I've recently purchased a building on a cozy main town strip that consists of 200 year old beautifully resorted buildings which house restaurants and small shops along the street. It's a very vibrant street with outdoor patios and every Saturday there is a farmers market, many festivals and galleries.
I wanted to engage the community and the street but as a typical architect office, there is not much going on. We are restoring some of the old and unique walls and trim and will introduce new materials etc. I believe it will be a nice office to visit.
I would like to invite people inside, but that would just be a distraction for the staff and I really don't want to do that. The staff is separated from the main entry and, receptionist and conference room, but I can just see it being very distracting.
One of the things I wanted to do is to make our large conference room part of a gallery so local artists can display their work, but then again we don't have that many visitors and their art will not be exposed as it would be in a restaurant or something like that.
Maybe I'm overthinking this and I should just leave it as it is. Our offices are not supposed to have foot traffic through, but it's a thought.
I worked in a firm that had a gallery in its front lobby and adjacent conference room that was open to the public (though if the conference room was in use then of course that part wasn't available to the public at that time). It wasn't too distracting, even though the workspace was open to the area - it was visually clear where the demarcation was between public gallery and private work area, so the public didn't tend to wander past that line. Occasionally staff in a free moment would interact with people who came in to look at the exhibits, but there wasn't any obligation to do so. The receptionist was expected to greet them, as with any visitors.
The biggest issues were having staff with time to change the shows on schedule, storage space for incoming and outgoing work, coordination of receiving and returning work to the artists, and some effort to publish notices of exhibits online, in the local alternative paper, and on a poster on the front window. Check with your insurer - you may need to up your coverage or get a rider to cover works on loan to you, and increase your general business coverage in case a member of the public trips on a walk off mat or something.
My concept for a downtown architectural firm is to have my office in the front window. Pinup spaces on the wall, models on shelves, books open, slide show screen save on my computer.
Lots for people on the street to look at- who cares if its messy. Let the practice of architecture be performance art.
thank you! Actually Jerome, part of the store front has a small conference table, which will be used by the staff while the other side....has of course our Barcelona chairs.
We had a large space devoted to a dedicated gallery with a grand piano that flowed into the conference room…named it and was open to the public although no one came in, but that wasn’t the point….we changed artists every 3 months, sent out great invitations and held an “opening” inviting clients, friends and everyone on our marketing list, hired great pianists, wine/food.…huge success….had strangers call and ask for an invitations. What better way to get the right people to come in to visit and wonder around the office to see what you do.
Do like a real estate agent and post up prints of recent projects on a store front window. Maybe some process stuff too just to get people interested. If you have a website let them follow to it - free promotion without much interruption. Might get you contact from locals who are interested in what's going on and could lead to other opportunities.
I personally like SPD's 3x10 shop and Suyama Space Gallery. They also have a Book store. All three engage the street and the community quite well, without providing too much intrusion into the 'sacred space' of the work areas
This is a local Vancouver firm located in a historic building off a somewhat busy downtown street. The area is a little seedy so you have to be buzzed in but I think you could get some ideas from it. The first photo is a mezzanine where some of the staff work. The second photo is the `lobby` and the third photo is what you see directly in front of you as soon as you walk in. The majority of the staff work at long communal tables behind the white wall the receptionist sits in front of. One whole side of the office is window front (probably ~25m of double height windows)．Quite a nice space overall.
New office
I've recently purchased a building on a cozy main town strip that consists of 200 year old beautifully resorted buildings which house restaurants and small shops along the street. It's a very vibrant street with outdoor patios and every Saturday there is a farmers market, many festivals and galleries.
I wanted to engage the community and the street but as a typical architect office, there is not much going on. We are restoring some of the old and unique walls and trim and will introduce new materials etc. I believe it will be a nice office to visit.
I would like to invite people inside, but that would just be a distraction for the staff and I really don't want to do that. The staff is separated from the main entry and, receptionist and conference room, but I can just see it being very distracting.
One of the things I wanted to do is to make our large conference room part of a gallery so local artists can display their work, but then again we don't have that many visitors and their art will not be exposed as it would be in a restaurant or something like that.
Maybe I'm overthinking this and I should just leave it as it is. Our offices are not supposed to have foot traffic through, but it's a thought.
What do you think?
I worked in a firm that had a gallery in its front lobby and adjacent conference room that was open to the public (though if the conference room was in use then of course that part wasn't available to the public at that time). It wasn't too distracting, even though the workspace was open to the area - it was visually clear where the demarcation was between public gallery and private work area, so the public didn't tend to wander past that line. Occasionally staff in a free moment would interact with people who came in to look at the exhibits, but there wasn't any obligation to do so. The receptionist was expected to greet them, as with any visitors.
The biggest issues were having staff with time to change the shows on schedule, storage space for incoming and outgoing work, coordination of receiving and returning work to the artists, and some effort to publish notices of exhibits online, in the local alternative paper, and on a poster on the front window. Check with your insurer - you may need to up your coverage or get a rider to cover works on loan to you, and increase your general business coverage in case a member of the public trips on a walk off mat or something.
My concept for a downtown architectural firm is to have my office in the front window. Pinup spaces on the wall, models on shelves, books open, slide show screen save on my computer.
Lots for people on the street to look at- who cares if its messy. Let the practice of architecture be performance art.
thank you! Actually Jerome, part of the store front has a small conference table, which will be used by the staff while the other side....has of course our Barcelona chairs.
We had a large space devoted to a dedicated gallery with a grand piano that flowed into the conference room…named it and was open to the public although no one came in, but that wasn’t the point….we changed artists every 3 months, sent out great invitations and held an “opening” inviting clients, friends and everyone on our marketing list, hired great pianists, wine/food.…huge success….had strangers call and ask for an invitations. What better way to get the right people to come in to visit and wonder around the office to see what you do.
Do like a real estate agent and post up prints of recent projects on a store front window. Maybe some process stuff too just to get people interested. If you have a website let them follow to it - free promotion without much interruption. Might get you contact from locals who are interested in what's going on and could lead to other opportunities.
I personally like SPD's 3x10 shop and Suyama Space Gallery. They also have a Book store. All three engage the street and the community quite well, without providing too much intrusion into the 'sacred space' of the work areas
http://www.suyamapetersondeguchi.com/3x10-showroom
http://www.petermiller.com/
This is a local Vancouver firm located in a historic building off a somewhat busy downtown street. The area is a little seedy so you have to be buzzed in but I think you could get some ideas from it. The first photo is a mezzanine where some of the staff work. The second photo is the `lobby` and the third photo is what you see directly in front of you as soon as you walk in. The majority of the staff work at long communal tables behind the white wall the receptionist sits in front of. One whole side of the office is window front (probably ~25m of double height windows)．Quite a nice space overall.
http://mg-architecture.ca/work/63-e-cordova/
Zenza, thank you for sharing. It is a beautiful office!
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