IS THE COMMON OFFICE STILL RELEVANT?
DC Association of Realtors
YES – IF IT’S FLEXIBLE
Have you heard? The common office model is doomed.
Just like mid-century Modern furniture, Birkenstocks, and vinyl records were doomed.
That is to say, the common office will survive – if it can learn to adapt and be flexible.
The permanent headquarters for the DC Association of Realtors, located just north of Dupont Circle, is a 5,300 SF space that supports a range of uses including classroom, conference, realtor product sales, administrative offices and events. The primary space has moveable glass partitions that allow it to be reconfigured for both office functions like lectures, annual banquets, and continuing education classes, or rented out as an event space.
Highlighting elements of the existing building architecture, the new space is composed of a series of architectural platonic shapes – plane, cylinder, barrel vault – each of which grounds a specific programmatic component. Drawing on the building’s arched windows, a vaulted spine organizes circulation and creates a subtle gradation between public and private. Semi-cylinder sliding doors create a ‘rotunda’ conference room of a round corner bay when slid into the closed position. The boundaries of the space are further blurred by a series of masking techniques – mirror-polished stainless steel-clad columns and sliding glass partitions – that allow the architectural components to be seen in relief against a neutral ground.
