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Kmart To Get Loft Offices in New York

Design Laboratories to create 6,000-square foot space in Chelsea.

Dave Platter -- Interior Design, 2/26/2004 12:00:00 AM

Kmart's brand image may not connote sophisticated loft offices in a trendy New York neighborhood, but that's where the retailer's in-house design team will have their new digs. New York City architecture firm Design Laboratories will create the new office space in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

Design Laboratories is already known for its well-received work on the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The firm also created a notable foyer at the headquarters of energy drink company Red Bull, in Hoboken, New Jersey, which features a cobalt-blue epoxy floor and metallic silver walls that match the drink's colorful cans.

For the new Kmart offices, the design studio is building out a 6,000-square foot space that will house the retailer's in-house design team, which is moving to New York from Troy, Michigan. The offices are on the eighth floor of 111 Eighth Avenue, a 1932 warehouse which occupies an entire square block in lower Chelsea.

"They want it to feel like a New York lofty space," said Karen Frome, who founded Design Laboratories along with partner David Ruff. "They are coming out of offices in Michigan, so this is a big change for them and they want to feel that change."

With 10-foot high windows on two sides and ceilings reaching almost 13 feet, the space is an excellent match for its newly intended use. Frome and Ruff's design employs several design traits typical of loft build-outs, such as open ceilings, concrete floors, exposed duct work and pendant light fixtures. The duo will also install storefront glazing around the conference room to bring natural light into the interior.

Construction is expected to be completed in spring 2004, but by that time Kmart may already have outgrown it, since the company expects to quickly increase the amount of staff members assigned to the space.

"They're expecting very rapid growth, so they asked for a simple space that would be intensely flexible and accommodate ultimately as many people as possible," explained Frome. "It's a little intimidating to be told by a client that they are going to outgrow a space before its done!" she added.

Read more about Interior Design's story on Design Laboratories's Red Bull project.