MA Office

Manhattan, New York
Completed in 2025
Construction Team: Leo's Contracting Group
Photos by August Liau

In 2024, we began a series of design interventions for a creative consultancy located in the Chelsea Arts District of Manhattan. This agency works with the fast-evolving fields of fashion, photography, art, and media, and therefore their own requirements for office space evolve quickly as well. At the same time, hybrid working is becoming a long-term model for them, increasing demand for informal spaces for staff, consultants, and clients to meet and collaborate.

The first intervention was to transform an existing “beige box” conference space in their office into a design-minded, cozy space that would represent the office in the best way possible. The goal was to make it feel like an intimate and inspiring retreat that works both for meetings and quiet reflective work.

Our approach was to enhance the three existing key pieces in the room: a large photographic print, the Jean Nouvel designed Ferrari-red oval table, and the glass floor lamp from Flos. The first step was to color-drench the space, painting the walls and ceilings with a deep grey-brown color inspired by the colors in the photograph. Modular Vitsoe wall shelves stand out nicely against this backdrop and create opportunities to show off the office’s collections. To highlight these shelves, the artwork, and the red table, we switched out existing exposed ceiling bulbs for monopoint lights that cast a warm directional glow on each.