Another of our "office lobby upgrade" series, this building had easily the worst existing lobby plan of any building we have been asked to fix. It had two entrances, neither of which was obvious as the front door. It was a long, narrow volume which jogged twice in the middle of the building giving the impression that one had entered a service corridor.
Since we were not allowed to change the plan, we decided to think of the space as a "canyon" as though it had been eroded by water. We curved all the corners, which made the space flow and helped imply that there was an experience of interest beyond the blind spots. We then found a Chinese slate tile that had linear saw-score lines on the back to aid with glue adhesion, which we flipped and used the back as the exposed finish. The effect of the saw cuts, which ran horizontally and are stacked from floor to the ceiling, is similar to that of sedimentary layers of earth exposed in a riverbed. It ended up being one of our best examples of using an inexpensive material (slate) in an innovative way (exposing the back score pattern) to create a very original, dramatic solution to a design challenge.
Client: ATP Partners
Project Lead: David Battenfield
Contractor: Lem Construction Inc.
