Buffalo Rising
Pimp Your Office: City Style
By:
Queenseyes
12/30/06
As the Buffalo Rising offices come along it is
interesting to see that different factions of people
(artisans and businesses) that we have found along the
way to help customize the space. Now that the custom
Rigidized Metal's HVAC system has been installed
(photo), the rest of the features are coming together.
We tried to utilize as many local sources as possible
during the build-out, and during the search, we hooked
up with some fascinating sources. Our landlord,
Savarino Construction, was instrumental in letting us
have creative control over the interior design. With
the help of architect Brad Wales, we were able to able
to conceptualize the future look of our new office,
and our hopes were to find an innovative approach.
The lighting plan was trickier than we had
imagined, and after spending countless frustrating
hours searching for lighting that would be unique,
cost-effective, and available, we turned to Roy and
Sionen at Lightmakers to come up with a presentation.
Within two days we were fortunate enough to have these
two out-of-the-box lighting designers nail down a
grand plan (that we have not altered since). Instead
of going with standard electric fixtures, Roy and
Sionen went the extra mile and even ended up designing
a custom fixture, which they will assemble by hand at
the site.
The steel work stations are being hand-made by Brad
Wales and John Spielman with the help of Jeff Gabriel
Designs. The custom stations will give our employees
the ability to spread out, while the details of the
work stations include hidden wiring, Rigidized privacy
panels and to-be-determined add-ons that will be
decided on as the sections are constructed. The
work-station designers have collaborated on such
projects as Spot Coffee, the artistic UB bus stops,
Gallery 164, etc.
The next piece of the puzzle that should have been
easy and ended up being a nightmare was the bathroom
and kitchen fixtures. We wanted something different,
but once we saw how much 'different' would cost we
found ourselves in a jam.
It was then that we contacted
Artisan Kitchen and Baths located on Amherst
Street near Wegman's. After one walkthrough we were
hooked on their over-the-top showroom (in a gorgeous
warehouse setting)... one visit to Artisan is all it
took. Our sale's person named Jeff sat us down with
catalog after catalog of name brand items and offered
suggestions on everything... from design to specs.
This was amazing because we had assumed that we would
not be able to find anything remotely close to Artisan
in the city. The showrooms have a ton of in-stock (and
in some cases working) appliances (like the coffee
machine in the photo). Even though we did not go for
the top-of-the-line items, we still found
hard-to-find, quality products that we needed to
obtain our C of O.
We continue to find and utilize as many local
businesses and artisans as we can possibly find, and
in doing so we have ultimatley saved time and money.
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