Firm： Valerio Dewalt Train

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2017

As startups continue to look to innovation to expand and find their place in the market, creating a workplace that supports their ambitions has become the design challenge of today. The client's Chicago office takes on this challenge by balancing two aspirations; the office must nurture the needs of the team and adhere to the client's evolving corporate identity. Realizing these two goals meant providing an environment reflective of their millennial workforce, committed to the raw and exciting urbanism of the Chicago's Fulton Market District. At the same time it is meant to embrace their hard-earned maturity and sophistication as a company dedicated to improving the workplace through their website, a human resources platform, for staff and employers alike.

The design interweaves the company's inward and outward voices. The entry zone is defined by a series of curvilinear nodes. The voids between these forms create three entries into the secure office space. The taut forms, curved glass, and clean lines of the nodes reflect their newly redefined brand identity. This aesthetic is the purest representation of the brand. Beyond the entry lobby, the inward voice begins to express local culture as the nodes are transformed in subtle yet important ways. First, more color is added to the curvilinear forms. Second, the large glass openings in every room in the nodes is a picture window on a series of insightful Chicago graphics and custom art installations. The nodes are organized to divide the floor naturally into neighborhoods of workstations and employee amenity zones, including a large cafe.

Employees have the ability to take ownership of their workstations and communal locations. Shared spaces across the office provide writable surfaces, planters and pin-up space that inspire interaction; surrounded on every side by floor to ceiling glass with striking views of city.

Credits:

- Valerio Dewalt Train - Louis Ray

- Media Objectives at Valerio Dewalt Train - Rafael Barontini

- Media Objectives at Valerio Dewalt Train - Joe Lawton

- Valerio Dewalt Train - James Wild

- Valerio Dewalt Train - Ferdinand Kuznick

- Valerio Dewalt Train - Susan Lin

- Media Objectives at Valerio Dewalt Train - Stephen Killion

- Valerio Dewalt Train - Joe Valerio

- Media Objectives at Valerio Dewalt Train - Crystal Adams