Office Spotlight: 124 Rivington St

Bluecore hired HUXHUX Design to design their three-floor office in New York. We asked HUXHUX Design a number of questions to learn more about this design.

SquareFoot

What’s the first thing someone would notice in this office?

HUXHUX Design 

This space has an impressive double height area just as you enter the building.  We kept this space open and designed a spacious collaborative lounge that doubled as a reception area for visitors. You’ll immediately notice the bright blue wall that shimmers in natural light that streams into the space. We designed a custom wallpaper for our clients using their logo as a repeating pattern so that their branding was incorporated into the main lounge without the need for a giant logo sign. The mylar based wallpaper makes the most of the natural light and proved to be a welcomed dynamic element in the main space.

SquareFoot

What does this office say about the company you designed it for?

HUXHUX Design 

The design concept was to make spatial connections between the rich history of the building and the workplace for this client. The building was used as a liquor storehouse during prohibition, so we designed a Speakeasy meeting room and a Barrel Room for one-on-one meetings.  Other contextual elements were developed such as a Pool Room (a historic public swimming pool is a stone’s throw from the building) and a Park Phone Booth Room (for the East River Parkway). It was important to the client that they made their new office speak to the rich history of the neighborhood. They wanted to have their new staff, most of whom would be moving to NYC from all over the world, to feel welcomed and situated by their workplace.

SquareFoot

Describe the layout of this office. How does this office design encourage creativity, productivity, and team happiness?

HUXHUX Design 

The office covers three floors of a building. As sole tenants, we were able to spread various working teams on the top and bottom levels while we reserved the middle level as a communal space for the office kitchen and dining as well as breakout working spaces. We met with numerous office staff to discuss optimal working conditions for themselves and their teams and designed spaces that were responsive to their, sometimes very particular, desires. We designed a “birds nest” perched above the main entry lounge so that small groups could assemble in a pillowy nest to talk and meet informally. We even designed a lay-down phone booth where staff could work while laying down with their laptops. The meeting rooms have very different looks and feels, and this was by design. We wanted to provide a wide range of environments so that different staff with different preferences would gravitate towards spaces that work best for their own personal style.

SquareFoot

What does the space do best?

HUXHUX Design 

The best thing about this office design is how it responds to its context and provides a variety of productive spaces for the company’s varied needs.  

SquareFoot

What went into choosing the colors and materials for the office’s decor?

HUXHUX Design 

We utilized contextual and historical narratives to inform all of the colors and materials throughout. For the meeting room that we designed as the Pool Room we developed custom wallpaper to mimic the look of a sun drenched swimming pool and selected a meeting table with a smokey blue glass top to play off of the contextual theme. The Speakeasy we designed in black and gold tones to provide a dark and moody space with rich materials that you’d expect to find in a bar.  

SquareFoot

What is your favorite part of this office?

HUXHUX Design 

There are so many custom elements that we designed for this client. Whether it is the custom wallpaper on a meeting room wall, custom textile cushions lining a social space, or custom millwork that helped shape the form and function of the space, we had a blast tailoring our design work for this client to deliver a truly unique work environment. Inc Magazine even named this office one of 10 in its World’s Coolest Offices of 2015 review!

Photographer: Claire Esparros

Designer: HUXHUX Design