Dwell Harlem House Opening!

Here are the final images of the office system custom designed for Dwell's Harlem House. Check here for a walk through the entire house, along with the people who came, and more images of the office!

Office System Installation in Dwell's Harlem house!

Saturday Night, the night before Dwell's Harlem House opening, we began installing the office system. After the install we filled the shelves with books, rolled the Steelcase chairs into the room, and finally went to sleep.

.....Still Building.....

Yes, we are still building....not long until the Dwell event in Harlem!!!

Building More!

Finger joints, drawers, and press releases, what else could you ask for?

Kris in a box! There's a Kris in a box!

Where did she go?

Building!

After about two months we finally started building yesterday! It always feels great to see the project coming together. The next few days are crucial, we have to install the desk and shelves in a couple of days. Tomorrow we are picking up the desk chairs that Steelcase generously donated for the office.

Keep checking back as we are building everyday! Check out Flickr for all building images!

Design options for homeowners

We have created options for the desk area within the office space. What we have decided on is a desk in which both Alysia and David face the window. Desk drawers are interlocking in the same manner as the shelves. The shelves are designed to 'speak' to the desk by climbing up the wall while also leaning towards the desk. The window sits lower then the desk, here we included a short depth shelf that runs along the window and sweeps along the other wall to meet with the shelves. This shelf is designed to hold small interlocking cubes where David and Alysia's handheld devices can live. Slots are placed on this shelf for wire management. The images above are initial options for both the desk and shelves.

Check out other images at Flickr!

Full Scale Models

Our full scale models took most of the day to build, as we were still creating options for the homeowners. Materials used for this exercise were found in the rummage bin at school. Hey, we saved money while using unwanted materials, we can't complain. After building the models, we headed over to Harlem to show David and Alysia their options for the desk and shelves. They were very excited, we were even more excited because we had gotten final go ahead on the options given.

Look out for our next few posts including design options, building, and installation! Things are moving faster than ever now!

Jumping In: Initial Desk Concepts

We had less to go on for the desk area. David and Alysia needed space for their laptops, papers and printer. Other than that it was pretty much open, as far as how the space could be organized. We also started at a totally different point than with the shelves, to give David and Alysia different options of overall concept. We originally (and for a while thereafter) went with a wing-shaped design, trying different tricks to make the most of the limited space and prevent Alysia and David's chairs from bumping into each other. Towards that end, we envisioned an angled work area. We also played with secretary-style rollers as drawers and even as entire legs (with supports of course). Eventually we realized that it was just not going to work. Any legroom gained by angling the work area was lost due to the limits in desk width. After David and Alysia picked the slotted shelf concept and the somewhat-similar-in-look broken up desk concept, we realized that we needed to integrate the two. We also realized that all our clever but not quite functional solutions vis-a-vis leg room could be eliminated if we just put the two of them next to each other. In front of the gigantic beautiful window that they would love to look out of. So we plowed ahead and unified the designs. Next post: full scale cardboard and full speed ahead!

Check out the other concepts on our Flickr!

Jumping In: Initial Shelf Concepts

David and Alysia, the Harlem House homeowners, sent us images containing about 200 books they own. We jumped right into brainstorming about how we could make a shelving unit that spoke to David's organizational needs while incorporating Alysia's whimsical needs.

Both David and Alysia gravitated towards the concept of slotted rectilinear shapes that lock together, creating a system of organized chaos within the office space. They would pack down into a few sets of concentric shapes, specifically designed for easy moving and storage. Multiple configurations allowed for Alysia's need for variation.

Check out our model making experience on Flickr

Lyptus wood takes on Harlem

We received amazing news that a supplier of Lyptus wanted to donate their beautiful Brazilian hardwood to us for the home office space. Lyptus wood is a perfect material for this project since it is grown from renewable eucalyptus trees on forest plantations, ensuring environmental safety. Stuart Hanson of Brander Communications generously sent us more Lyptus then expected, 8 sheets of 4' x 8', 3/4" thick, and 4 sheets of 4' x 8', 1/2" thick. The Lyptus is a light cherry shade, which will compliment the redwood, reclaimed from Brooklyn water towers.

Closet Ideation

Here is a quick peek at some of the initial ideas we came up with for the closet space in the master bedroom of the Harlem House.

Check out all of our closet ideas on our Flickr site!