High-Tech Interiors

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That helps them to crystallize essential messages about a company's aspirations and its business. "In assessing what the visitor sees, what the worker sees, and what the executive sees, we can make sure the ideal environment is not compromised," says Tolman.

Other designers and architects say that, thanks to such processes, Studios is at the forefront of the trend toward more collaborative corporate environments. "The problem is there's still a kind of polarization. [There's] either the truly open office or a throwback to the carpeted cubicle nightmare," says Hani Rashid, an influential Columbia University professor and principal with Asymptote Architecture in New York. "Studios is designing for clients that aspire to and demand much more flexibility."

Colin Nourie, cofounder of the Cincinnati-based TripleFive Design, who has worked in collaboration with office furniture giant Steelcase (SCS) as well as with architect Zaha Hadid, agrees. "The office is transitioning from a place to simply complete 'tasks' into a place to gather physically, and socially connect." Studios, he says, "is playing at an impressive scale."

Expanding Portfolio

Such praise doesn't mean the company is impervious to challenge. For one, it has yet to prove that a great office redesign can help turn around a flailing company's culture—let alone its financial fortunes. Studios' best work is often completed for organizations experiencing periods of financial exuberance. And even as the firm's reputation for innovative interiors has blossomed, recognition of its building architecture has not. But that could change with the completion of a 1,250,000-sq.-ft. urban complex in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood in 2008. Likewise, the proposed 9,000-sq.-ft. Washington (D.C.)-based Kingman Island Environmental Education Center (aiming for platinum LEED certification, the highest possible rating in the national ranking system for green buildings) could help Studios further hone its portfolio.

Budding architects and corporate leaders alike would do well to tour Studios Architecture's interiors. Its designs provide a blueprint not only for aesthetic and stylistic triumphs but, more aptly, for transformative work environments at the center of developing technological and collaborative trends.

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Matt Vella is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York.