The project comprises an interior fit-out for Steelcase in Washington DC, on the 10th and 11th floors of an existing building, with panoramic views to the city. As a Steelcase WorkLife space, the program comprises two types of customer experiences – hospitality and open office showroom. The organizing principal of the project is that of a threshold - between these two different types of program experiences, between various scales of space, between contrasting materials, colors, and levels of ambient sound.

A series of crossing diagonal lines establish the geometric basis for new walls and rooms, and the thresholds between them. To maximize sightlines, walls are constructed at the thinnest possible thickness - 1/2", either solid steel plate or tempered clear glass. The thresholds for passage between these reflective wall surfaces are as contrasting as possible - lined with vibrantly-hued felt on walls, ceilings, and floors; creating contrasts of texture, color and sound.

A new communicating stair, creates a defining vertical threshold between floors, and is structured out of the same 1/2" thick steel plates, glass panels, and applied felt. The first flight of stairs is supported from a single steel wall along an outer edge, below which is immersive blue felt room. The upper level guardrail is a monolithic rectangular bounding box of steel panels. The stair is rotated within this box, creating gaps and sightlines between levels. The stair is a study of how a relatively straightforward horizontal thresholds can become a dynamic ascending threshold when folded upon itself between two floor levels.