In midtown Manhattan-beyond a marbled lobby of cathedral-like proportions, beyond a travertine-lined foyer and crystal-clear glass doors-sits a serene lace-collared receptionist. She is an appropriate
introduction to the beige-carpeted halls of one of the country`s largest and most prestigious law firms.
On a side street, concealed by double-parked trucks, is the factory door entrance to the loft building where a small advertising agency`s work place is in full swing. Bright sunlight, exposed pipes, bare wood floors and a long-haired receptionist in blue jeans set the tone for the company`s young and freewheeling style.
The establishment of dynamic new businesses and the recent meteoric growth of corporate law firms around the country have been a boon for designers and architects. In both types of firms, where the 16-hour workday is not unusual, a strong commitment to good design not only gives the right message to clients but creates an appealing home away from home for employees.
Shearman & Sterling, the law firm, and Pluzynski & Associates, the advertising agency, illustrate opposite ends of the design spectrum.
But locale as well as design characterizes a firm. Shearman & Sterling`s 288,000-square-foot offices are in the heart of midtown Manhattan. Pluzynski`s 10,000 square feet are in Chelsea in downtown Manhattan, in the developing area near Union Square.
Achieving the right image for these very different firms involved a delicate balancing act for the designers. ”Stylish, but not too trendy or glitzy or gushy, sophisticated without being arrogant, and lively but not frenetic,” is what architect James Biber says he had in mind for Pluzynski & Associates.
THE RIGHT EXPOSURE
”I looked for six months for the right southern exposure,” says Edward Pluzynski, president of the agency, who settled on a bright factory floor that is sandwiched between two long walls of large windows.
”We wanted to make it nice for the people who work here,” says Pluzynski of the 35 people who work in the firm; their average age is 30.
”They can work all day and party all night.”
But what happens if the music that permeates the office at all times is too loud for the boss?
”If it bothers me, I just go into my office and close the door,”
Pluzynski says. ”It`s better for everyone if they`re in an atmosphere they like. I didn`t want it to appear like a corporate kind of office.”
That meant creating an environment that, although meticulously worked out, still has a casual, ad hoc quality. It extends to the creative directors` sparsely furnished offices, visible behind floor-to-ceiling glass-paned walls. ”Furniture partitions are ugly,” says Biber, who, instead of using built-in work stations, devised long linoleum-covered counters supported on metal legs and equipped with up-lights and spindly metal Luxo drafting lamps. The renovation cost about $40 a square foot.
The lobby or waiting room is generally the most obvious design statement of purpose made by a firm. Clients are likely to be caught off guard when they enter the Pluzynski offices, where the unusual sitting area is furnished with severe Mission-style furniture upholstered in trendy cow skin.
A black and white checkerboard pattern was painted on the wood floor to look as if it has always been there and is slowly fading away. ”It was almost an afterthought,” Biber says of the design. ”Now it seems to epitomize what this place is about.”
So does the small, casual lunchroom with its large square table and low deli-counter stools upholstered in gold-flecked vinyl that came from an out-of-business cafeteria across the street.
Clients are often entertained with takeout teriyaki chicken and pasta in the lunchroom, while some employees bring in their own food. ”In paper bags, just like high school,” Pluzynski says.
NOT TOO RICH
For most law firms, the design of the office is meant to convey a message of solidity and accomplishment. ”A law practice wants to project quality without looking so rich it is considered ostentatious,” explains Richard A. Carlson, a principal of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, an architectural planning firm thas has designed more than 25 law offices in the last five years.
”They don`t all want to look conservative,” Carlson adds. ”Instead, they are tending to be more contemporary in their image.”
The predictable rows of leather-bound books, Queen Anne wing chairs and ersatz old-English lighting fixtures are nowhere to be seen at the just-completed Shearman & Sterling.
”If you go into a modern building, the traditional look is out of place,” says Robert Feeley, a partner and real estate specialist at the 500- member firm. He estimates that in 1987 he put in about ”600 non-billable hours” working on moving half the firm into the offices in the crisp-looking tower by Edward Larrabee Barnes Associates.
”You spend half your life here; it should be a place you feel good in,” Feeley says.
”Ten years ago, if anyone would have told me that the quality and decor of the environment and the facility would matter for a new recruit, or if a law firm wanted anything in the way of dining facilities that was more than a vending machine, I would have been skeptical,” says Margo Grant, the managing principal of the New York office of Gensler & Associates Architects, a giant space planning and architectural company hired by Shearman & Sterling.
Gensler, which has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver and Washington, is designing about 2 million square feet of law offices across the country.
”Picking the carpet and the furniture account for only 3 percent of the effort,” Grant explains. ”Moving and relocating hundreds of people, libraries, files and records, communication systems and equipment that includes computers, telephones and air-conditioning are factors added to the budget.”
Other professional consultants in the areas of security, catering and mechanical, structural and lighting engineering are part of the design package.
A PLACE TO DINE
A major goal for Shearman & Sterling was the creation of functional and attractive eating facilities. ”We have meetings and client events going on all the time, and they often go through a mealtime,” explains Robert Carswell, the senior partner.
”People would insist on going out to lunch or bringing food in. Because of that we found ourselves in the hotel and restaurant business, catering as many as 200 lunches in a day, and that was terribly disruptive to our law practice.”
Now many of the firm`s lawyers-half of whom work in the Citicorp Building across the street-meet in the new high-ceiling, 80-foot-long, 160-seat dining room.
Lella Vignelli of Vignelli Associates, a Manhattan company, was design consultant for the unwieldy 3,200-square-foot space.
While Vignelli made the decor compatible with the rest of the firm`s understated blond wood interior, she managed nevertheless to assert her own modern style. The coffered ceiling is lined in metal mesh; walls are treated in a stucco finish; brown leather-covered Brno chairs by Mies van der Rohe surround the tables.
”After looking at lots and lots of chairs, we ended up with good old dignified Mies,” Vignelli says.
A series of Audubon prints-a holdover from the law firm`s previous Wall Street offices-has been reframed in gold to hang in the dining room and along the majestic and luxuriously minimal travertine-lined hall.
”What can you do?” Vignelli asks about the conservative artworks.
”They liked them.”
On the other side of the floor are the imposing conference rooms, one lined with portraits of the firm`s founding fathers. Looking into a room that can seat up to 140, with three rows of chairs around a high-finish wood table of football-field proportions, Carswell notes, ”This is where such things as a country`s national debt are discussed.”
Reactions to the new offices by partners and associates at Shearman & Sterling have been positive. Andrew B. Janszky is enthusiastic. ”I spent my days like a sinner in purgatory before going to midtown heaven,” says the young partner-he is in his 30s-who moved uptown from the firm`s traditional Wall Street offices. –
