Inside a Houston Healthcare Building Dedicated to Connectivity

Everything’s bigger in the Lone Star State. The Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest such complex in the world as well as among its most highly regarded. Spanning more than 2 square miles, encompassing 61 different hospitals and institutions, it constitutes the eighth largest business district in the U.S., one that recently became even larger with the addition of TMC Helix Park, a 37-acre trailblazing life-sciences campus that will eventually include multiple laboratory and research buildings along with a convention center, hotel, an apartment tower, and retail space—more than 5 million square feet of real estate in all. 

The first structure, the four-story, 250,000-square-foot TMC3 Collaborative Building, opened in October 2023. Elkus Manfredi Architects, the big Boston-based firm assigned the inaugural project as well as the master planning of Helix Park, has stats almost as impressive as the client’s: It not only ranks number 48 among the Interior Design top 100 Giants but also 34th, 43rd, and 49th on the Hospitality, Sustainability, and Healthcare Giants lists, respectively. David P. Manfredi, CEO and founding principal along with the late Howard F. Elkus, describes TMC3 as “both the convening space for the Helix campus as well as a microcosm of the whole.” Dedicated to connectivity and cooperation between and among researchers and private-sector partners, the facility is inspired by translational science: “Traditionally, there’s been a great divide between academic and commercial science, the biopharmaceuticals,” Manfredi notes. “The translational science construct brings the two worlds together to move solutions from lab to market as fast as possible.”

Discover The LEED Gold-Certified TMC3 Building

“The model at TMC3 is to combine fully equipped laboratory space, promising startups, and organizations that offer seed capital and support in translational medicine,” says Elkus Manfredi principal Elizabeth Lowrey, who led the interior architecture team. “We’re shifting from a research mindset of ‘mine’ to one of ‘ours.’” Thus, the building’s 43,000 square feet of state-of-the-art laboratories are shared by three of TMC’s founding institutions: the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. 

The building itself, Manfredi continues, “is almost square in plan, out of which is hollowed an atrium that serves as the town square for the whole campus, the agora for ideas.” Throwing off the rectangular footprint slightly, the east facade describes a long, shallow curve that follows the arc of the adjacent garden—one of five green spaces by landscape architect Mikyoung Kim that connect in a DNA-inspired double helix, a near 7-acre expanse that gives the campus its name. 

As for the atrium, it’s also strikingly expansive: 12,000 square feet of limestone-clad floor space topped by an almost equally large ceramic fritted glass skylight nearly 75 feet above. Fronted by deep balcony corridors, three encircling tiers of glass-walled laboratories and administrative offices overlook the huge volume, which is crisscrossed by a bridge and staircases linking the floors. Transparency and connectivity are more than metaphors here. 

Thanks to bleacher seating and a podium backed by a giant video screen, the atrium accommodates educational and cultural events, while oak slats covering the walls and balcony undersides bring warmth and texture to the imposing venue, as do the poured-in-place concrete walls surrounding the reception area. Dedicating so much cubic footage to an atrium might seem counterintuitive but, flooded with daylight, its vast dimensions and natural surfaces animate the whole building. “You walk in, and the generosity of light and space become palpable,” Lowrey observes. “The materials bring a human touch to the scale, making the huge volume feel approachable and reassuring.” 

The second and third stories contain the joint laboratories and adjacent administrative areas. The fourth floor houses the TMC executive suite—a low key–luxe environment of glossy whites and silver grays offset by marble flooring and wood or suede paneling—partner-institution offices, and the James P. Allison Institute, a 14,000-square-foot cancer research lab named for the resident Nobel laureate. Furniture throughout is clean and modern, with a representative sampling of blue-chip pieces by Jasper Morrison, MUT Design, Luca Nichetto, and other contemporary luminaries. 

As befits a medical center, the LEED Gold–certified TMC3 building places a premium on the health and well-being of its occupants, most conspicuously by maximizing the physical relationship between the interiors and the natural world. “When we began discussing our involvement with Helix Park back in 2019,” Manfredi recalls, “one of the first things I said was that the outdoor spaces are as important as the indoor ones.” The curving east facade hosts an amphitheater-like array of staggered terraces—sun-drenched, lushly planted, and furnished with pristine-white tables and chairs by Lievore Altherr Molina and Richard Schultz, they are an irresistibly welcoming al fresco amenity. And, of course, the ground floor offers immediate access to the green park where in good weather research teams can hold meetings under a canopy of shade trees. “People are not just working out there—they can have lunch together or a beer on Friday after work or movie nights and kite festivals,” Manfredi concludes. “Making all those connections with colleagues and their families in a low-pressure, natural environment will accelerate the science.” 

Take A Look At The TMC3 Collaborative Building In Houston

How a Ski Chalet Doubles as a Luxurious Rental Property

Named after an Alpine goddess in Germanic mythology, Chalet Bertha is a family vacation home and rental property in Charlevoix, a region of Quebec, Canada, long famed as a year-round resort area of breathtaking natural beauty. Located high on a hillside in the Laurentian Mountains near the picturesque town of Baie-Saint-Paul, a celebrated arts and crafts colony, the three-level, 7,500-square-foot chalet enjoys panoramic views of the surrounding forested landscape and the mighty Saint Lawrence River beyond. It’s one of 46 identical homes in a private community that ensures aesthetic uniformity by selling each lot with a set of plans determining the precise footprint and exterior form of the residence to be built on it. While complete floor plans are included, however, the interiors may be configured any way the homeowners like.

