Contract - September 2013 - (Page 76)

Dropbox (page 40) who Architect: Boor Bridges Architecture, Inc. Project team: Seth Boor, AIA, principal/ project architect; Bonnie Bridges, AIA, principle/designer; Sarah Fucinaro, AIA, designer. Interior Designer: Geremia Design. Interior design project team: Lauren Geremia. Contractor: Skyline Construction, Mark Trento, Gabe Delgado, Al Gonzales, Mike Mertz. Lighting: Revolver Design, Michael Webb. Engineering: Structural Design Engineers, Jack Laws. Kitchen: Christensen Consulting, Peter Christensen. Graphics: New Bohemian Signs. Acoustician: Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc., Christina Miyar. what Paint: Benjamin Moore. Laminate: Walnut and Copper Panels with Echo Eliminator. Resilient flooring: Polished Concrete. Carpet/carpet tile: California Carpet Tretford Rug, Interface. Ceiling: Fabric Sail Installation by Geremia Design, Echo Eliminator Panels. Recessed lighting: Cree LR6-DR1000. Fluorescent/ industrial: High Density RGB LED strip light. Aluminum strip light Channels: EL-KLUSCHAN Fine one of the strategy meeting rooms within the core of the building is clad in washed black walnut walls with copper accents. the diagonal bracing of the building itself is left exposed. transformation By John Czarnecki Photography by Bruce Damonte Photography For Dropbox, Geremia Design and Boor Bridges Architecture share files, design expertise 40 transformation photography: kathryn barnard/restoration hardware Light Series. Floor/table lamps: Twiggy Floor Lamp. Pendants/ chandeliers: Roll & Hill Excel Chandelier, Bluff City pendant, Square Boon by moooi, Knotty Bubbles by Lindsey Adelman, Delta I by Rich Brilliant Willing. Sconces: Dioscuri by Artemide. Doors: DORMA 150 AGILE. Doors/hardware: Schlage, DORMA. Window treatments: MechoShade. Workstation/task seating: Herman Miller Aeron. Conference seating: Knoll, Alias Chair, Herman Miller. Lounge/reception seating: Modular sofa by Geremia Design, Jehs+Laub Lounge Chair, Landeeca Armchair, Taylor Scoot-Milano Sectional, Herman Miller, B&B Italia Le Bambole 07, Knoll, Jayson Home Ottoman. Cafeteria/dining seating: Knoll. Seating: Restoration Hardware. Conference tables: Custom by Alexis Moran, Big Daddy Antiques. Cafeteria/dining: Spoon Table Kartell. Reception desk: Custom by RMR construction. Side tables: HD Buttercup, Anzfer Farms C Table, reused circular bench. Office desk: Ohio Design. Architectural/ custom wood-working: RMR Construction, Tom Funke. Planters: Presidio Foliage. Signage: New Bohemian Signs. Plumbing fixtures/fittings: Elkay, True, GE. dropbox sources within the lobby, the design of a custom, three-story traction and counter-weight elevator made from steel and glass was inspired by one in the bradbury building in Los angeles. artificial olive trees shade the second floor walkway, calling to mind a french park. Restoration Hardware, the San Francisco–based chain, has repositioned its brand from a nuts-and-bolts home and lifestyle store into a high-end boutique selling luxurious, European–inspired furnishings. When the company searched for real estate in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, it opted for a property with a pedigree—The Gallery at the Historic Museum of Natural History. A Restoration Hardware megastore debuted this spring within the 40,000-squarefoot space, which was once occupied by The New England Museum of Natural History. Decades ago, the three-story brick structure housed a range of natural specimens, including whale bones and aviary displays. Designed in 1862 by William G. Preston, a prominent Boston architect, the museum eventually morphed into a retail complex; a branch of the department store Bonwit Teller occupied the space from 1949 until 1989, when Louis Boston, a local clothier, moved in. Adjacent Newbury Street has grown as a retail hotbed in recent years, and Restoration Hardware and the designers took advantage of the prime location. anticipating the future of the cloud The latest Dropbox office occupies a linear ,74,000-square-foot single floor, previously built for a biotech company, atop the historic China Basin Landing building, a warehouse located just southwest of the Giants’ AT&T Park. Dropbox currently employs more than 200 and plans to expand to more than 400 employees by 2015. “Dropbox’s rapid growth rate as a business was a big challenge for our design,” Geremia says. “We had to think about what Dropbox as a company would need in the future, and keep a sense of flexibility in the design for the company to grow into.” Like her clients, Geremia is a young creative who is suddenly receiving considerable attention. Recognized in a recent Forbes list of 30 Under 30, Geremia has designed 14 restaurants and bars, many