Ask An Architect: How Should I Plan My Next Office Space?

V Three Studios designer Chris Mrozewski recently contributed an article on workspace planning and design to St. Louis-based startup and entrepreneur news site Entrepreneur Quarterly STL.

The article outlines the process for a young company to plan and design their first office space outside of a coworking environment.

If your startup is performing well in terms of sales, staff growth, or funding but still operating out of a coworking space, you’re most likely thinking about how your first “real” office might look.

As an entrepreneur focused on executing your company’s vision, handling the small details of how, where, and when your entire company will move to this new office can be overwhelming and distracting. Not to mention that, in building a small, focused team, you most likely haven’t hired any architects or construction experts.

Contact us for help with your next office design project, and read the full article here.

Coldplay Opens New HD Radio Sound Space at KROQ FM

V3 was excited to find out that Coldplay, the massively successful band that has sold over 100 million records worldwide, would be breaking in the new HD Radio Sound Space in KROQ FM’s new home on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles. The intimate performance was attended by a small group of lucky fans and industry personnel.

Entercom enlisted V3 to design the brand new, state-of-the-art performance space and showcase on-air studio with full exterior visibility. The 200-capacity space, which includes full industry standard audio/video and lighting production capabilities, is able to handle up to 128 dB of rock n’ roll, despite being located on the ground floor of a 28-story high rise office building. This is thanks to V3’s expertise in the design and buildout of acoustically sensitive spaces.

Check out some footage of the space in a pre-show interview with the band here.

Phase Two of Missouri Athletic Club Renovation Moving Forward

V Three Studios is continuing its partnership with the Missouri Athletic Club by designing and overseeing the construction of phase two of the long-standing organization’s fitness center at its St. Louis West campus.

V3 previously designed phase one of the renovation, which saw a portion of the existing racquetball court modules reconfigured and retooled to provide additional fitness options including yoga, spin classes, cardio workout rooms, resistance training and youth programming. Phase two of the renovation will continue the club’s path toward becoming a more modern, premier fitness facility.

The new spinning room is a significant improvement offered in phase two

V3 Project Manager Steve Burns dropped by the MAC to describe the work we’ve done on the project thus far:

The Tenderloin Room in St. Louis Opens with Refreshed Interiors

The Tenderloin Room, one of the most storied restaurants in St. Louis, has been known to host celebrities including Frank Sinatra and George Clooney. Now under new ownership, the restaurant has undergone an extensive interior renovation overseen by V Three Studios.

A chief design challenge with the interior of the space was maintaining the elegant, traditional feel for which it is known while tastefully upgrading and refreshing certain elements. The changes include all-new furniture, light fixtures, carpeting, and tile, plus upgraded or reconfigured kitchen, bar, and fireplace areas. The result is a stunning space that stays true to the restaurant’s heritage while positioning it for further success.

For more, take a look at the coverage from St. Louis Magazine, Feast, Sauce, or The Riverfront Times.

The menus aren’t the only thing that changed at Tenderloin Room. Brazell and Strake took pains to preserve the character and ambience while giving the space a refresh. They engaged V Three Studios to create a new vibe for an iconic space on a tight schedule. In less than six weeks, V Three principal Gabe McKee and interior designer Sandy Chiu helped move the project from concept to completion.

“We found existing elements in the hotel lobby and in the traffic flow to the restaurant to make a transition that works,” Chiu says. The fluted bases of tables in the lobby mirror vertically fluted upholstery for the banquettes. New and custom-built light fixtures created a more modern yet elegant vibe.

V3 Wins IIDA Interior Design Excellence Award for Webster University Sverdrup Complex

V Three Studios is thrilled to announce that our design efforts on the renovation of Webster University’s Sverdrup Complex have been recognized with an Interior Design Excellence Award by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Gateway Chapter. The project was a finalist in the Higher Education category and was announced as the recipient of the award during a ceremony in St. Louis on October 24th. 

The Sverdrup Complex, which serves as the home of Webster University’s School of Communications, was originally completed in 1987 and had become obsolete for use in modern methods of teaching. Over the course of the renovation, V Three Studios was tasked with replacing the building’s antiquated facilities with a series of interconnected environments that would facilitate a modernized, technology-forward learning experience. 

The newly renovated facility now features a sleek, modern interior with useful technology integrated throughout its hands-on teaching spaces, which include a collaborative media lab, video production studio, active learning lab, game design lab, flexible office suite, and more. The finishes in the space consist of natural woods, transparent glass panels, exposed metal materials, and colorful furniture accents that purposefully enhance the learning experience. V Three Studios and Webster University are both immensely pleased with the outcome of this project and its role in positioning the university as a leader in multimedia education.