Bertha was built for a business couple who intended to use it for ski weekends and longer vacations with extended family and friends as well as for corporate retreats and small conferences. The owners also planned to offer the house for short-term rental. To create an interior that satisfied this demanding program, they turned to Perron, which worked with longtime collaborator Luc Tremblay Architecte on reimagining the entire layout. It was a major undertaking, begun in 2019 but not completed until 2023 thanks to COVID and Canada’s winter weather. Firm founder Natalie Perron led the team, with Rebekah Maciagowski as project manager and Sarah Eve Hébert as artistic director. “Natalie and Sarah Eve were the design experts for the chalet,” Maciagowski notes. “But all the firm’s designers worked on it.”

Reimagining a Family Vacation Home in Quebec, Canada

At the beginning of the project, the team collaborated closely with the clients in developing the overall plans. But as things progressed, the owners relinquished more and more control. “Finally, they went for a year-long trip around the world and left the remaining decisions to us,” Hébert reports. “They said they trusted us,” adds Maciagowski, “then off they went, expecting the house to be absolutely turnkey-ready when they returned.”

Bertha’s eponymous snow goddess provided inspiration. “The concept was to feel the winter spirit indoors and be warmed by the joy of company,” Perron says. “It was all about creating magic with spaces that open up to the world, playing with cold and warmth in a way that makes us feel that we’re outside when we’re inside.” She also took cues from what are known in French as hôtels particuliers—literally, personal hotels—freestanding, private town mansions that achieved their apogee in 18th-century Paris. The chalet would be a family home that functions like a five-star hotel, right down to Bertha-branded luxury soap, shampoo, and toothbrushes in every one of the six bathrooms. 

The style of the modern and comfortable interior also takes its cues from Northern Europe. That means clean lines, inviting textures, and lots of blond-wood finishes basking in the light from walls of highly insulated, commercial-grade windows. “When you live in a Nordic country, you discover strategic ways to bring warmth into your interiors,” Perron notes. Furnishings were sourced from Sweden and Denmark as well as Italy, Spain, the U.S., and, of course, Canada. Custom pillows, throws, and rugs were produced by craftspeople on L’Isle-aux-Coudres, a river island that Bertha overlooks. 

The chalet’s main public spaces are on the top floor, where a 2,500-square-foot great room with a soaring beamed ceiling comprises living, dining, and lounge areas arranged around twin nodes: a huge woodburning fireplace and a central open kitchen defined by a massive U-shape counter. (There’s a hidden, fully equipped professional chef’s kitchen, too.) On the ground floor, the double-height main entrance is not a traditional “home” space but an après-ski mudroom that’s more like a welcoming hotel lobby. Outfitted with a herringbone brick floor for easy maintenance, it features a 1970’s-style suspended metal fireplace encircled by wood stools and rocking chairs and flanked by a banquette, behind which a large storage room accommodates ski gear. 

A wide hotellike hallway equipped with a bellman luggage cart leads from the front door to four of the chalet’s five bedrooms, each with an en-suite bathroom. The fifth bedroom and a kids’ dormitory with eight bunk beds are on the lowest level. The suites are all similar in style, but each has its own color scheme along with a name derived from the word snow in various languages—Sno, Nev, Lumi, Sne, and Ho, the last being the largest and main bedroom. The house easily sleeps 20. 

Accessed by a bright-red steel staircase that incorporates a slide, the lowest level includes a gym and an expansive family room with areas for kids’ craft activities, a convertible ping-pong/pool table, and a climbing wall. The color palette down here is brighter and more saturated than most of the upstairs, where the outdoors are the chief inspiration and the natural tones of fir, spruce, oak, and pine, joined by a variety of lacquered veneers, tend to predominate. 

“We did a big reveal for the clients when they returned,” Hébert reports. “We had some surprises for them, so the experience was like unwrapping a gift, especially as it was five days before Christmas. It was wonderful to see their reaction.”

PERRON: NATHALIE PERRON; SARAH-ÈVE HÉBERT, REBEKAH MACIAGOWSKI; MARYSE TOURANGEAU; GENEVIÈVE PERREAULT; OLIVIER RACINE; ALEXANNE LEVASSEUR; BRIAN BLOUIN; LAURENCE DUMAIS-BLOUIN; EMILY LAPOINTE.

LUC TREMBLAY ARCHITECTE: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. 

GÉNIE+: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. 

CONSTRUCTION ROSAIRE GUAY ET FILS: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT DEDON: HANGING CHAIR (LOUNGE). 

EGE CARPETS: RUG (LOUNGE), CARPET (DORMITORY). 

SANCAL: CONICAL COFFEE TABLES (LOUNGE, NEV SUITE). 

RH: SOFA, DINING TABLE (LOUNGE), SWIVEL CHAIRS (TERRACE). 

JC BORDELET: FIREPLACE (ENTRY). 

BONALDO: SECTIONAL (GREAT ROOM). RUBI: SINKS (BATHROOM). 

RUBINET FAUCET COMPANY: SINK FITTINGS.

ZITTA: TUB.

HAMSTER: CUSTOM SCONCE. 

MUUTO: MIRRORS (BATHROOM, HO SUITE), BARSTOOLS (KITCHEN). 

DOOOR: FOLDING DOOR (DORMITORY).

MOOOI: CARPET (HALL). 

MUST: BED (NEV SUITE). 

TUDO & CO: SCONCE. 

MUTINA: BAR-FRONT TILES (KITCHEN). 

B&B ITALIA: BED (HO SUITE). 

SCHNEID STUDIO: PENDANT FIXTURES. 

