Project Profile
Associates Purchasing
Associates Purchasing is a Knoll dealer with more than 25 years of experience. In a recent move to Downtown Los Angeles, the dealer recognized that the greater visibility presented an opportunity to showcase its work culture, product offerings and professional services. Working with Loescher Meachem Architects (LMA), Associates Purchasing created a 7,300 square-foot living showroom in an existing building that boasts 16-foot ceilings. The space had to be flexible, support employee wellbeing, and stand as an example of creative, forward-thinking design.
As a working showroom, the space was called upon to embody an aspirational workplace with a variety of work settings, including open plan workstations, private offices, meeting rooms, huddle rooms and social lounge areas. The sum effect of these settings would also display the dealer's range of products while realistically meeting the team's practical needs. To successfully meet these needs, LMA and Associates Purchasing focused on well-planned spatial adjacencies. "It was all in the planning," said an Associates Purchasing representative.
In a shift from Associates Purchasing's previous office, LMA located the more public, collaborative program areas—pantry, conference room, library—at the heart of the floor plan, creating a social hub. This move not only organizes louder activities in one zone, but it also works to attract people from across departments and work areas, encouraging a friendly and open culture. To define zones of use within the open plan, LMA employed a limited material palette, coordinated with the historic brick and concrete building interior.
In the work areas, Associates Purchasing sought to demonstrate its expertise in blending Knoll products in user-tailored solutions. AutoStrada®, Dividends Horizon®, Antenna Workspaces®, Reff Profiles™ and Template® were all employed in the workstations at various moments and in tailored configurations. Reff Profiles™ and AutoStrada® were also used in the private offices. Generation by Knoll® and ReGeneration by Knoll® were used across the workstations in support of active sitting styles during the work day.
LMA used a few space-delineating strategies to create a sense of privacy in the open plan, including porous walls and operable KnollTextiles drapery for ad-hoc enclosure. Interpole was used in a similar manner. Because these vertical structural elements can support storage, technology display, tack boards and writing surfaces, the strategic placement of Interpole also dovetailed with Activity Spaces programming.
The new space has successfully met both of Associates Purchasing's original objectives: to support its team in an improved and expanded workspace, and to showcase its talents to prospective and existing clients. The space has since prompted client conversations and sparked project ideas, particularly in the dealer's unique blending of product, its use of materials and its display of KnollTextiles. In its new downtown location in the heart of Los Angeles, Associates Purchasing also reports an invigorated sense of connection to the local design community.
