[1]

Glass sliding door between the Executive Offices and the Private Dining Room [20]. This door pockets into the the wall when interaction between the dining area and the Collaborative Work Area [17] is desired.

[2]

Glass Block Wall between the Executive Offices and the Food Court area. This wall follows the curve of the WorkWall which is mounted inside [17]; variable levels of back-lighting provides control over transparency.

Between the angled column and the glass block, is a glass Entry into the Executive Offices. This is the “public” entry into the space and is controlled by electronic locks.

[2a]

Curved Glass Wall around POD.

[3]

Wall between Food Court and Executive Offices as originally designed.

[4]

Glass Entry from Hallway into Executive offices controlled by electronic locks.

[5]

Fire Door Assembly. The default position is open. When required, the assembly closes providing a fire rated exit door with panic hardware.

[6]

Fire Rated Exit Hallway. This hallway separates the Meeting-Work Room [13] from the rest of the space. The objective of this layout is to turn this into an advantage by treating the hallway as a courtyard that nevertheless still serves its primary function if required. This is done by utilizing landscaping and glass walls to create transparency between the rooms and that allows natural light to permeate the space. Fire rated roll-down shutters [10] provide protection and an uncluttered exit if required. The hallway, itself is clearly indicated by the tile floor surface. This way, a necessary function is kept while the added amenity brings additional function to what otherwise would be expensive space, with only a single use, that cuts the Executive Offices into two segments. This also preserves what is almost 20 percent of natural light that would be otherwise lost to the greater area.

[7]

Fire rated Door to Exit Hallway.

[8]

Fire rated Door to Exit Hallway.

[9]

Fire rated Door to Exit Stairway.

[10]

Automated fire rated roll-down shutters.

[11]

Disaster Protection Shutters.

[12]

Storage-Fold-out WorkWall.

[13]

With this new location, the conference room becomes a multi-task room that benefits from its relative isolation from the rest of the space. The Meeting-Work Room is configured to serve traditional conference-board room functions as well as function as a large project work area and staff lunch area. The Storage-Folding WorkWalls [12] support these various functions as will a table designed to configure in various ways and provide two surfaces. This room will also be configured for Disaster Management with shutters [11] providing protection from window exposure.

[14]

Food Service Area

[15]

Landscaping

[1 - 15]

1 through 15 make up the basic boundaries of the Executive Office Environment. It is here that inclusion and exclusion, transparency and privacy issues are negotiated as well as how the environments external to the Executive offices (and visa versa) are perceived.

The goal is to move away from an environment that is isolated to one that engages its environment in addition to being intensely collaborative within its own domain.

[16]

Arnie’s Office

[17]

Group Collaborate Area (called Radiant Room). This area is set up for 25 to 40 people in a group setting. It supports 4 break out work areas and table clusters for about 15 people.

[18]

Library

[19]

Production Area and Files Storage - pull out work surfaces, built in files and storage support all typical office functions including printing.

[20]

Private Dining Room

[21]

Typical POD

[22]

Typical miniPOD

[23]

Radiant Room Trellis

General Notes

The sum of all the elements of this design add up to a very unusual office. Each element exists for a reason. The approach here is not primarily esthetic - it is focused on the entire function of modern executive and knowledge work activities which includes how the environment appeals to human senses but does not set this apart from other considerations.

It is primarily the different approach to work and the work processes involved that determines the layout and the forms of the environment. It can be argued that this is also true of more conventional work and I would agree. The difference, then, is in the work processes. The purpose of this design is to open the possibility to a greater range of work processes and use of the tools that support them. It is also based on a different view of how people should interact in the workplace.