HAY: DESK CHAIR. 

THROUGHOUT ANNA CHARLOTTE ATELIER: CUSTOM ARTISANAL PILLOWS, RUGS, THROWS. 

Carlos M. Martínez Flórez: 2023 Interior Design Hall of Fame Inductee

Architecture came early and naturally to Carlos Martínez, who was born in Cuba but moved to the U.S. as a toddler, settling with his family in Puerto Rico. “I always wanted to be an architect,” he says. “My mother tells me that even as a small child I would make comments about buildings, and I was always drawing floor plans.” During a more than 40-year hybrid career, Martínez has combined traditional architecture, design, and leadership roles with substantive experience in strategy consulting, product and service innovation, and ethnographic research for clients globally. The result has been a formidable portfolio of commercial, institutional, and hospitality buildings and interiors that not only meet the highest aesthetic and functional standards but also expand the cultural and social meaning of his chosen profession. For Martínez, architecture is an engine of change.

How Carlos M. Martínez Flórez Catalyzes Change Through Design

Martínez went on to work for an impressive roster of Chicago firms, including the venerable Holabird & Root, architects of his own historic abode, and ISD Inc., “where,” he says, “my journey into corporate interiors started.” But a turning point in his trajectory came when he joined Doblin Inc., which was developing fresh perspectives on business and architecture. “Doblin was probably the first doing what’s called ‘innovation strategy,’” Martínez explains, “taking a multidisciplinary, research-based approach seen through an anthropological lens. The idea was that success and innovation are related to human needs and behavior, and that architecture and design are integral to it all.”

When Gensler came calling in 2001, it was another case of “the right place at the right time.” The largest firm in the world had recently established a Chicago office, and Martínez fit right in. Before long, the company moved from the Inland Steel Building, a 1957 steel-and-glass landmark by SOM, into a classic Louis Sullivan edifice from 1899. Martínez designed the new open-plan digs, which acknowledge the profession’s reliance on research by running a library down the center of the single-floor space—a deft marriage of aesthetic pleasure to intellectual context that earned the project finalist status in the 2009 Interior Design Best of Year Awards.

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Get Ready for 2024: See what’s next for Interior Design‘s Hall of Fame event with a peek at what we’re planning for the 40th annual gala. Discover Hall of Fame details.

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Several other Martínez-helmed Chicago projects have been BoY finalists, including the IBM Innovation Center in 2005 and the Wilson Sporting Goods headquarters, which featured a smashing 60-foot-long graphic wall in the lobby, in 2007. However, it was the interiors of Loft-Right—a new residential hall by Antunovich Associates at DePaul University—outfitted with mostly Charles and Ray Eames furniture, that first won him the award in 2006. His work attracted honors as early as 1998 when, while working at Perkins & Will, he received the AIA Interior Architecture Award for the restoration of an 1894 mansion by Thomas & Rapp in his own historic neighborhood. Martínez was invited to join the College of Fellows of the International Interior Design Association in 2011, and since then has garnered the annual Don Brinkmann Award, the highest recognition Gensler bestows on its own designers.
In 2015, Martínez moved East, where he is now comanaging director of Gensler’s 700-person New York office and creative director of the northeast region. He has continued to focus his prodigious talents on a wide range of projects, both in size—from a few thousand square feet to well over a million—and location, some of them in or close to his now hometown. In the Hudson Yards development, for example, a six-floor office for Boston Consulting Group gave Martínez the chance to conjure a showstopping central stair in 2017. Suburban New Jersey also beckoned, with the 2019 transformation of a vacant Whippany campus into an amenities-rich, farmhouse-inflected workplace, replete with wood planking and botanical motifs, for Barclays. That was followed by an even bigger project for the bank: a campus in Glasgow, Scotland, comprising five structures—three new-builds and two conversions—on a formerly derelict waterfront site. The complex was named Best of the Best and won the Corporate Workplace crown at this year’s British Council for Offices National Awards.

What all Martínez-led projects have in common is an extraordinary finesse in the architecture and design, an excitingly palpable sense of the new, a forthright commitment to sustainability, and an eye firmly turned toward longevity and the future. “Today, we have incredibly difficult problems to solve—social, political, climate,” Martínez observes. “We need to be designing in a way that helps to fix those problems.”

Watch the Hall of Fame Documentary featuring Carlos M. Martínez Flórez

Explore Standout Design Projects by Carlos M. Martínez Flórez

Restaurant Born in Singapore Reflects The Philosophy of Its Chef

Restaurant Born, one of the starriest recent additions to Singapore’s already dazzling fine-dining firmament, is the first solo outing for chef Zor Tan, a young master of contemporary fusion cuisine that marries Chinese traditions to classic French techniques. Adding to Born’s allure is its historic location, the Jinrikisha Station, built in 1903 for the licensing and inspection of the city’s rickshaws, which numbered more than 20,000 at the time. After the iconic vehicles were banned for humanitarian reasons in 1947, the handsome, two-story brick edifice served other municipal functions until 1989 when, its envelope protected by conservation ordinances, it was sold to developers and has since housed a variety of businesses.

Zor, who grew up in a fishing village in Malaysia, chose the venue for its architecture, location, and history. “Rickshaw operators worked hard,” he says. “For someone who also started from humble beginnings, I saw the building as a platform for hard work and dreams.” Since entering the restaurant business at 17, he has made his way up to become one of the most accomplished culinary talents in the region. Having spent more than a decade working for Taiwanese super chef André Chiang, Zor is known for plates that are as appealing to the eye as to the palate. To set an appropriate stage for his venture, he hired New York-born designer Alan Barr whose firm, Greymatters, specializes in hospitality, including a string of Michelin-starred eateries throughout Asia.

