A Memo from the Office

Cindy Allen -- Interior Design, 5/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

The hum of a distant vacuum cleaner, lights clicking off, air vents still. . . . We all work late into the night one time or another. Some more than others. (In publishing, a lot more than others.) And we eventually leave behind an empty office that, just as much as its human occupants, has earned itself a good dinner and a sound night's sleep. My architect friend Nick Luzietti, a new Interior Design Hall of Fame member and a recent star of my Design Giants series for Ovation TV, puts it succinctly: Everything is alive. So how about offices? I'd like to go a step further and proclaim that the office is alive and well—according to recent market reports, at least, the sector is showing signs of recovery.

The office displays excellent manners, to boot. One sees that clearly when it has to share premises with another kind of space, such as a workshop, a lab, a showroom, a retail outlet, or (gasp) the abode of the owner himself. Flavor Paper's founder literally lives above the shop, a Brooklyn garage turned wallpaper mecca. A guy known as the Condo King of Vancouver opened an art gallery at his place of business. And a Hollywood honcho's headquarters is basically a mini movie studio. Setting out to collect a good sample of these impeccably behaved offices for our May issue, we've proved beyond a reasonable doubt the exquisiteness of their social skills. The resulting anthology of projects shows courtesy, innovation, and style at their very best.