office reception interior design images
oh man, i cannot believe that just happened!mark's construction time line may have just gotten a little longer….i'm kalyn rothaus, and that’s me and my first building project. and my first powerlunch. for as long as i can remember i’ve wanted to be a designer. and now here i am,creating functional and fabulous spaces. this is my client mark alfieri, founder and chairmenof brandstar, and that’s carmen his cheif operating officer. they've asked me to takethis building and turn it into a modern and efficient workspace.it's going to be a challengebut in the end the new space will be functional and of course it will most definitely be fabulous.brandstar is a branded entertainment company that produces programming for network television.they've grown through the years from eight
employees at the start to over to over a 145today. mark is moving 135 employees of the company from a 20,000 square foot space toa new building he's purchased, but the new building only has 11,000 square feet. thechallenge mark has given to me is to put the same number of people into a smaller workspaceand make everyone comfortable and more productive. at the moment, we are three week into ourconstruction process… the buildings been gutted to the shell and we've started thebuild. we've made good progress on all the framing and drywall, all the windows and doorshave been installed, so we have the building now sealed. in the new design i've decidedto utilize the existing concrete from the old building for all the high traffic andwet areas, so we’ve had super krete come
in and treat and restore all the old concrete.i'm pleased with where we are at but still concerned with mark’s timeline needing therenovation completed in 90 days. to do that, we need everything to run on time with nohitches and that almost never happens in the construction business. so everything is reallystarting to come together, i think once the flooring is installed not only will i seemore but mark and carmen will start to get a better vision and sense of what the spacewill ultimately look like. it's still hard to imagine there are no ceiling tiles in ourdrop in grid, you know there are some big parts and pieces missing so i think once theflooring is laid down they will get a much better idea of where we are at in the project.we've got the concrete restored in the high
traffic zones and now for the meeting roomsand office spaces my design calls for luxury vinyl tile, what we call lvt, because it'sreally cleanable, really durable, and also has a beautiful finish. i've chosen karndean design flooringbecause they've been in the flooring business for over 40 years now and are considered oneof the leaders in lvt. i will be working with john jarvis of karndean design flooring to install the floor.before any flooring can be laid, however, i've asked emil mellow to meetup with our site manager mark furman to measure and inspect the area especially for any moisturecontent in the concrete floor. here in south florida, there's a good possibility that weare going to have moisture in the building's concrete slab. with the high water table inthis area and because concrete is very porous,
moisture can seep up through the concreteand affect the new vinyl, causing it to buckle. to determine if this is going to be a factor,karndean technicians are inserting sensors that will measure the moisture content inthe slab. and as we suspected there is a high level of moisture in the concrete. so nowthe karndean installers will lay down a water barrier product called verashield. this willprevent water from seeping up through the concrete and affecting the glue that’s usedin the vinyl tile. this was an extra step but it’s going to help keep this flooringlooking good for a long time. they needed moister tests, what are the othercouple things? karndean: that was really the only thing.the other thing is when we prep the floor
that it's clean, drawn and ...luxury vinyl tile is very good for the workspace because of the look and feel of the naturalproduct. we’ve got many patterns and designs that mimic the real thing without all theactual set backs from the real product so we're less susceptible to moisture, topicalwater spills, scratches and dents and things that would easily damage the real thing suchas wood. it won't affect ours as much i've decided to go with the "wood look" inlvt …something that has a lot of green and movement in the tile so that you don’t seescratches and dirt…. karndean has a beautiful line of lvt- tile,including a new collection they just released. it was the exact coloration i was lookingfor and it had enough movement in the pattern
on the floor for it to be interesting in theherring bone pattern. it's all in the prep work so once that prep work is done it’sjust a matter of spreading adhesive and placing the planks in, making sur that everythingis tight and square. now this is not an easy installation! it would be much easier to justlay this stuff down in a plank pattern. the reason i chose a herring bone is because it’sinstalled at a 90 degree angle. and so the way that our building is laid out is it’sthese two intersecting rectangles and what happens is in one area the herring bone isparallel to the wall and when you… because i kept the pattern floating through out maintravel path when you get to the main bullpen it’s actually at a 45. so it’s interestinghow the flooring plays with the shape of the
building and the installation. it’s onething to have your design vision all mapped out and ready on paper- it’s quite anotherto share that vision when nothing has been built yet!that was my challenge in showing mark, the building owner, and carmen, the coo- whatthe end result of this office construction will look like.yep! i know it doesn’t look like much now, but let me give you an idea of where we are….so this is your reception area here! it’s always difficult with a 2d drawingto imagine what a space will look like. it’s important that mark and carmen have a goodvisualization of the space. a company called vimtrek helped me solve that problem. vimtrekis actually a state of the art cutting edge
technology that allows you to create a virtualreality world in 3d animation! i shared with vimtrek my plans and every specificationthat i used in the building…and we created a virtual model that’s just like steppinginto the real thing! recently i was privileged to present my design concept for our buildingrenovation at greenbuild, the world largest conference dedicated to green buildings. vimtrekfounder and president arol wolford, told us more about the value of the vimtrek modelfor contractors, suppliers and building owners. because before vimtrek the architects weren’treally able to share their information in an easy to use format like vimtrek so whenwe talk about vimtrek we got visual information model and you get to trek around the buildingwherever you would like.