Graymatters Creates a Simple Yet Complex Design for Restaurant Born 

After college, Barr worked in residential and corporate projects in his hometown until, in 1999, he had the opportunity to tackle his first restaurant, the Red Cat, a come-as-you-are Manhattan boîte popular with the city’s creative class. It whet his appetite for the F&B sector and drew the attention of a recruiter for an Asian firm that was starting a hospitality division. “I wasn’t looking for a job,” Barr says, “but I flew to Singapore and a month later was living there.” Today, Greymatters has offices there and in Bangkok.

What Zor asked of the firm was simple and complex at the same time: a warm, sophisticated space that felt like home. “He sought a neutral color palette and natural materials, as well as accents of lush green” and subtle references to China, Barr recalls. The complexity lay in capturing the chef’s nature-based circle-of-life philosophy, which informs his cooking as well as his conduct and, as Zor point out, is reflected in the name of his restaurant: “‘Born’ encapsulates feelings of happiness, excitement, and great anticipation—the emotions of waiting for the arrival of a baby,” the father of two young children explains. “You can say it represents the birth of a brand-new me, the decision to leave my mentor chef, and the momentous step to start my own venture.”

No less complicated were the physical challenges presented by the site, a 4,300-square-foot triangle located at the prow of the wedge-shape building. By the time Barr began working on the project, the station’s interior details had long since disappeared, but the structural bones remained, including a double-height, glass-roofed atrium with galleries of handsome arches running along two sides. “We wanted to embrace the vaulted architecture but also create the cozy intimacy chef Zor requested,” says Barr, who covered “ugly” upper internal windows with more decorative arches. The glazed ceiling let in too much direct sunlight, so he installed another layer of frosted glass below it, which also helps mute the often-overwhelming sound of heavy tropical rain.

Art Meets Art Deco Influences at Restaurant Born

Light-filled and airy, the peaceful space, which has the ambiance of an open, arcaded courtyard, serves as the 27-seat main dining room, with banquettes and tables tucked into its arched niches. A couple of theatrical touches enliven the pervasive calm, however. The first, floating overhead, is an enormous paper sculpture by the Dutch artist Peter Gentenaar. Inspired by a dragon—the traditional Chinese symbol of strength, good luck, and hope—the roiling form also evokes clouds, swirling leaves, or sea creatures. “For me, it suggests that all things in nature connect to one another,” Zor says of the installation’s showstopping effect, which is amplified by a smoked gray mirror hanging above it. Theatrics of another kind are offered by the open kitchen, which occupies the room’s third wall, its lower ceramic tile–clad portion acting as a giant backsplash for the chefs’ hot line. The upper wall is covered with white-lacquered panels embossed with a large-scale bas-relief inspired by Chinese art deco design. Along with its decorative function, the paneling hides exhaust ducting.

The art deco motif is echoed in reception’s fluted cast-stone desk and the custom artwork in the 10-seat private dining room. Other intimate areas include a small bar cocooned by a sculptural canopy, a six-seat lounge, and a pair of side-by-side cigar rooms that cleverly split a two-door archway between them, one half for each. All the restaurant’s quietly sumptuous furniture and fittings are Greymatter’s custom designs fabricated locally. Comfortable yet elegant, the chairs, sofas, tables, and cabinetry no less than the architecture, cuisine, and service embody chef Zor’s hope that, for his customers, Born is an acronym for “the best of right now.”

wookie park; sofia silva; ken chak: greymatters

yang ah kang and sons: custom furniture workshop

foundry k: general contractor

carlisle and co.: mural (cigar room)

florim: wall tile (main dining)

apaiser: custom desk (reception)

goodrich global: rug (private dining)

synergraphic design: custom sliding doors

caesarstone: solid surfacing

pierre frey: upholstery fabric, curtain fabric

Interface: floor tile

dulux: paint

Hot Shots: Polène Calls on Valériane Lazard to Design a SoHo, New York Locale

Valériane Lazard has quickly built a reputation for refined interiors in the country that invented chic. The 32-year-old French designer, who is originally from Provence, studied her craft in the Netherlands, where she graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven’s man and well-being program under the tutelage of Ilse Crawford. Lazard later focused her global view while working for such leading innovators as Studio KO, Vincent Van Duysen, and Interior Design Hall of Fame member John Pawson, before opening her Paris-based practice in 2017.

A Closer Look at Polène’s SoHo Store

Neal Beckstedt Studio Transforms a Beaux-Arts Building into a Modern Office

Ever since Neal Beckstedt opened his eponymous studio in 2010, he’s had the good fortune of working with creative clients like fashion designer Derek Lam and eyewear maven Robert Marc. Another is innovative entrepreneur Albert Sebag, who approached Beckstedt for help with “his office” one day in 2019.

“I thought he meant his personal office,” Beckstedt says with a laugh. What Sebag actually had in mind was new headquarters for Guidepoint, the information-age business he founded in 2003. Guidepoint is a matchmaker of sorts, connecting clients, specifically global companies, in need of specialized information with the experts that can provide it. Currently, some 3,500 clients in a broad spectrum of industries—from healthcare to TMT—have at their disposal a network of 1,250,000 authorities for virtual or in-person consultations of practically any size. Almost half of the company’s 1,100 international employees would be based in the facility. What Guidepoint needed from Beckstedt, then, was an open and transparent arrangement of work spaces for clients, advisors, and full-time staff. Efficiency and versatility were stated goals.

