The client, owner of a fast-growing real-estate brokerage firm in Brooklyn’s trendy Williamsburg neighborhood, requested an office space that would reflect the young vibe of the projects and clients he represents.

With the idea that two minds work better than one, two designers generated layouts simultaneously, producing two different design schemes — one a linear arrangement of the programmatic functions, the other based on an angular approach. Each designer presented the other’s idea to the client, who chose to merge the two.

The final design designer draws inspiration from the firm’s logo, specifically its orange color and pixilated font, which was translated into freestanding elements in the space.

Thus the main conference room is a floor-to-ceiling frameless glass enclosure, detached on all four sides and turned on an angle. This positioning divides the office into public and private areas without physical barriers, and creates secondary meeting areas between the corners of the conference room and existing walls.

To emphasize the character of the raw space, with its exposed brick walls and sprinklers, we added exposed ducts.

The reception desk is also a freestanding element, turned on an angle, and the wall behind it is a ¾” plexiglass sheet with circular cut-outs, bolted to an orange- painted back-up partition with an 8” space between them. Initially, the round cut- outs were designed as employee mailboxes, but the client liked the wall so much that he decided to leave it as an art piece.