Contract - June 2014 - 96

fiftythree, inc.

office

+ADD crafts a New York
office using tools created
by its client
By James Russell, FAIA
Photography by
Matthew Williams

With daylight pouring through tall windows onto planes of warm
brown walnut, the offices of FiftyThree, Inc., in Manhattan's Tribeca
neighborhood, exude a suave calm. On her iPad, Laura González
Fierro, founder of the design firm +ADD, flips through the handsomely
calligraphic sketches she used to design the space-digital drawings
with an appealingly human quality rarely found in the soulless
photo-realistic world of computer renderings. In a neat turnaround of
services, the sketches were produced with FiftyThree, Inc. products.
Architects and designers are an important market for FiftyThree's
Pencil, the electronic stylus she used, and Paper, the tablet app that
converts the stylus strokes to electronic drawings. Since the company
was founded in 2011, its carefully crafted identity came to maturity
at pretty much the same time as the 6,600-square-foot space
FiftyThree inhabits.
The company name refers to the distance in centimeters that
"links the head, heart, and arm," explains Georg Petschnigg, one of
FiftyThree's co-founders-the part of the body "where creativity
happens." One model of the stylus, which looks like an "analog" flat
charcoal pencil, comes in solid walnut, matching the wood extensively
used in FiftyThree's office interior. Its brand-mate is called Graphite,
and its extruded-aluminum elegance inspired the blackened-steel
custom workbenches and framing for glass-enclosed meeting rooms.
This congruence is intentional. FiftyThree aspires to keep its
brand image tightly focused in a very cluttered marketplace. "We have
visualized a system of values and we express them in product design
and marketing, as well as with this space," Petschnigg says.
Refining a raw space
González Fierro, whose firm has offices in Brooklyn, New York, and
Mexico City, came to the attention of FiftyThree's founders through
96

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Contract - June 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - June 2014

Contract - June 2014
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Columnist: Financial Management for Firms: Accounting, Billing, and Budgeting
Product Focus: Disappearing Act
Product Focus: Pulling the Wool
NeoCon Preview
Pinterest
Funny or Die
Stripe
FiftyThree, Inc.
A Steward of History
9/11 Memorial Museum
Designers Select: Seating
Sources
Ad Index
Exhibition
Contract - June 2014 - Intro
Contract - June 2014 - Contract - June 2014
Contract - June 2014 - Cover2
Contract - June 2014 - 1
Contract - June 2014 - 2
Contract - June 2014 - 3
Contract - June 2014 - 4
Contract - June 2014 - 5
Contract - June 2014 - Contents
Contract - June 2014 - 7
Contract - June 2014 - 8
Contract - June 2014 - 9
Contract - June 2014 - 10
Contract - June 2014 - 11
Contract - June 2014 - 12
Contract - June 2014 - 13
Contract - June 2014 - 14
Contract - June 2014 - 15
Contract - June 2014 - Editorial
Contract - June 2014 - 17
Contract - June 2014 - 18
Contract - June 2014 - 19
Contract - June 2014 - 20
Contract - June 2014 - 21
Contract - June 2014 - Industry News
Contract - June 2014 - 23
Contract - June 2014 - 24
Contract - June 2014 - 25
Contract - June 2014 - 26
Contract - June 2014 - 27
Contract - June 2014 - 28
Contract - June 2014 - 29
Contract - June 2014 - 30
Contract - June 2014 - 31
Contract - June 2014 - 32
Contract - June 2014 - 33
Contract - June 2014 - Columnist: Financial Management for Firms: Accounting, Billing, and Budgeting
Contract - June 2014 - 35
Contract - June 2014 - 36
Contract - June 2014 - 37
Contract - June 2014 - Product Focus: Disappearing Act
Contract - June 2014 - 39
Contract - June 2014 - 40
Contract - June 2014 - 41
Contract - June 2014 - Product Focus: Pulling the Wool
Contract - June 2014 - 43
Contract - June 2014 - 44
Contract - June 2014 - 45
Contract - June 2014 - 46
Contract - June 2014 - 47
Contract - June 2014 - NeoCon Preview
Contract - June 2014 - 49
Contract - June 2014 - 50
Contract - June 2014 - 51
Contract - June 2014 - 52
Contract - June 2014 - 53
Contract - June 2014 - 54
Contract - June 2014 - 55
Contract - June 2014 - 56
Contract - June 2014 - 57
Contract - June 2014 - 58
Contract - June 2014 - 59
Contract - June 2014 - 60
Contract - June 2014 - 61
Contract - June 2014 - 62
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Contract - June 2014 - 70
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Contract - June 2014 - 77
Contract - June 2014 - Pinterest
Contract - June 2014 - 79
Contract - June 2014 - 80
Contract - June 2014 - 81
Contract - June 2014 - 82
Contract - June 2014 - 83
Contract - June 2014 - 84
Contract - June 2014 - 85
Contract - June 2014 - Funny or Die
Contract - June 2014 - 87
Contract - June 2014 - 88
Contract - June 2014 - 89
Contract - June 2014 - Stripe
Contract - June 2014 - 91
Contract - June 2014 - 92
Contract - June 2014 - 93
Contract - June 2014 - 94
Contract - June 2014 - 95
Contract - June 2014 - FiftyThree, Inc.
Contract - June 2014 - 97
Contract - June 2014 - 98
Contract - June 2014 - 99
Contract - June 2014 - 100
Contract - June 2014 - 101
Contract - June 2014 - 102
Contract - June 2014 - 103
Contract - June 2014 - A Steward of History
Contract - June 2014 - 105
Contract - June 2014 - 106
Contract - June 2014 - 107
Contract - June 2014 - 108
Contract - June 2014 - 109
Contract - June 2014 - 9/11 Memorial Museum
Contract - June 2014 - 111
Contract - June 2014 - 112
Contract - June 2014 - 113
Contract - June 2014 - Designers Select: Seating
Contract - June 2014 - 115
Contract - June 2014 - Sources
Contract - June 2014 - 117
Contract - June 2014 - Ad Index
Contract - June 2014 - 119
Contract - June 2014 - Exhibition
Contract - June 2014 - Cover3
Contract - June 2014 - Cover4
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