After a six-month search, Sebag and Beckstedt found the ideal site in Chelsea: the entire 38,000-square-foot second floor of 675 Avenue of the Americas, a landmarked beaux-arts stunner built in 1900 as the Adams Dry Goods department store. “It was a bit of a mess inside,” the designer acknowledges, “but it had beautiful columns, high ceilings, and tons of light—all on one level.” That the building incorporated a central atrium also helped with the layout. “Most offices of this scale are worms’ nests of dark corridors; the atrium allowed for a completely open plan flooded with natural light.”

After demolishing the many interior walls and partitions, Beckstedt went about creating a unique config­uration of work zones in a controlled materials palette that invokes Gotham’s loft-conversion aesthetic. “I wanted the design to be straightforward,” he explains. “It’s about elevating mundane building materials— plywood, metal mesh, stainless steel—so the environment is clean and modern with a streamlined element, but still warm and interesting in a way that isn’t boring or overpowering.”

Beckstedt’s sense of delight helped raise visual engagement. He left much of the original brick exposed and enlivened the palette of blacks, whites, grays, and beiges with shots of a hot yellow taken from Guidepoint’s logo. The designer even opted to keep a pink wall, daubed with a bit of whim­sical graffiti, which had been revealed when plasterboard was stripped away during demolition.

Most of Beckstedt’s custom pieces are modular, and much of the purchased FF&E is versatile, such as the adjustable-height workstations. He limited the selection of furniture, focusing on familiar mid-century pieces by the likes of Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, and Mies van der Rohe. “It keeps things calm and consistent,” he notes. “So many offices try so hard to be interesting that they wind up with visual chaos.”

Beckstedt spent a great deal of his time developing the program, accommodating as many people as Guidepoint needed into the square footage. “The overall strategy was about being functional, about letting the function become the design,” he explains. “Ornamentation wasn’t going drive it, and that informed every decision, from the layout to not replacing missing sections of the crown molding. This project is about work and the history of the building and the city.”

Even the lobby, which stretches along a wall of commanding arched windows, is an interactive work space. “It’s not just a place for people to wait,” Beckstedt says. “It’s where team members can meet, use laptops, have a quick chat, or just take a break.” In theory and praxis, the genius loci at Guidepoint is connection.

facility solutions group: lighting consultant

lilker: mep

hollinger fine cabinetry: woodwork

mcnichols: metalwork

master’s upholstery: custom furniture workshop

b&b contracting group: general contractor

savel: sofa fabric (lobby)

chemetal: coffee table laminate

vitra: stools, side chairs (lobby, café)

fitzfelt: re­ception desk felt (ceo suite)

through merit: vintage desk

Patterson Flynn: rugs

empire office: conference chairs

knoll­textiles: armchair fabric (ceo suite), cushion fabric (training room)

dwr: armchairs (ceo suite), chairs (podcast studio, large conference room)

polygal: enclosure system (booths)

pinta acoustic: paneling (podcast studio)

Kohler: sink fittings (restroom)

knoll: workstations, task chairs (office, office area)

bernhardt; camira fabrics; designtex; febrik; hbf textiles; luum textiles; maharam; pollack: cushion fabric (training room)

ann sacks: floor tile

stark: carpet

laminart: tabletop laminate

bartco; coronet; delray lighting; liteline: lighting

benjamin moore & co.: paint

MetroWall: Glass partitions

This MKDA-Designed Headquarters in Miami Features Museum-Ready Art

If you live in Miami and care about art and architecture, you’ll be familiar with Jorge M. Pérez and Related Group, the development company he founded in 1979. Born in 1949 in Argentina to Cuban parents, and raised in Colombia, Pérez emigrated in 1968 to this country. After earning a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Michigan, he began his career by constructing affordable housing, graduating to high-rise apartment buildings in both North and South America. Now a billionaire art collector and philanthropist, the “King of the Condo,” as some call him, made such a transformative gift to the former Miami Art Museum that the institution was renamed the Pérez Art Museum Miami when it moved into its new Herzog & de Meuron home in 2013.

In 2021, Related relocated its headquarters to the top two floors of a new LEED-certified concrete-and-glass building in Coconut Grove, Miami’s historically art-minded neighborhood, where Pérez and his wife, Darlene, live—as do Bernardo Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear, the founding principals of Arquitectonica, which designed the eight-story gem. To create the building’s interiors, Pérez turned to the Miami studio of MKDA, a multicity firm that made its reputation by revolutionizing the fashion showrooms of Manhattan’s Garment District. Regional managing principal Amanda Hertzler and her team joined the project early on, working most closely with Related senior vice president Nicholas Pérez, Jorge’s son (his brother Jon Paul is the company’s president), but much of the proceedings were driven by the founder and CEO himself.

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“In addition to the building lobby and the Related offices, we also designed the elevator lobbies, the elevator cabs, restrooms, and a law firm on the fourth floor,” Hertzler reports. “Because we were going to install a lot of art, we kept the materials muted and neutral.” In the ground-floor lobby, for instance, she covered walls with slabs of matte porcelain that resemble marble but used scored, sandblasted gray limestone on the reception desk and other surfaces to create a softening contrast. She then added flashes of Champagne-finished stainless steel for some inimitable Miami elan.