you could have the owner in tokyo, the buildingin miami, florida, the subcontractors in miami, florida, the architect in detroit and nowthey’re all simultaneously walking through the building together. that’s breakthroughand that’s awesome collaboration. every screw, finish, framing, tile, furnitureand flooring can be put in this software. it’s called bim, building information model.so you know exactly what supplies are needed for building before construction even begins!600 billion dollars is what commercial construction is in the united states. of that 600 billionestimating the project, counting all of the equipment – cost 60 billion. doing all ofthe design is 40 billion. so more money is spent in the united states counting and measuringthings than actually design. that’s a travesty.
now with vimtrek we’re not only able towalk around the building, have all the units, but we can count everything automaticallyas well. vimtrek, with the building information model,saves mark time, money and prevents construction waste, which is good for the environment.plus it also gives mark and carmen a great visualization of just what there buildingwill look like. this is actually our building and i’m going to walk you through, so followme! oh wow! we’re going to do a virtual tour!yes! so we’re entering the reception area and we’re going to make a left down thiscorridor- to your left are private offices and to your right are some unisex restroomsand i’m taking you down toward the bullpen.
i feel like i’m in the building right now!you’ve even got the glass up and everything! so mark and carmen are certainly excited aboutthis new technology… but i’m excited on how we’ll be usingvimtrek to get started on our next phase of construction. next up, check out our lacavavanities. (music). (music).so today we have lacava on the job site and they are installing two pieces of bathroomfurniture, one in the men’s restroom and one in the women’s restroom.i’m working with jb, the regional sales manager from lacava. lacava is known for theircustom made vanities, mirrors and led lighting.
we import faucet and sinks from italy andwe manufacture all of the furniture in chicago. we do everything from standard pieces to fullcustom projects. i chose lacava because they’ve just come out with a new line of bathroomfurniture with beautiful finishes that are also ada compliant.when i first got the call from kalyn she was very excited about us offering a vanity thatwas able to fit an ada application and we were excited to show how an ada bathroom ina public space can be made to look beautiful and stylish.so i needed something custom made to fit the space and i needed something beautiful tocompliment the rest of the finishes in the bathroom.we have a very talented staff of artisan wood
workers that are able to create all typesof different custom designs and it gives us a very tight control over quality and allowsus to really make the pieces exactly how we want rather than mass producing in a factoryat a very high rate. these vanities have integrated led lightingso we had to make sure we had power in the wall in the right location. that’s importantbecause you have to coordinate all these moving parts and pieces for when the vanities arriveto actually be installed. i am now turning my attention to the interior walls and doorsof this office building and the challenge is bring in natural light providing an openspace and still allowing privacy for employees. i found the answer in glass partitions. collaborationsand community workspaces is the mandate, but
people also really need privacy. i’ve designedwhat i believe to be a fabulous glass partition that will provide an open community feel,but also give privacy at the same time. the glass is also designed to add a dramatic decorativeimpression to the interiors. i’ve asked to meet with edward geyman andnino pena from carvart. they specialize in creative turnkey architectural glass products.thank you guys so much for meeting with me today. i have a lot to show you and a lotto talk about. kalyn, it's really exciting to be here. thankyou for having us. carvart glass is a true creative solutions company out of new york.and they have a lot of experience in taking design ideas and crafting them in glass. sobasically my client had given me a challenge.
i’m looking to put a gradient or some sortof diffused color, you know, something for privacy so that when an employee is seatedthey have a sense of privacy like they’re not in a fishbowl. and when they’re standingand walking through the space they have a little bit more visual.we loved her design just for the fact that it is very clean, it’s very unique, it’svery innovative at the same time it’s… she thought a lot about the employees of thecompany. i also wanted to bring in some color. i lovedthe glass bathroom cubicles from carvart because of their clean, modern design. and i thoughtit would be a fun surprise for people to bring a bright color in to contrast the concretewalls in the bathroom.
