New Zealand Commercial Design Trends Series NZ Commercial Design Trends Vol. 33/04C | Page 49

These pages:Designed by
Cory Grosser + Associates,
Supplyframe DesignLab aims
to be a collaboration hub
for engineers and designers
of hardware componentry.
A blackened steel-encased
conference room protrudes
from the Lab’s industrial style
workspace into a bright gallery
space at front of house.
says Grosser. “Somehow we had to deal with the
disparity between an engineering and a design
environment.”
The building selected to house DesignLab was a
1910s building in Old Town Pasadena – just a few
minutes walk from Supplyframe’s corporate head
office, also designed by CG+A.
The historic brick building had had a diverse
history, having once been home to an auto garage,
Maserati dealership, Art Center College of Design
annex, and even an Apple retailer. Like many old
buildings in this earthquake-prone area, it had been
structurally strengthened in an earlier retrofit.
“Being in a historic district meant there were
restrictions such as what we could do to the
facade. But inside we stripped everything out, back
to the shell – leaving the brick walls on all sides,
and the bow trusses in the ceiling.”
The interiors needed to accommodate flexible
workspaces, 3D printing facilities, an engineering
workshop and soldering stations, as well as com-
munity space for lectures and events.
Front of house is a stark white, public-facing
gallery space, creating the feeling of a crisply
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