Even more playful is the lobby’s coffered ceiling, a modernized nod to the carved-wood versions found in Coconut Grove’s historic Mediterranean-style mansions. “We changed the shapes of the coffers, so they’re all different,” notes Hertzler, who backed each recess with a sheet of LumaFilm—a flexible, paper-thin membrane incorporating tiny LEDs—to provide soft, ambient light overhead. The building’s mechanical systems are hidden above the glowing fabric, but the lobby’s rotating display of artworks is accommodated with visible gallery-style track lights that can be refocused remotely.

Related’s main reception area—its massive stainless-steel and marble desk set off by a wall of backlit rosewood panels—and executive offices occupy the top floor, while employee work spaces and facilities, including a collaborative area and a lounge, fill the floor below. “The building has an offset core,” Hertzler observes, “which would tend to make the interior of each floor quite dark.” On the other hand, it allowed Arquitectonica to sink a two-story glass-enclosed atrium at the center of the headquarters. “Related has a traditional corporate culture,” continues Hertzler, “so we installed the usual per­imeter offices, but the atrium floods the interiors with light. The transparency comes with a connectivity, because you can see people working on the other side.” On both floors, she created communal spaces that take full advantage of the atrium’s natural light.

There is art everywhere, some 300 pieces that range in form from the traditional oil on canvas to every imaginable “alternative” medium, including an Ai Weiwei “painting” composed of Lego bricks. A 16-foot-long bench in reception that appears to be a cast-bronze version of a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona daybed is, in fact, a metallic-painted fiberglass-and-steel piece created by Judy Niedermaier in the 1990’s for the lobby of the Mies-designed IBM building in Chicago. The bench had to be craned into place because it wouldn’t fit in the freight elevator.

The bench sits next to the grand Calacatta Toscana marble staircase that connects the floors and also acts as a platform for artworks, which undergo a monthly rotation. “That doesn’t mean every piece is changed every month,” Hertzler explains, “but a lot of the art travels and needs to be swapped out.” Pérez has promised his collection to the museum that now bears his name. “One of the nicest things about the art installation is how approachable it is, even in the common areas.”

Along with their own lounge, employees get two outdoor spaces in which to relax: a courtyard terrace at the base of the atrium and an expansive Arquitectonica-designed roof garden, which includes a covered area and open zones with enviable views of Biscayne Bay. “The roof is lush and eclectic, with beautiful, old, exterior-grade furniture,” Hertzler concludes. “At Related, even the seating is art.”

MKDA: kamilah bermudez; tonya watts; erin london

jalrw engineering group: mep

hyton engineering: civil engineer

advanced millwork: woodwork

city construction: general contractor

knoll: chairs, daybed (lobby)

Rimex Metals: reception desk (lobby), paneling (elevator lobby)

galaxy glass: glass panels (ele­vator lobby)

through 1stdibs: custom bench (reception)

exotic hardwoods + veneers: paneling

Coalesse: stools (collaboration)

Kvadrat Maharam: stool fabric

cf stinson: lounge chair fabric

acoufelt: ceiling baffles

gable roofs: lounge chairs, high tables (collaboration), desks (offices)

besa lighting: sconces (employee lounge)

perennials fabrics: booth fabric

woodtech: custom table (conference room), custom desk (ceo office)

stylex seating: task chairs

muuto: chairs (employee lounge)

designtex: banquette fabric

ben soleimani: sofa (ceo office)

carl hansen & søn: lounge chairs

piero lissoni: coffee table

robert kuo: red table (lounge)

empire office: furniture supplier

muraflex: storefront systems

florim: floor tile, wall slabs

architile: marble, quartz, terrazzo supplier

universal tile & marble enterprises: lime­stone supplier

heilux: stretch fabric lighting

Finelite: lighting

lightheaded: lighting

liton lighting:: lighting

bentley: carpet

benjamin moore & co.: paint

For the Ace Hotel Sydney, Flack Studio Creates an Authentic Australian Experience

Founded in 1999, the Ace Hotel Group has claimed an enviable slice of the hospitality pie with a chain of high-profile luxury boutique properties aimed at a creative clientele. Since opening its first location—a renovated former Salvation Army halfway house in Seattle—the brand has specialized in transforming rescued buildings of some urban significance into state-of-the-art facilities. The group currently comprises nine hotels, including the latest, which opened in May in Sydney.

The interior of the new property was designed by Flack Studio, a small firm based in Melbourne, best known for residential and retail spaces. Surprisingly, the studio had never worked on a hotel before. “The scale of the job was more than we were used to,” founder and principal David Flack acknowledges. “But I was confident that we could do it. There aren’t many hotel companies that I would want to work for, but Ace is clearly one of them.”

Flack joined the renovation project early on. Bates Smart, one of Australia’s oldest architectural firms, was responsible for gutting the Tyne Building, a 10-story brick structure dating to the early 20th century in the city’s Surry Hills suburb. The architects incorporated the exterior masonry walls into an 18-story, glass-and-steel tower that now houses 257 guest rooms and suites, but “there really wasn’t anything much to salvage of the interior,” Flack observes.

Although the Tyne was not officially landmarked, the designer wanted to pay homage not only to the building but also the fascinating history of the neighborhood where, in 1788, the recently arrived British discovered a deposit of pottery clay and built Australia’s first kiln. Within 40 years, Jonathan Leak, a transported convict, established his own pottery works there and was soon cranking out bricks, tiles, bottles, and domestic earthenware. In 1916, Leak’s factory was razed to be replaced by the Tyne Building—originally a pharmaceutical warehouse, later a garment workshop, and then a school for underprivileged kids. Over the years, Surry Hills was home to Chinese immigrants in the gold rush era, dangerous razor gangs in the 1920’s, bootleggers in the ’30’s, boho artists in the ’60’s, and a burgeoning LGBTQ population in the ’70’s, who established the renowned annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Flack wanted to reference all of it.

