Mahonia is a 36,000 SF, mixed-use building, housing a diverse group of hard-working, locally-owned, and socially-minded tenants including a bakery, food production kitchens, a restaurant, environmental non-profit organizations, health care clinics, various offices, a dry goods warehouse, and a community room available to the public.
For this project, we were honored to collaborate with a leading sustainable design firm. This beautiful and unique building, featuring multiple sustainable strategies, was designed by Arkin-Tilt Architects. The interior Tenant Improvements were designed by our firm.
Dovetailing with Arkin-Tilt’s creative work, the interior design was guided by a set of principles, which allowed for creative freedom within each tenant space, while maintaining a cohesive Mahonia-Community style:
• Individual and communal work areas arranged along the perimeter of each floor, so that each space has its own window/s.
• Spaces that are not along the exterior walls are illuminated with interior windows, bringing borrowed light through the central hallway and the perimeter spaces. On the 3rd floor, skylights deliver light into the deep interior spaces.
• Outer plaster-coated straw-bale walls that wrap the 2nd & 3rd floor spaces in an envelope of comfort, utility, and beauty.
• A continuous wooden chair-rail over the plaster wall finish that doubles as a concealed raceway for electrical and communications wiring throughout the spaces.
• A consistent and natural material palette which includes: exposed structural columns, beams and ceiling wood framing; hardwood floors; wood trim; and naturally-dyed earthen plaster. Reclaimed and sustainably harvested materials were used throughout the building.
