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Reusing old buildings in new ways is one of the most challenging and exciting type of work we do. When we first walked the fifth floor of the Taylor Edwards Building it was difficult to see how such a space could be turned into the new office of Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine and several other sister publications. The building, an old furniture factory, only had six windows placed at opposite ends of its one hundred fifty foot length. The interior of the space was broken up into a variety of small, dark work spaces with no natural light. And yet the building did offer beautiful wood beams and evocative, exposed brick walls.
Our solution was to open the space up and create views to the exterior windows along all the walkways. Down the center of the entire length of the building we created a long "view way" connecting all of the major work spaces. Everyone in the office has views to the outside as they walk to and from their desks. Instead of placing offices against the windows most of the areas of natural light were given over to open shared spaces such as the meeting areas and the lunch room.
Maintaining a tight budget was of paramount importance and so the simple but effective use of color and light defined this project. In the end the commercial Studio was able to design a great work environment in a former furniture factory all for a very modest construction budget.
Site Address: 1518 First Ave South
Project Type: Magazine publishing office
Project Size: 8,000 sf
Completion: 2008
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