Often, visitors to the site weren’t even sure where to find the front door.
We were tasked with replacing a small covered entry to make it accessible and reskinning the building to make it look less dated. A new covered deck would be added just outside the break room for employees to get some fresh air year round and to host company events where everyone could gather together.
We took this as an opportunity to really change this forgettable concrete box. The first step was to paint the warehouse a dark color to create a background against which to see the new office.
With the addition of white stucco cladding, we shaped the office volume to appear to float above the ground and to divorce the office from the heavy warehouse beyond. The new ramp opens towards the site entry showing visitors the way to the front door.
The underside of the canopy is stained wood, bringing a smaller scale material and a feeling of warmth to the exterior of the office. The smaller stick-like elements of the columns and guardrail framing also help humanize the scale of the structure and reinforce the industrial feeling of this place.
The canopy turns into a shading device for the east facing office windows as it approaches the lower end of the ramp.
Neighbors compliment the building and employees are proud to come to work here every day.