HOUSE OF REED
Provided: Architecture + General Contracting
Location: Boulder, CO
Completed: December, 2010
Todd Reed's jewelry designs have taken him around the world, often selling directly to his international client base. Head quartered in Boulder, where design, fabrication, distribution and marketing all accumulate, Reed needed a place where he could invite his clients to come to him and at the same time, demonstrate the full process behind his pieces. Converting what was originally a narrow and deep, historical tobacco and candy factory into a synthesized space for both jewelry clients and Todd Reed employees to enjoy was the task at hand.
Transparency, suspension, collaboration and light were main themes in the Todd Reed project. First, the old space was hallowed out to make room for light, which now enters from both the north and the south, allowing all building inhabitants access to natural rays. A showroom now welcomes all guests. Steel floating display cases, fabricated by tres birds workshop, give the impression of jewelry suspended in mid-air. A water wall and interior garden bring vitality into the space. Separated by glass, the jewelry workshop, where all designs are constructed, is visible from the showroom as well as outside passers by. Situated along a main street in Boulder, pedestrians can glimpse the jewelers at work. Special consideration was given to the air quality of the jewelers, who are exposed to a high concentration of air particles during the jewelry-making process. To defend their breathing space, a heavy duty ventilation and hood system was installed, with the ability to clear the air instantly.
Structural elements of the building serve more than one purpose. The safe is not just a safe, it also acts as a load bearing wall, anchoring the floating post-tension concrete ramp leading up to the head office, which sits slightly above the entire space, looking out. Blending privacy with open collaboration, the head office walls, made from glass, were sandblasted for coverage, while a transparent ‘window' was left untouched. Outside the head office, a group of additional glass offices rounds out the business flow of operations, where inhabitants can see each other, but where sound is blocked for concentration. Throughout the space, tres birds workshop outfitted the Todd Reed space with furniture pieces made from reclaimed maple railroad boxcar floors.
Client Feedback:
Todd Reed / CEO / Todd Reed
“Since we are both designers, I appreciated Mike’s openness to collaboration and a shared design process. The finished result supports our full business and is exactly what it was meant to be from the beginning, it is 100% quality, a design that reflects the Buddhist philosophy of ‘right relationships’ and a particular balance. Also, the project is not overly designed. It is intelligent design that resonates with people immediately when they enter the space.”
Photography: Brooks Freehill / Mike Moore
Location: Boulder, CO
Completed: December, 2010
Todd Reed's jewelry designs have taken him around the world, often selling directly to his international client base. Head quartered in Boulder, where design, fabrication, distribution and marketing all accumulate, Reed needed a place where he could invite his clients to come to him and at the same time, demonstrate the full process behind his pieces. Converting what was originally a narrow and deep, historical tobacco and candy factory into a synthesized space for both jewelry clients and Todd Reed employees to enjoy was the task at hand.
Transparency, suspension, collaboration and light were main themes in the Todd Reed project. First, the old space was hallowed out to make room for light, which now enters from both the north and the south, allowing all building inhabitants access to natural rays. A showroom now welcomes all guests. Steel floating display cases, fabricated by tres birds workshop, give the impression of jewelry suspended in mid-air. A water wall and interior garden bring vitality into the space. Separated by glass, the jewelry workshop, where all designs are constructed, is visible from the showroom as well as outside passers by. Situated along a main street in Boulder, pedestrians can glimpse the jewelers at work. Special consideration was given to the air quality of the jewelers, who are exposed to a high concentration of air particles during the jewelry-making process. To defend their breathing space, a heavy duty ventilation and hood system was installed, with the ability to clear the air instantly.
Structural elements of the building serve more than one purpose. The safe is not just a safe, it also acts as a load bearing wall, anchoring the floating post-tension concrete ramp leading up to the head office, which sits slightly above the entire space, looking out. Blending privacy with open collaboration, the head office walls, made from glass, were sandblasted for coverage, while a transparent ‘window' was left untouched. Outside the head office, a group of additional glass offices rounds out the business flow of operations, where inhabitants can see each other, but where sound is blocked for concentration. Throughout the space, tres birds workshop outfitted the Todd Reed space with furniture pieces made from reclaimed maple railroad boxcar floors.
Client Feedback:
Todd Reed / CEO / Todd Reed
“Since we are both designers, I appreciated Mike’s openness to collaboration and a shared design process. The finished result supports our full business and is exactly what it was meant to be from the beginning, it is 100% quality, a design that reflects the Buddhist philosophy of ‘right relationships’ and a particular balance. Also, the project is not overly designed. It is intelligent design that resonates with people immediately when they enter the space.”
Photography: Brooks Freehill / Mike Moore
