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Advertising agency Colle+McVoy sought a new home to fuse their corporate culture with their agrarian roots, as well as reinvigorate their staff with a new urban environment and connectedness. The agency wanted to trade their suburban Twin Cities office park and private offices for a new environment that was open, Fresh, Artistic and Brilliant. They found this on the top two floors of a historic building in downtown Minneapolis’ warehouse district—blocks away from the company’s original location.
With the client, modest budget, and historical shell as givens, the design team took the charge to marry the industrial building’s mercantile dry goods history with the client’s straight forward culture and agrarian roots. The result was a constructivist aesthetic utilizing the inherent qualities of industrial materials in the context of the built process. Inspiration was garnered from intra-building transportation such as ramps, slides and chutes evident in architectural features such as the communication stair as well as the steel and lumber display walls.
Careful attention was paid to preserve the envelope of the historic structure, including beautiful plaster coves and beams, by allowing several smaller spaces to float below the ceiling and only lock larger spaces into the building when necessary. The design also took cues from the building’s history by using the original 1896 building and the 1916 addition as organizational structures.
DESIGN TEAM & SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS
William Baxley, AIA Design Partner
Gerhard Guth, AIA Senior Project Architect
Ben Braun Project Architect
Steven Rothe, CID Senior Interior Designer
Racquel Kuehn, CID Interior Designer
Sandy Anderson Lighting Designer
Brian Schroder Senior Project Specifier
Colle+McVoy Design Collaborator
KM Building Company General Contractor
National Steel Fabricators Custom Steel
Wilkie Sanderson Millwork
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Mars Carpet Carpet Installation
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