High-Tech Interiors

With its work on headquarters for companies such as Bloomberg and Barry Diller's IAC gaining worldwide plaudits, Studios Architecture is on a roll

by Matt Vella

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For Studios Architecture, the firm behind recent high-profile interiors at Bloomberg and IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), the question is how, not if, it will innovate. The firm's architects, designers, and planners have made a name for pushing the boundaries of design and technology, pioneering a new wave of corporate interiors in the process. Studios' design, it seems, is transforming the nasty, brutish, and often dull life of work into something altogether different—one high-tech interior at a time.

Founded in 1985 in Silicon Valley, Studios Architecture came to prominence in the early 1990s as the booming tech startups that had challenged long-standing corporate hierarchies were themselves becoming larger, more complex organizations. It made its mark in 1997 with Silicon Graphics' (SGIC) 500,000-square-foot North Charleston Campus in Mountain View, Calif., setting a new benchmark for hip, high-tech environments. Twenty-two years and more than 2,000 projects after its founding, with some 25 million square feet of office space realized, the company is known for its skill at designing spaces for organizations in transition. Over the years, it has worked with global companies such as eBay (EBAY), 3Com (COMS), Reuters Group (RTRSY), and LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton (LVMHF).

With four offices in the U.S. and one in Paris, Studios offers a wide range of services but is best known for its innovative interior design. "Their great strength has always been open, flexible, and technologically sophisticated office interiors," says Clifford Pearson, deputy editor-in-chief of Architectural Record. (Like BusinessWeek, Architectural Record is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP).)

Creative Freedom

Currently, Studios is enjoying a moment of even greater-than-usual esteem. Two of its most prominent designs have been wrapped up during the past two years: the futuristic, information-infused headquarters of Bloomberg in 2005 and the interior of the gleaming glass tower designed by Frank Gehry for IAC in Manhattan, which may be the most talked about new building of 2007. (Last week it was awarded an Excellence Award in the BusinessWeek/Architectural Record design awards.)

The two designs, one for a financial titan with a sharply honed Wall Street brand, the other for a rapidly evolving conglomeration of upstart Web brands, couldn't be more different, and have helped Studios to strengthen its claim as a company capable of tailoring innovation to a client's identity and business needs. "It shows their range and sensitivity to the needs of the people who hire them," adds Pearson.

But according to Todd DeGarmo, one of Studios Architecture's 12 principals and the founder of its New York office, technological developments and changes in executives' attitudes toward work have freed the firm to create its most flexible, collaborative interiors yet. "Instead of being bogged down in solving technological problems or departmental minutiae," says DeGarmo, "we can focus on the big picture idea: How do you make a wonderful place to work and make individuals in it their most effective?"

Collaborative Effort

Despite its diverse clients, Studios' designs do tend to have elements in common—they're technological bombshells that emphasize collaboration. At Bloomberg's 55-story building on Lexington Avenue in New York, every last one of the 3,800 employees sits at open-plan workbenches, top executives included.