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Ross Barney+Jankowski Architects use common materials imaginatively to give style to their own teamwork-oriented offices by Kristen Richards
CHICAGO-BASED Ross Barney+Jankowski Architects (RB+J) found a site for their new offices in the very first place they looked-the landmark Inland Steel Building. Designed in 1958 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the 19-story office building was one of the first to be built with a glass and steel curtain wall. "We were thrilled to be in such a historic building," says principal Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, "but we also wanted to make sure our offices did not look like part of the original."
RB+J selected a 7,000-square-foot space on the 16th floor. With a limited budget of $30 per square foot, the firm decided to use the new offices as a laboratory that "demonstrates to our many institutional clients how such garden-variety materials as drywall, vinyl tile, and cork can translate into elegant, special spaces for not a lot of money," says Barney.
Even though RB+J occupies 70 percent of the floor, their space does not extend to the elevator lobby. Therefore, the firm devised a powerful entry identity that announces its presence to visitors. A canted wall stretches diagonally from the lobby, and continues past the reception area to the main conference room, leading a visitor's eye through the narrow space to the...