Best of Year: Mid-Size Office

Edie Cohen -- Interior Design, 12/1/2010 3:18:00 PM

Project: Production Company
Firm: Shimoda Design Group and Andy Waisler
Location: Los Angeles

Friends since SCI-Arc, Joey Shimoda and Andy Waisler finally got a chance to collaborate—on a project for a third pal, a super-creative in the entertainment business. He commissioned the architects to join a pair of industrial buildings to form, essentially, a miniature movie studio. Concrete flooring and reclaimed-oak ceiling fins give continuity to the 16,000-square-foot interior. Taking cues from cinematic techniques, Shimoda and Waisler established a series of striking long views and detailed close-ups. The money shot comes right at the entry, where you catch a glimpse of the reception lounge by peering between a freestanding unit’s walnut shelves stocked with robot toys and furniture miniatures. Mystery and transparency draw you in, and movement is anything but linear. Three staircases and an elevator offer passage upstairs, where executive offices owe their double height to the new glass box on top. The adjacent roof deck is an alfresco lounge, complete with a putting green.

Merit Winners:


Project: Hyundai Capital America
Firm: Gensler
Location: Irvine, California
Standout: If chairs by Verner Panton, Eero Saarinen, and Eero Aarnio aren’t sufficient, an oak staircase doubles as bleacher seating for seminars and screenings.


Project: Trading firm
Firm: OWP/P Cannon Design
Location: Chicago
Standout: An energetic corporate culture comes through in the dynamic angles and vivid colors, particularly the chartreuse that shows up everywhere from feature walls to the lounge’s Konstantin Grcic chairs.


Project: Neri & Hu Design and Research Office and Design 
Republic
Firm: Neri & Hu Design and Research Office
Location:  Shanghai
Standout: An architecture firm and a design retailer, both run by the same husband and wife, share office space in a three-story black-stained concrete box above a teak-clad storefront.