer Dustin Rabin caught the view of the crowd as seen from the stage where the band Hot Hot Heat performed.

Planning and circulation

Previously, Warner Music Canada worked on two floors in another building, with the creative teams on one level and the business and accounting teams on another. For the new offices, the client wanted to integrate all divisions back into the business. HOK’s solution was to pull offices and workstations off of the perimeter, forming a main circulation path along the almost full-height windows, which would also allow more daylight to filter into the center of the space through the four exposures. Underfoot in the work zones, flooring changes from concrete to carpeting that features a neutral palette and a linear pattern. Overhead, the ceiling was dropped mainly for acoustical reasons. Workstations and private offices are organized into clusters. Many of these groupings have their own break-out areas, with tables and seating to accommodate informal meeting and planning sessions between various teams.

For the formal meetings, there are three conference rooms, two of which are adjacent to each other and can be combined to become one large space when the adjoining stack wall is removed. Both rooms are outfitted with modular walnut tables and 16 chairs each, with the same carpeting as in the workstation and office areas. While both rooms have entries directly off the main perimeter corridor, one room also features oak barn doors that slide open 15 feet to face the office’s central hub; the doors have glassed slat windows so that staffers can see when the room is in use.

Spaces to play

While on one side of the central hub is situated a conference room, to the other side, there’s an artist lounge that’s decidedly more industrial in feel. Clubby chairs and side tables, as well as an entertainment center, keep visiting artists comfortable and occupied in this lofty space. Here, clients can also review their most recent videos.

The central hub itself was created to bring all the company’s divisions together into one place, as well as provide a break and dining area. While it’s not exactly in the center of the floorplan, this lunchroom is an intersecting point between work and conference/presentation zones, client and back space. HOK installed metallic-grey laminate cabinetry and the usual stock of appliances—from refrigerator to dishwasher to coffee machine. The ceiling here was left exposed, with the exception of Douglas fir beams above-head that frame without completely enclosing the space. (They also replicate the look of the reception zone’s ceiling beams, making it appear as if they’ve pierced through the wall all the way from reception.) The hub, which can accommodate 20 seated staffers, is also in use for evening functions of up to 400 occupants when the conference rooms are opened.

DESIGN TEAM: DON CRICHTON; SHARON TURNER; JANET JONES; LINDSAY ROTH.

RECEPTION SEATING: METRO. TABLE: KEILHAUER. CONFERENCE CHAIRS: HAWORTH. TABLES: VECTA. ARTIST LOUNGE CHAIRS: STEELCASE. CENTRAL HUB SEATING: INTERIOR ELEMENTS; KEILHAUER; STEELCASE. TABLES: KEILHAUER. WORKSTATIONS: HAWORTH. OFFICE FURNITURE: KNOLL. ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT: H H ANGUS. MECHANICAL CONSULTANT: THE MITCHELL PARTNERSHIP. ACOUSTICAL CONSULTANT: GROUP ONE ACOUSTICS. GENERAL CONTRACTOR: GOVAN BROWN.