by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
One of the first things you notice when you arrive at the offices of Looney Ricks Kiss on East Bay Street is that it’s an unconventional space. That should come as no surprise since the architecture, interior design and planning firm has collected many awards for its projects, especially those which involve renovating empty spaces into ultramodern office space.
The ground floor is an art gallery curated by Leigh Fogle of Fogle Fine Art. The exhibit changes several times a year and when it’s in transition LRK displays its many projects in the space.
To get to the reception area, you take the elevator to the top floor of the four-story office. It’s the most flexible space in the building and can either be separated into several different areas or opened up by moving room dividers to create what Principal Architect Mike Sullivan called a “charrette space.”
“We use this floor for design sessions that can last three or four days,” he said.
Designing LRK’s Jacksonville offices built on experience the firm gained when it renovated similar urban core formerly industrial spaces for its other offices across the country. The Jacksonville office used to be a warehouse maintained by Suddath Moving and Storage. The open floor plan, high ceilings and exposed brick walls were the perfect setting for LRK’s creative team.
“The Memphis office is in what used to be a dry-goods warehouse,” said Sullivan. “The Nashville office is in what used to be a warehouse next to the train station and the Boulder (Colorado) office is also downtown. We like the challenge of making use of existing space and bringing something back to life. I think this is the best of all of our offices in terms of what architects and designers do.”
With just a few exceptions, the offices at LRK don’t have doors. The workspace changes with the projects the firm is working on at any given time.
“We don’t really have formal rooms,” said Sullivan. “We designed the whole building to be flexible enough to change from project to project and we have used every square inch.”
All the lighting, furnishings and materials used in the office were chosen with sustainability in mind. The north- and south-facing windows allow work areas to be illuminated by natural light, eliminating the need for artificial lighting – and its carbon footprint – much of the time.
The only space that depends on interior lighting is the first-floor gallery, where compact fluorescent lights illuminate the space 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We do that in order to activate the street and enhance the pedestrian experience on East Bay Street,” said Sullivan.
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