so these are our restrooms here. so i haveswing doors. have you thought about doing glass toiletcubicles? cus that’s what we do. you know, ok. tell me a little bit more.so these are unique. instead of having the typical stainless steel cubicles we designand manufacture glass cubicles. what we can really do unique is the color, that’s whereyou can really bring that creativity and use any color that you like.fantastic! so to put glass partitions is unexpected and also quite beautiful.this area we have the reception area, the bullpen, and then you come to the officeshere. so i’ve seen the space, i’ve carefullylistened to kalyn. we’re going to really
recommend the right system for her that’sgoing to help her solve all of her issues. i can hardly wait to see what carvart is ableto create with my design and for their glass partitions to be delivered.we’ve been waiting for this glass from carvart for a very long time, it came all the wayfrom new york. it came and now it’s broke. (music).we’ve been anxiously awaiting our arrival of our custom made glass partitions from carvartin new york so we can get started in installing the partitions.well, the glass arrived and our forklift began to unload the fragile cargo from the truck,but then accidents happen. one entire palate of glass collapsed and shattered.this end is where it broke? did it break this
way first?kalyn: so now we’ve lost four pieces of glass. we have our installers scheduled andi need to get them working. i’m not sure how long it’s going to take to get replacementglass, but as always i’m worried about mark’s timeline. this no doubt will set us behind.so now the installation of the glass partitions gets underway, along the perimeter offices,the bullpen area and interior bathrooms. by design, the glass will separate the individualoffices spaces and conference room, but still bring the natural light into the center coreof the building and feeling of openness for communication.what’s also unique about our system is that there’s a one sleek like of extrusion atthe top that runs throughout the entire space
so all the offices look uniform.the carvart glass with also provide that element of privacy for the employees when they’resitting in their office because of where i’ve placed the gradient on the glass.kalyn wants the both private and public space to be in the same spot. we’ve achieved thatby having our gradient go up from half the glass so you get that private feel and thenabove while you’re walking around throughout the entire space you have that real open feelof natural light coming in from all different directions.i’m really happy with the outcome of the color that’s been added to the glass tomake the office environment more exciting. the conference room glass has a blue gradientwhich makes this room really stand out. while
the white gradient is uniform throughout theoffices. the gradient is also a great safety feature so people don’t walk into it. andyes even the bathroom glass has it’s own color scheme. i’ve chosen a bright bluefor the boys and a bright orange for the girls. it will definitely bring an nice contrastof materials to the bathroom. i'll be so excited to see the end result.now that everything has been built and we’ve created everything, i really think we wereable to do exactly what she wanted and i think the final look is going to be fantastic.so as jb and his crew unpack the custom made vanities to begin installation our site supervisor,mark furman, is also here to help them make last minute adjustments, like finding theexact spot where the power outlet needs to
be. even the faucets have electronic sensorsso the power needs to be close by, but yet well hidden behind this piece of furnitureand adjustments are often needed to make sure everything fits just right.the space was not done before we started production on the vanities so we’re going off the estimateddimensions that they give us based on the construction plans.this is all custom work here so you don’t always know exactly where you need to feedin your electric and we had drawings for the plumbing, but for the electric we didn’tquite have so we had to make a few adjustments, res-set it in the wall, move the width whereit needs to be. it’s always a concern when you’re doingwall to wall installations and how things
are going to fit especially with a customwall item. yea, next we put up the faucets, we will tiein all the electrical down there, get everything ready so that we can do the final hookup whenthe time comes and then we’ll hang the mirror which also has light so we will configureall that as well. i think kalyn is going to love it! it’s coming out exactly how sheplanned and she’ll be very happy with the final product.so the actual vanities from lacava are even more beautiful than i had seen online andin the catalog. the finish is a really contemporary finish and i’m very pleased. they have somereally beautiful details. there’s an led strip that lights the cabinet underneath andthen there are led strips behind the mirror
which will actually eliminate the wall. soi know that when plumbing is connected and the electricity is on it’s going to be reallybeautiful. (music).the last two weeks of construction have been hectic, but i’m seeing solid progress. we’reat that point where things are starting to take shape.the floors are exactly what i had envisioned. the kardean design flooring installers dida great job. so for kalyn what we did is we lined up theherring bone pattern with the main line of site through the main corridor here so itgives a nice feel and it kind of pulls you into the space.and i think once we get all the furniture
these spaces are going to be fabulous! speakingof fabulous, the carvart glass is really going to give us exactly what we’re looking for.we wanted to create an open collaborative feel and wow did we get all that and more!the glass is just stunning through the facility. as i’ve said i’ve always like to bringa design element of surprise in the bathrooms and i think the carvart glass along with thebeautiful lacava vanities and mirrors are going to make this really special.so when i saw the vanities installed, they exceeded my expectations. i’m very pleasedwith the finish and how it matches with our decorative finish on the walls. it's reallybeautiful. and now a new chapter begins. it’s timeto light this place up! we’re now turning
out attention upwards towards the ceilings.the grids are going in along without lighting. we have very sophisticated lighting with cuttingedge technology called “daylight harvesting†by acuity. and this is only the beginning.this building is full of new technology and it’s exciting integrating it all into mydesign.