Project Reveal: Private Wealth Asset Management Headquarters
We’ve mostly shared residential projects so far, but today we are sharing a commercial project close to our hearts- the headquarters of Private Wealth Asset Management, a wealth management company launched here in our city. We partnered with Aspect Architecture | Design to take a historic warehouse and turn part of it into a high-end wealth management company’s headquarters that elicits grit and polish at every turn.
It was such a benefit to the design to be able to spend time at the beginning laying out our client’s priorities hand in hand with laying out the walls, furniture, and fixtures. Being a brand new company, we did some ebb and flow together as time went on and the space opportunities changed, the client’s employee makeup shuffled, and their usage of the space shifted. A big priority to the client was highlighting the original historical and industrial elements, while layering on top a a thick layer of polish and warmth. Another priority for this headquarters was to make not just an office for employees, but an event space for clientele. This idea shaped the flow and feel of the space and helped narrow our vision to create a tailored, sophisticated club mixed with the gritty industrial warehouse that existed already. To accomplish this, we incorporated dark walnut, warm cognac, black shou sugi ban, glass, and plaid and tailored upholsteries with the existing brick, concrete, and black gridded windows. We carried these few vital elements throughout the space in various forms to create depth but connection between areas.
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DURING
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Reception
For a headquarters, we made sure the entrance greeted guests with a marked feeling and an interesting vantage point. We did this by creating a large reception desk with a seating area flanking each side and a view into the glass-surrounded open office area, an upscale open kitchen and lounge area, and a historical industrial slide.
After addressing layout, we added finishes, furniture, and fixtures to fill the space with a palpable level of grit and polish. We incorporated a plaid wallcovering and a shou-sugi ban-panelled ceiling, plaid rugs and some cognac leather seating. Custom live-edge walnut tables and reception desk made by local Woodland Co. are the stunners of the space, with forged iron light fixtures pouring warm light into each area. Guest get a front seat to local artist Crit Streed’s intricate line drawings, highlighting the company’s love for all things local.
Let’s back up. A slide? Yes, you heard that right. We understand that this metal circular slide spanned through each floor of what once was a hardware warehouse to aid the process of moving product to the ground floor. To honor the history of the building, we spotlighted this feature with lights and a 1930s map of the city, circa this buildiing’s heyday.
Offices
We designed a handful of different kinds of workspaces for the client, from executive level spaces meant to have secure client conversations, to individual focused-work offices, to open office “bull pen” style desking. Our through line always being glass and black hardware, walnut, tailored upholsteries and leather, each space works hard for the different workers in them.
An interesting challenge we faced was the historical building requirement to showcase as much original ceiling, floor, and windows as possible. We used glass walls to achieve this which also gave the space a much more open feeling and reclaimed a lot of light. But we also had to hold in tension the need to create secure meeting spaces and offices, where their clientele’s information would be safe and conversation could be visually and audibly private. We did this by using reeded glass, glass decals, and motorized shades to visually obstruct details and thoughtful acoustic flooring, wall panels, and ceiling planks to absorb sound.
Conference Rooms
We built out two dedicated conference rooms for our client with full audio and video conference calling ability for communication with other teams and remote clientele. Each space was designed to have light control and visual privacy with motorized shades on both the windows and the interior glass walls. TVs and tech were built into walls, ceilings, and conference tables to look and work as seamlessly as possible. In these rooms made to flex between client meetings and internal company meetings, credenzas provide flexibility to store food service items, tech, hidden trash receptacles, and other miscellaneous materials.
We incorporated shou sugi ban in one room, and then paneled the other in a sound-absorbing walnut. We dropped the same walnut in a planked ceiling element to absorb sound and softened each floor with carpeting. We repeated leather on the conference chairs, glass for whiteboard surfaces, and walnut in the furniture pieces. Feature lighting fixtures crown each room to make each its own identity, but stunning regardless.
In the large conference room, a marble conference top reflects the light back up and a focal wall features a commissioned fiber art piece from local artist Kristina Fjellman.
Lounge & Kitchen
From the very start, we identified the client’s desire to use their office space as a tool to host clients, hold events, and showcase their local community as well as their company. We designed the lounge and kitchen open to each other with this in mind.
On the lounge side, seating for guests sits along the reeded glass wall of the bull pen, and a hanging fireplace provides a cozy gathering spot in the middle. Custom ottomans made from antique persian rugs pull together each seating cluster on either side of the fireplace.
We designed with substantial furniture pieces for a snug look and layered lighting from the ceiling down to floor lamps for depth. We pulled in leathers, cozy upholsteries, and layers of plaid for that “club” feeling. The sculptural black fireplace draws on the industrial side of the original space, so we continued metal finishes in black with accents of brass. We used walnut to take the edge off and warm up the space. And finally, the chandeliers draw together the two prevailing ideas perfectly: iron and glass to be gritty and polished in one, simultaneously mimicking the reeded glass backdrop that sets off the space.
Across an open walkway sits the kitchen, backed by more reeded glass. The space features black flat-paneled cabinetry with industrial-feeling knurled handles and knobs. We collaborated with Custom Cabinets and Appliance Barn to layout the cabinets to include everything an office needs, plus wine storage, range, ovens, and more for hosting events. The perimeter is offset by a handsome old-world island with paneled walnut, brass kick plate and foot rail, and draped in quartz with waterfall ends mimicking the walnut panels. Plenty of counter seating surrounds the island, opposite the cook surface, pulling the plaid and leather over from the lounge. Overhead is a statement light featuring scores of globe lights acting as a canopy over the long island.
At the end of the island a banquette provides seating for an alternative workplace or an employee lunch, while also featuring visual signage of all the company’s office locations. Above larger globe pendants repeat the lighting element over the island and the leather, black, and wood elements in the furniture blend right in with the other furnishing materials.
What a priveledge, to be trusted by our clients to bring a historical space to life to serve their clientele. From an empty concrete and brick space to glass walls lit by a cozy fireplace, we loved putting every detail in its place.
Ever thought commercial spaces were boring? Well now you know they don’t have to be! Let us help you get there.
