AdRizer is a local, young, and fast growing tech company. In their search for a new space to accommodate their growing staff, they sought a 5,000 sf space on the second floor of a mid-century commercial building, also known as the BOTA Center, to relocate their new corporate headquarters.

The BOTA Center was built in 1957 by the Badcock family for their furniture store, the Baker Badcock Furniture Store, that remained in this location until 2005. Unfortunately, the building remained vacant and was frequently vandalized until it was rescued in 2015 by a developer that recognized the beauty in this mid-century building. In an effort to preserve the historic features of the building, such as the exposed post-and-beam steel structure, the original terrazzo floor, and thin aluminum window frames, the new Owner successfully went through the process of historically designating the BOTA Center. His goal was to restore the building as a shell for future tenant spaces. The second floor that will be occupied by AdRizer was used as a storage space for the furniture inventory.

In search of inspiration to develop the space for AdRizer, we became intrigued by their logo and decided to utilize their brand identity to generate a conceptual idea. The “A” of the AdRizer logo appears to be a strip, or a band of several colors, that has been folded several times onto itself into a spatial shape of the letter “A”. We decided to investigate the shape of the band by cutting and unfolding it. The resulting shape is a zigzagging pattern that we then overlaid onto the blank shell building floor plan. This investigation into the unfolded “A” created a spatial link between the two existing access stairs to the second floor, and therefore created a circulation flow from one end of the space to the other. We proceeded by plugging the elements of the program on each side of the zigzagging line. The edges of the line became a shape generator for the spaces on either side.

The result of this process generates a dynamic and flowing floor plan that consists of two major areas. The largest area, on the west side of the building, is know as the “bullpen”. Shaped in a zigzag pattern, it is comprised of an open work area with computer work stations. Enclosed conference and engineering rooms are located on each side of it and their edges are formed by the physical attributes of the conceptual organizer. The interior space of each of these rooms takes on one of the colors from the AdRizer logo to further demonstrate the brand identity. The second area, located on the east side of the building is the “play” area. Because of the virtual nature of a tech firms work, the staff has flexible work hours that allows them to work at any time of the day or night, to stay as long as they need without leaving the building, and to adjust their work schedule to accommodate other time zones. With the need to be present in their office space for long periods of time, the “play” area allows the staff to take breaks and recharge by playing pool, ping-pong, or video games. The large kitchen can be used for lunch breaks and the large island can serves as a conference table for impromptu meetings.