One Kings Lane Offices – New York City
AE Superlab was commissioned by One Kings Lane, one of the fastest growing lifestyle and home furnishings brands in America, to design their new creative headquarters located in New York City, New York.
Located between Soho and Tribeca, two of Manhattan’s most fashionable neighborhoods, the design draws aesthetic inspiration from the edgy industrial history of the neighborhood as well as from the more refined palette of the One Kings Lane brand. Contained within the 40,000 square foot space is a varied mix of programs and activities each demanding a unique set of functional requirements but needing to function harmoniously as a whole.
The offices house Creative Directors, Copy Editors, Buyers, Web Designers, Business Developers, Photographers, Set Designers, Photo Retouchers, as well as an entire section of staff dedicated to shipping, receiving, locally warehousing, cataloguing, and prepping the constant flow of merchandise to be photographed for the website on a daily basis.
Each of the various disciplines dictated a specific set functional and spatial requirements that had to be met within the confines of the 40,000 square foot space. A core directive of the challenging design brief was to find a way to integrate these various requirements harmoniously and efficiently.
The Lunch Room is the heart of the office, a carefully composed zone that balances the existing space’s raw industrial feel with a light and minimalist design that also reflects the brand’s elegant residential aesthetic. At various times, the room will serve a variety of purposes ranging from formal banquets to impromptu meetings to all-hands meetings where all 200+ employees can gather and join the San Francisco office for a company wide conference via two large retractable projection screens.
An oversized and well appointed central kitchen island, along with a custom wood and steel “floating” shelf suspended from the ceiling, comprise the visual focal point of the Lunch Room space, and provide a generous work surface for what is the most highly trafficked part of the office.
AE Superlab designed a variety work and meeting zones to suit the various needs of the One Kings Lane employees. Two large, generously daylit open office areas occupy the southeast and southwest corners of the floor plate. A mix of private offices and conference rooms of various sizes ring the central core. In addition, five smaller “phone booths”, each uniquely themed and styled provide either a private sanctuary or a cozy space for quick meetings with up to three people.
Designer: AE Superlab
Photography: courtesy of AE Superlab
