Turner Duckworth Offices

Packaging a Packager

Jensen Architects renovated a concrete warehouse for an international design and branding firm’s San Francisco offices.

21st-Century Barbary Coast

Turner Duckworth specializes in creating iconic branding and packaging design for its famous clients. For the firm’s office in San Francisco, Jensen Architects stripped a two-story concrete warehouse and painted everything — exposed joints, truss, concrete — solid white. (That extends to the structure’s brick facade; painting the bricks white was a nod to the firm’s London office.) Located in San Francisco’s historic Jackson Square, a neighborhood that dates back to the Gold Rush, the building now acknowledges its roots while exuding an ultra-contemporary vibe.

Red Alert

Jensen’s vibrant design juxtaposes clean, modular white walls and furniture with dramatic splashes of color coming from translucent red panes around the mezzanine and stairs. Viewed from Montgomery Street, the red and white design is eye-catching any time of day, but especially after dark, when the illuminated interior reads as a more abstract composition. An old-school “On Air” light in the admin area complements the color scheme: it glows red to make clear when account people are on the phone and shouldn’t be interrupted.

Heart of Glass

The central meeting table made of glass relays illumination from the skylight all the way down into the basement. A place for short stops and informal meetings, the cantilevered glass table gives the impression of floating in space. All this glass creates clear sightlines between floors to promote an open, collaborative atmosphere, and makes the meeting table a focal point for the entire office. A continuous interior window spanning separate offices for the CEO and CFO adds to the visual openness.

Retail Therapy

An all-white basement includes a large rolling bookshelf, which makes it easy to reconfigure the space as needed, as well as sliding walls that are also magnetic whiteboards — perfect for the creative team as they present work or compile mood boards. The walls part to reveal retail store–style shelving, a decidedly useful feature for a firm that designs a lot of product packaging.

Type: Workplace

Client: Turner Duckworth

Location: San Francisco

Awards

2013 IIDA Northern California Merit Award for Work Small

The Spark International 2012 Finalist for Spaces Design

Press

gb&d, “All in the Mix,” December 2010

Masterpieces: Office Architecture + Design Verlagshaus Braun, Publisher, 2008

1000x Architecture of the Americas Verlagshaus Braun, Publisher, 2008

OnOffice, “Partners in Design,” May 2007

Small Firms, Great Projects, AIA San Francisco Publication, 2006

Architects

Project Leads: Jensen & Macy Architects:; Mark Jensen; Mark Macy; Chris Kalos; Cecilia Ho

Project Team: Frank Merritt

Consultants

Structural: Jeffrey Weber and Associates

Contractor

Johnstone McAuliffe Construction

Photographer

Sharon Risedorph

Mariko Reed

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