If I had a nickel for every time I was asked to design the space in my office where samples are stored and presented to clients, I’d have three nickels. Which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened three times.
-Me
In 2019, when I worked for Streamline Architects, the company was finishing its new office space in an old factory building in East Moline, Illinois. At the same time, thanks to the addition of several thousand square feet of new space, they were bringing in large amounts of sample materials and books to help enhance their interior design options, and needed somewhere to put it all on display. I was picked to design that space and designed a meeting room/library for hundreds of parts samples that ended up being an invaluable tool for sitting down with new customers and collaborating on their project.
A year later, I was asked again to design a showroom and presentation space for the sister company Streamline Artisans, and designed a shifting seating area that incorporated prototypes and unsold designs from the company’s other projects, listed them for discounted sale, and used them as the seating space for a coffee shop that was also a part of this creative new building space – Iron & Grain Coffee House (I named them, developed their logo, and designed their exterior facade too!). This unique new space constantly changed as products were sold and new prototypes were added, making for a pretty consistently unique experience, as well as being the absolute perfect place to sit with new clients, have a coffee, discuss their project, and showcase some of the craftsmanship and details on the very furniture they were sitting around.
The third is for my current company, Vista Manufacturing. The company had moved to a new building in the late 2010’s and was rapidly expanding, quickly outgrowing its breakroom and building a new one the year I was hired in 2022. One of my first tasks was to help with some last-minute designs of new breakroom, add some acoustic dampening, and strangely enough…to redesign the old breakroom and turn it into a collaboration and showroom space for meeting with clients. Something I am now all too familiar with doing. But designing a room that will be used as a tool in designing other products is tricky, especially when it will be used not only by me, but by every engineer, every salesperson, and every executive in the company while still functioning as a space to eat and relax.
Introducing: The Huddle!
First, I proposed a new overall design with updated paint, flooring, furniture, and some key functional spaces for bringing people together. The aesthetics were not a tough sell – the old breakroom had orange walls and cafeteria flooring – if I couldn’t sway a committee away from that on the first try then I should returned my design degree. The purpose of this revitalized space was to