of which are the cool places to be in San Francisco, as well as offices for burgeoning tech companies Instagram (now owned by Facebook) and YouSendIt (now known as Hightail). Geremia capitalizes on her understanding of the zeitgeist of the moment in San Francisco, where youthful creativity, technology, and commerce are colliding. Geremia connected with Seth Boor and Bonnie Bridges of Boor Bridges Architecture because of their similar approach to projects and navigating historic preservation regulations and codes James Gillam is a founding partner of Backen, Gillam & Kroeger Architects, a San Francisco firm that has overseen Restoration Hardware’s ambitious expansion. His firm, known for designing wineries in Northern California, as well as residential and hospitality projects, served as the design architect for this store in Boston. Bergmeyer Associates, Inc., was architect of record, and senior principal Joseph Nevin, who is well-versed in preservation as well as retail design, worked closely with Gillam to oversee the building’s massive restoration. Because the structure was a historic property, standards for the restoration of the exterior were stringent and scrutinized by the Back Bay Architectural Commission (BBAC) as well as the Beacon Hill Homeowners Association. The architects solved structural and code issues to be able to modify the interior spaces of the building, including the subterranean level that now features the RH Baby and Child product line, and the removal of mezzanine floors installed by a previous tenant. “A lot of time was spent early in the project exploring 46 september 2013 restoration Hardware (page 46) who Design Architects: Backen, Gillam & Kroeger Architects. Architects of Record: Bergmeyer Associates, Inc. Architecture project team: Jim Gillam, co-founder, Backen, Gillam & Kroeger Architects; Geoffrey Garcia, designer, Backen, Gillam & Kroeger Architects; Joseph P. Nevin, Jr., senior principal, Bergmeyer Associates, Inc.; Rachel J. Zsembery, senior associate, Bergmeyer Associates, Inc.; Anthony (TJ) DiFeo, Jr., project manager, Bergmeyer Associates, Inc.; John Noonan, job captain, Bergmeyer Associates, Inc. Contractor: Trainor Commercial Construction. Consultants: Ross De Alessi, Exterior Lighting; Bentley Restoration Hardware The revival of a Boston landmark building elevates retail to high art Management of the cloud is not entirely virtual. It takes actual people—20-somethings-turned-millionaires, and the tech experts and salespeople they hire—and physical real estate. For Dropbox, that means more than two football fields worth of office space in San Francisco. Founded in 2007, Dropbox is a file hosting service with more than 175 million customers. It recently had a $4 billion valuation from venture investors, and its co-founders Drew Houston, 30, and Arash Ferdowsi, 27, ranked fourth and seventh respectively in Wealth-X’s list of the wealthiest 30-and-under “technopreneurs” in the United States. Houston and Ferdowsi had hired one of their Bay Area contemporaries, Lauren Geremia and her firm Geremia Design, to design their first office on a seedy stretch of Market Street. Dropbox quickly outgrew that location—increasing from a 30-person office to 80 people in less than two years—and the company called on Geremia again, along with San Francisco firm Boor Bridges Architecture, to help locate a new office space and design the interior. contractdesign.com By Melissa Feldman Photography by Kathryn Barnard and Jared Kuzia contractdesign.com september 2013 design concepts and doing 3D modeling, so when we got further down the line there were no mistakes,” Gillam says. Two elevator shafts and a stairway had to be moved to accommodate a new entrance on Newbury Street, which previously did not exist. “The engagement of the street and the pedestrians on Newbury Street was of paramount concern to the BBAC,” Nevins says. The design team attached an open glass-and-steel pavilion to the exterior that resolved two issues simultaneously: connecting the store to the street level while also providing handicap access. Ross De Alessi, known for illuminating historical and civic projects, created the dramatic lighting design for the exterior. After passing under the pavilion, shoppers enter into a grand lobby space and immediately see a massive counterweight elevator, also fabricated out of steel and glass. Gillam says a traction elevator installed in the iconic 1893 Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles inspired the elevator’s design. Easy navigation through the store was essential. “The circulation is a continuous loop on each floor, where one walks through four major rooms at the corners and transitions from one to another,” Gillam says. “One can