Colonnade Office Building Renovation – Golden Valley
Studio BV transformed a suburban office building in Golden Valley with innovative design, maximizing assets, adding tenant-focused amenities, and refreshing interiors to create a modern, tenant-retaining space post-pandemic.
This building was a moment to post modern suburban office design. It was built in 1988 and had pink granite and limestone everywhere. The common area was full of water features and outdated plant gardens. The building had a standard cafeteria not in service and a large meeting room. The amenity list stopped there.
“Office design in the suburbs is being elevated and is more relevant and trend setting than it has been in 40 years,” said Betsy Vohs, Studio BV Founder and CEO. “The post pandemic workplace design trends are shifting to embrace suburban office landscape and as designers we are innovating in new ways.”
The design team’s biggest challenge was to maximize the building’s assets and refresh the building itself while adding in tenant focused amenities that drive meaning and value for the users.
The vertical nature of the pink granite was the largest challenge architecturally. The heaviness of that material was an obstacle. The team landed on encasing the material in drywall and recladding the column bases in quartz. This material complemented the existing granite floors that were remaining. To make it modern we needed to minimize the granite but yet embrace it. We embraced it in the floor plan. That was the win. We celebrated the Kasota Limestone by letting it stand out against the white walls that encased the previous granite walls and columns. Now the balance between the white, limestone and blush granite work in harmony.
The team added new open lounge areas, new restaurant, private tenant amenity club space with private bar and golf simulator. The team worked to redesign the office building lobby and common areas. Renovating the corridors, restrooms and elevator lobbies, creating a bright and warm space that is comfortable to be in.
The building renovation design helped to secure all existing tenants in the building and lease the existing vacancies. The building is 100% leased now within 16 months of the purchase of the building, due in part to the design changes made to the building.
Studio BV created new office brand experience and amenities to retain tenants.
Design: Studio BV
Client: Eagle Ridge Partners
Contractor: Steiner Construction
Furniture Dealer: Intereum
Photography: Corey Gaffer | © Corey Gaffer Photography
