2014 BOY Winner: Lobby

The Eveready Battery Company’s warehouse filled this building when it started life in 1917. Subsequent decades saw a smattering of so-called improvements: partitions, painted-over windows, and the like. After SKS Partners took charge of the five-story structure, Interior Design Hall of Fame member Collin Burry came onboard for a true renovation, creating an office environment completely separate from the GiftCenter & JewelryMart’s wholesale showrooms, which already occupied the rear section.

“We unwrapped everything, took it back to the bones, and made a quiet background,” Burry says. The primary asset for the office occupants, notably anchor tenant Airbnb, is the common space.

It starts with the open-air deck that replaced the old loading dock. Inside, capped by an operable skylight, the atrium lobby is like an urban pocket park—as befits a project aiming for LEED Gold certification. Reclaimed timber figures prominently throughout the 12,000 square feet. Massive Douglas fir planks form the reception desk, then segue into bench seating that supplements red powder-coated garden furniture. A plant wall ascends in stepped segments. Overhead, wrapped in oak, Douglas fir, and other woods, hover the meeting rooms of Airbnb.

Project Team: Doug Zucker; Dan Baroni; Dominique Price; Melissa Mizell; Devan Porter; Bruce Dahlstrom; Paul Choi; Laurie Petipas; Nicole Powell; Aimee Taylor; Michael Lin. Meyer + Silberberg: Landscape Architect.