experience the building in a very open manner.” restored surfaces and new european elements While the floors on all three levels are concrete and needed little repair work, the process of plastering the walls and columns, and restoring their capitals, proved tedious. But Gillam says it was worth the effort. “It took longer than we thought it would,” he says. “But when you’re doing high-quality work like this, and working with historical aspects of the building—uncovering things that have been covered—it’s time consuming.” Eighteen-foot antique mirrored archways and a dozen crystal chandeliers line the second floor, while the corner rooms showcase bedroom suites. The top floor atrium space now extends up to a gold-coffered ceiling. A walkway, reminiscent of a French park, is lined with olive trees, and an illuminated, vintage 24-foot steel Eiffel Tower was purchased at a Parisian flea market. Four clubrooms on the top floor consist of a library, a music room with a bar, a billiard hall with an antique pool table, and a screening room for old movies. A wine bar will eventually serve wine from a Napa Valley vintner. “This was one of the most complex projects I’ve worked on,” Gillam says. “In a nutshell, it was like completing major surgery.” c contract contract Meeker, Interior Lighting; McNamara/Salvia Inc., Structural Engineers; RW Sullivan Engineering, M/E/P/FP Engineers; Copley Wolff Design Group, Landscape Architects; Kessler McGuiness & Associates, Accessibility Consultant; Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Building Enclosure Consultant. Drywall install: Clifford and Galvin Contracting, LLC. Interior Masonry Wall Restoration: Commercial Masonry Corporation. Plaster Restoration: Austin Ornamental. what Paint: Restoration Hardware, Benjamin Moore. Hard flooring: 3-inch concrete topping, bluestone pavers. Recessed lighting: Iris Lighting. Track lighting: Juno Lighting. Task lighting: Restoration Hardware. Fluorescent: Linear Lighting, Elliptipar, GE. Floor/table lamps: Restoration Hardware. Pendants/ chandeliers: Restoration Hardware. Sconces: Restoration Hardware. Exterior lighting: Restoration Hardware, GE, IO LED Lighting, Elliptipar, B-K Lighting. Doors Hardware: Rocky Mountain Hardware, Schlage. Exterior Doors fabrication: Sunrise Erectors Incorporated. Interior Hollow Metal Doors: Black Mountain Door. Architectural glass/glazing: Glazing systems at Winder Stair, Elevator and Newbury Street Entry Structure by Sunrise Erectors Incorporated. Window treatments, seating and tables: RestorationHardware. Architectural/custom woodworking: Trainor Commercial Construction, Clifford and Galvin Contracting LLC, Wood Connection, Inc. Plumbing fixtures/fittings: Restoration Hardware, Toto, Elkay. Brooklyn Academy of Music (page 52) who Architect and Interior Designer: H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture. Architecture project team: Hugh Hardy, FAIA; Daria Pizzetta, AIA; Harriet Andronikides, LEED AP; Jon Fukutomi; James Sines, AIA, CS, LEED AP. Interior design project team: Margaret Sullivan, LEED AP; Lauren Davino, LEED AP. Contractor: E.W. Howell. Lighting: Cline Bettridge Bernstein. MEP: Icor Associates. Structural: Robert Silman You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks! Vibrant Colors & New Tasks for Old Parts Out of black trash management liners, out of rectangular computer printer slot liners come new and colorful recycle bin drop liners – green for compostables, blue for recyclables, red for confidential, and black for traditional all-around use – making it easy to identify designated waste bins! Our TM Series of Trash Management liners and our three sizes of CP Series printer slot liners are now available in the usual Black, as well as brand new (and made of regrind) Green, Blue and Red. Make an eco-friendly statement! TM1-60 - Green CP1-62 - Blue TM1-66 - Red “FINE ARCHITECTURAL HARDWARE FOR YOUR FINE FURNITURE”® w w w . m o c k e t t . c o m • 8 0 0 - 5 2 3 - 12 6 9 select No. 34 at contractDesign.com/readerservice http://www.mockett.com http://www.mockett.com http://www.ContractDesign.com/readerservice

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - September 2013

Contract - September/October 2013
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Columnist: Winning Work at the Interview: It’s All About Chemistry
Product Focus: Glow Sticks
Product Focus: A Touch of Yesteryear
Product Briefs: Products with a Sustainable Focus
Dropbox
Restoration Hardware
BAM Fisher
Prahran Hotel
Downtown Mexico
Lighting Lessons from an Artist
Competition: Design Is…
Designers Select: Eco-friendly Products
Sources
Ad Index
Interior Detail: A Flowing Aluminum Ceiling Symbolizes Water in a Japanese Beauty Salon

Contract - September 2013