Perkins&Will’s new Manhattan studio, located at Nomad Tower in Midtown, functions as an agile and intuitive space that is flexible enough to accommodate behavioral, cultural, and technological change in the workplace.
The 12,000-sf studio occupies the second floor of the building. The double-height space, originally intended for retail, includes oversized windows that help bring the activity of the outside city inside.
Â
Â
From the onset, the design team approached the studio with a mindset of experimentation and exploration. The studio’s flexibility allows the space to serve as a learning lab for experimenting with new work models and technologies in real-time. Unassigned workspaces are a key design feature that encourage interdisciplinary collaboration. Seventy-foot pin-up boards and model-making and renderings displayed on digital screens celebrate and display the design process throughout the space.
Â
Â
The studio also incorporates things Perkins&Will has learned from experience with clients in the broadcast media industry. AV systems come with birds’ eye view cameras for real-time collaboration in meetings, drawing sessions, and cross-office broadcasting. Wiring was strategically placed for future reconfiguration of rooms, allowing for a variety of “plug-and-play” activities. Sensors in each room measure light, sound, temperature, and humidity while regulated clean airflow systems mitigate the spread of airborne pathogens.
Â
Â
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Top of the rock—Observation deck at Rockefeller Center
Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners—only with views of the city's skyline instead of the ocean. In 1986 this cultural landmark was closed to the public and sat unused for almost two decades.
| Aug 11, 2010
200 Fillmore
Built in 1963, the 32,000-sf 200 Fillmore building in Denver housed office and retail in a drab, outdated, and energy-splurging shell—a “style” made doubly disastrous by 200 Fillmore's function as the backdrop for a popular public plaza and outdoor café called “The Beach.
| Aug 11, 2010
Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world
Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.
| Aug 11, 2010
Inspiring Offices: Office Design That Drives Creativity
Office design has always been linked to productivity—how many workers can be reasonably squeezed into a given space—but why isn’t it more frequently linked to creativity? “In general, I don’t think enough people link the design of space to business outcome,” says Janice Linster, partner with the Minneapolis design firm Studio Hive.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Products
14. Mod Pod A Nod to Flex Biz Designed by the British firm Tate + Hindle, the OfficePOD is a flexible office space that can be installed, well, just about anywhere, indoors or out. The self-contained modular units measure about seven feet square and are designed to serve as dedicated space for employees who work from home or other remote locations.
