Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Downtown Digs: The Collaborative

Challenges + Opportunities

After 30 years in a historic urban structure, The Collaborative decided it was time to search for a new urban space. An opportunity presented itself in Ricardo’s, a riverfront restaurant that had been vacant for decades.

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A Study in Contrasts

The office relocation was an opportunity to explore several design goals:

  • Expand formal + informal meeting + collaboration space
  • Encourage collisions + cross disciplinary collaboration
  • Create a space to spark conversation about identity + anonymity as a corporate office tower tenant

digs

Dedicated meeting and communal spaces support client and creative staff interactions with a communal work café and outdoor plaza becoming a transition point for distributed information. Informal spaces are found throughout the studios. A mediated open collaboration niche is balanced by a lounge based work environment that has a vista of the freighter traffic on the Maumee River.

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To reinforce identity and spark debate, the design team explored a study in contrasts within the glassy corporate tower. Abandoning applied finishes in favor of exposing the massive structure and concrete slabs was the first step away from the office tower atmosphere. The new workplace design highlights natural materials focused on the contrasts between hand crafting and digital fabrication representing important parts of the region’s past + future.

One SeaGate, Park Level 118 | thecollaborativeinc.com

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