Ayzenberg Group / Corsini Stark Architects

Architects: Corsini Stark Architects
Location: Pasadena, California, United States
Partner In Charge : Rick Corsini
Design Team: Manabu Leventhal, Brenda Delgadillo, Aaron Bentley, Ben Chen
Area: 9200.0 ft2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Steve King Photography

Text description provided by the architects. This project involves the renovation of a two story, 12,400 SF building and addition of a three-story, 9,200 SF building that then interconnect with three-story and one-story buildings long-occupied by the agency.

PROGRAM: A common problem for multi-faceted creative advertising agencies is that staff and workgroups can easily become isolated into workplace islands of specialization. The problem can be more acute when the organization occupies multiple floors in a single building. In this case, the agency has grown by acquiring adjacent buildings as they became available over the last eight years. So spatial integration between existing and new buildings and through multiple floors to make the workplace feel as one and encourage collaboration is truly a three-dimensional problem.

DESIGN INTENT: To address the visual interconnection between floors, a shaft of space runs diagonally from the first level gathering space to a large light monitor at the third level, framing a view of the sky and visually uniting the three-level workspace as one. Between the new and existing buildings and within the new building itself, circulation loops functionally tie common spaces together. Axial, oblique, and diagonal sightlines, some which coincide with circulation pathways, help weave space, light, and movement together, creating constant awareness of spaces beyond the space one occupies. This simultaneity lends the project a palpable rhythm of space and activity, where larger, scheduled meetings and impromptu discussions occur at once within the workplace visual field without compromising privacy and workgroup activity.