Guest Article: Building Operating Management

V3 staff members Chris Mrozewski and Chuck Huss recently co-wrote an article on workplace design trends for maximizing productivity and efficiency. The full piece, published in Building Operating Management, breaks down the workplace design principles that position companies for growth and help achieve their business goals.

There are three basic design trends underlying almost every modern office environment, regardless of the industry or particular business model of the company. In no particular order, these trends are: 

• Encouraging creativity among employees.

• Integrating useful technology into the built environment.

• Placing a greater emphasis on employee wellness.

The goal of implementing these strategies may be to outperform  competitors through creative product offerings or solutions, to use technology to help employees more efficiently perform job-related tasks, or to retain valuable talent by ensuring employee health and job satisfaction… Across the board, good workplace design should always aim to achieve a company’s goals while adhering to its internal culture, regardless of whether the office is owned by a cutting-edge technology startup, a more traditional firm, or any type of company in between. 

To read the full piece, click here.

Tempus | St. Louis, MO

Fine dining comes without pretension at Tempus, a new restaurant in the Grove neighborhood in St. Louis. To highlight the exceptional dishes, V Three Studios designed an inviting, streamlined restaurant interior with a palette of natural materials including concrete, steel and Missouri White Oak wood finishes.

To announce his vision for the new restaurant, Chef Ben Grupe hosted an exclusive media announcement event at the unfinished space that the restaurant will eventually occupy. V3 was on hand with VR headsets allowing guests to preview the finished space. The announcement gained significant local press coverage. Read more at the previous links or take a look for yourself below!

Momento360 | View and share your 360 photos and 360 videos, on the web and in VR

Ben Grupe announces his vision for the restaurant

Food writers preview the space in VR

V3 Profiled in St. Louis Business Journal

The St. Louis Business Journal recently ran a Q&A with V3 Principal Kurt Kerns about the 60+ media and communications facilities the firm has completed since its inception in 2010. In the interview, Kurt describes his experiences working on these projects as well as how things have changed over the past decade.

"It was a bit surreal to attend the inaugural broadcast out of Jim Rome’s new studio in Los Angeles, fly back to St. Louis and randomly watch the broadcast on a TV at a Maplewood sports bar later that same day while grabbing a sandwich," V3 Principal Kurt Kerns said.

To date, V Three Studios has completed media and communications facilities in 6 of the top ten largest cities in the U.S., including 5 of the top ten grossing stations nationwide.

Read the Q&A below:

How did you get started building these facilities? I’ve been building media and communications facilities like recording studios, A/V post production suites and radio/television broadcast studios since 1995 when I designed and oversaw the construction of Playroom Recording Studios & Grand Central Post in the Power House behind Union Station. We started V Three Studios around a decade ago, and our work in media and communications production facilities has continued to grow and expand. I have been doing this for so long now that we are building the next generation facilities for some of the original build-outs from the early 2000s, like KROQ in Los Angeles and WBBM News in Chicago. It's very informing to see how the business models and technical needs of these media operations have evolved over the past two decades.

What goes into designing these facilities? How different are these designs from other typical projects? The main challenge in these technology-driven spaces is incorporating the infrastructure into the built form while maintaining aesthetic appeal and reflecting a client’s brand or company personality. A typical architectural project a decade ago was usually concerned with creating a functional space and a clear aesthetic direction, and the technology infrastructure was added later in the process like the icing on a cake. Modern media facilities could not be more different. We have to design the technology into the project from day one in order for these facilities to serve their intended purpose and be adaptable for new technology in the future while also maintaining a quality aesthetic and creative environment for the end users.

Any notable projects that stand out for you? A significant experience for me was (in 2017) building the Navajo Nation's Media & Communications facility in St. Michaels, Arizona, which serves as the main source of news and entertainment for the residents of the reservation. We worked with the tribe to create a modern facility with digital capabilities that also honors their heritage and culture, giving them something they can call their own while connecting with Navajo people across the country or even overseas. With the huge gaps in cell service and even power in that remote area, helping build a facility that connects the whole reservation was a really rewarding and inspiring experience.

What impact have these jobs had on the company? Having such deep experience in this space has certainly helped keep the firm going for the past nine years, but at this point, it only accounts for about one third of our active projects. The rest are in higher education, banking, commercial facilities and breweries/restaurants. Media and communications projects are often our foot in the door with new clients and lead to more diverse projects that speak to our team’s broader skill set. To that end, I’m happy to say that we’ve increased our revenue consistently every year and are continuing to grow both regionally and nationally. One direct impact of these jobs on our team has been the exposure to design and construction trends and best practices on a national level. We can travel to New York or San Francisco and take note of what people are doing there, then come back to our office in St. Louis and do world-class work at a Midwest cost.