Early on, he decided that he would stick to straightforward industrial materials used in both traditional and innovative ways. These include the existing brick, along with board-formed concrete, terrazzo and oak flooring, solid woods and veneers, and a variety of metals. There is also stone, such as honed Rosso Francia marble from Italy for the main staircase. Acoustic ceiling panels are used to line guest-room walls—not so much for soundproofing purposes (even though rooms are equipped with turntables, a selection of vinyl records, and, yes, guitars) as for aesthetic reasons: “It’s a rudimentary material, not fancy,” Flack explains, “but it has a beautiful depth and texture to it.”

As for the color palette, Flack chose a singular combination of earthy tans and ochres, burnt oranges, a variety of greens, and, most surprisingly, purple. The inspiration came from the landscape paintings of Albert Namatjira, one of the country’s best-known 20th-century artists of indigenous ancestry. Both Flack and Mark Robinson, his partner in work and life, collect modern art, which plays a large part in the design. Commissioned pieces in many forms by a diverse group of living Australian artists populate the property. The front desk, for example, comprises a multihued patchwork of variously sized ceramic bricks—a gobsmacking installation by James Lemon. “I’m not afraid of using color,” Flack happily concedes.

The furnishings are a mix of vintage pieces—both anonymous and pedigreed—and custom designs. The lobby lounge features Paul Frankl–style mid-century rattan swivel chairs surrounded by bespoke banquettes upholstered in heavily ruched leather. “I do that with leather a lot,” the designer notes. “I think it makes the seating look more inviting.” The lobby restaurant booths, upholstered in similar fashion, are joined by Mart Stam’s classic 1931 tubular-steel chairs, now manufactured by Thonet, their cantilever frames painted fire-engine red. Guest rooms and suites are equally eclectic, with Mario Bellini’s iconic 1977 leather Cab chairs pulling up to Charles and Ray Eames’s round oak-top tables in some of them. Most of the hotel’s striking light fixtures, which include columnlike sconces of aged-finish perforated brass, are custom Flack designs.

Staying “on brand” was a top concern for Flack. “Ace had rules,” he reports. “But they also allowed that rules were made to be broken.” He eventually determined that the chain’s trademark was not so much a look as a feeling. “An Ace hotel wants to engage people on an aesthetic and social level, to encourage them to congregate and interact with others, both guests and locals,” he concludes. “I wanted this hotel to be an authentic Australian experience without losing the slightly renegade history of the neighborhood. In my view, Australia’s greatest strength is our diversity.”

Flack Studio: Mark Robinson

bates smart: architect of record

plant charmer: landscaping consultants

studio ongarato: custom graphics

electrolight: lighting consultant

marques interiors: custom furniture workshop

signorino: stonework

corsi & nicolai: flooring (reception)

akari: lamp (reception), pendant fixtures (lounge, restaurant)

alustain: stair railings (reception, pre-event)

rms traders: wallcovering (reception, library)

dcw editions: sconce (lounge)

flos: ceiling fixtures

nsw leather co.: banquette upholstery

through casser maison: armchairs (pre-event)

ramler: table (meeting room)

westbury textiles: curtain fabric (meeting room, restaurant)

living edge: side chairs (meeting room, conference room)

thonet: chairs (restaurant)

woodstock resources: flooring (restaurant, library)

house of bamboo: wallcovering (library)

warwick textiles: curtain fabric (guest rooms)

stansborough: custom blankets

parisi: tubs, tub fittings (bathrooms)

reece: sinks

mark tuckey: custom stools

artedomus: terra-cotta floor tile (bathroom)

electrolight: custom lighting

halcyon lake: carpeting

terrazzo australian marble: floor tile

classic ceramics; tiento: bathroom wall tile

knauf: acoustic paneling

bishop master finishes: cement render

Kvadrat Maharam: upholstery fabric

instyle: upholstery leather

dulux: paint

CannonDesign Transforms the Interiors of a Former Newspaper Building into Modern Tech Offices

Back in 1878, when the West was still wild and the U.S. had only 38 states, Joseph Pulitzer, a self-made Hungarian immigrant, acquired two struggling Missouri newspapers and merged them into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which has been publishing ever since. In 1959, the paper moved its newsroom and printing plant into a 1930 art deco-style building by prominent local architects Mauran, Russell and Crowell for another, now-defunct news daily. The Post-Dispatch sold the building in 2018 and now occupies smaller facilities nearby.

Today, after a $70 million overall makeover, the building houses 850 employees of Square and Cash App, two divisions of Block, Inc., the high-tech financial services and digital payments company. The staff had previously been working in three different locations, and the corporation’s primary objective was to centralize this workforce in one user-friendly space.

Now based in San Francisco, Block was founded in St. Louis in 2009 by two natives of the Gateway City: Jack Dorsey (also a co-founder of Twitter) and Jim McKelvey, a tech-head, entrepreneur, and glass artist. To create its new Missouri digs, the company hired CannonDesign, one of the nation’s largest architectural firms.

Block was clear about its remit for the 225,000-square-foot building, which comprises six stories and two basement levels: “The client was looking to create a home for its employees,” reports project director Ken Crabiel, vice president and commercial and civic market leader at Cannon’s St. Louis office. “A place where they could be connected with one another in a variety of ways.” Like a home, the plan called for a series of connected spaces, both large and small, public and private, to accommodate multiple activities.

The large spaces include three multilevel atria that connect to the more intimate areas by a series of interior staircases. Employees can choose to work at a traditional desk or on a sofa or lounge chair, and meetings can range from intimate tête-à-têtes to company-wide confabs in the vast all-hands area. The building can accommodate up to 1,200 workers, so Block has room to grow in place. (Currently, most employees are free to work from home or in the office, as they choose.)

In a project-defining move, the original newspaper printing press has been left in place—a steampunkish behemoth that stretches roughly 80 feet along the ground floor. Project designer and Cannon associate Olivia Gebben is especially enamored of the small basement-level lounge spaces tucked among the massive steel columns and beams that support the machinery above. “In these lounges, you can look up and literally touch the buttons and wheels that made the presses tick,” she enthuses.

“It’s hard to overestimate the role that press has in the collective memory of St. Louis,” Crabiel observes, noting that the machinery was clearly visible behind large street-level windows. “People used to come to watch the presses cranking out the paper. Nowadays the use of the building may be different, but you can still see activity in and around the press through those same windows, especially at night.”

The renovation also preserved a spiral staircase, much of Pulitzer’s office, and areas of decorative terrazzo flooring. Otherwise, floors throughout are the original concrete, with all their evolved patina showing. “We just refinished them with a low-grit polish,” Gebben notes. Adaptive reuse is nothing new to Cannon, which operates its St. Louis practice out of a similarly gutted and reinvented 1928 power station. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of that kind of building stock in our city,” Crabiel acknowledges. “And much of it is getting new life.”

The interior program was intentionally kept timeless, both natural and neutral. “We featured exposed concrete and natural oak against a lot of black and white,” Gebben says. “The bright blue printing press is a huge presence, so we didn’t add much color.” Most of the color, in fact, comes from numerous art installations.

“Art is in the DNA of our company,” says Jay Scheinman, Block’s global municipal affairs lead. “Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey came up with the idea of Square when Jim couldn’t complete the sale of one of his glass pieces because he didn’t have the ability to take a credit card.” In keeping with this strong connection to art, a contest was run for local artists to come up with pieces reflecting the company’s mission of economic empowerment. The 10 winning entries are now incorporated into the fabric of the building. Third Degree Glass Factory, founded by McKelvey in a reclaimed 1920’s service station, devised a striking ceiling installation—a constellation of suspended vitreous globes—for the third-to-fourth-floor atrium. “The blue color is as close a match to the press as possible,” Crabiel explains. “And the individual handblown ‘bubbles’ are meant to represent ink droplets.”

“So often in design, you look at the physical form and can see the connections between the original building and the renovation,” Crabiel continues. “But sometimes there’s an underlying philosophical connection, too.” Pulitzer believed that providing information enabled readers to make responsible choices. “Block is centered on the same principle,” the architect says, “and we wanted that notion to have a presence in the new iteration of the Post-Dispatch building.”

Cannon­Design: Ken Crabiel; Olivia Gebben, michael bonomo; nicole andreu; kevin zwick; elise novak; enge sun; melissa pirtle; stephen gantner; carmen ruiz cruz; kelsey mack; heather rosen; michelle rotherham; rita radley; brendan smith; jocelyn wildman; alex oliver; alyssa packard; barrett newell

trivers architecture: architect of record

mcclure engineering: MEP

KPFF Consulting Engineers: Structural Engineer

tarlton corp.: general contractor

Andreu World: café tables (all hands)

davis: chairs

ofs: high tables

coalesce: stools

flos: lighting system

plyboo: paneling (all hands, atrium 2)

knollstudio: chairs (game room)

gestalt: side tables (game room, lounge area 1)

kasthall: rugs (lounge areas)

Hay: sofa (lounge area 1), side chairs (terrace)

ecosense: pendant fixture (conference room)

tretford: carpet

herman miller: side chairs (con­ference room), task chairs (office area)

stylex: sofa (lounge area 2)

bernhardt: coffee table (lounge area 2), side tables (atrium 1), ottomans (atrium 2)

modloft: lounge chairs (atrium 1)

mafi: stairs, flooring (atria)

poe: storefront systems

Janus et Cie: tables (terrace)

Paola Lenti: lounge chairs

kettal: side tables, lounger

landscape forms: benches

pair: workstations (office area)

fine mod imports: lounge chairs

de padova: coffee tables

anthropologie: rug

focal point: pendant fixtures

Interface: carpet tile

woodtech: café tables (atrium 2)

Fredericia: side chairs

resident: sofa

vitra: lounge chairs

Ethnicraft: coffee table

vibia: floor lamp

growing green: planters

ppg industries: paint

Herbert Bayer’s Mid-Century Buildings at the Aspen Institute in Colorado Undergo a Refresh

In 1954, Bayer designed three International Style “chalets” for the Institute’s Aspen Meadows Resort. To reinvent the interiors, the institute hired Michael Suomi, who recently founded his own firm, Suomi Design Works, after decades in the hospitality arena, including heading up one of the four firms that transformed Eero Saarinen’s 1962 TWA terminal at JFK airport in Queens, New York, into the Interior Design Best of Year Award–winning TWA Hotel.

“The interiors of the resort’s 98 guest suites had been maintained, but they were redesigned in 1990,” he says. “Visually and conceptually, they were disconnected from the rest of the campus.” Suomi used “legacy” pieces of furniture and finishes sympathetic to Bauhaus origins. “I start a project like this by fully understanding its history and the people who came before me, because I’m just building on what they’ve already done. My goal was to have the guests come in and say, ‘Oh, this feels like it belongs here.’”