Art in the margins: could time in the sidelines put your heart and art back in the game? - practice

Residential Architect, June, 2003 by Cheryl Weber

A more fluid kind of synergism is often found in larger firms like GGLO Architects in Seattle. They have the luxury of offering many different design services under one roof, resulting in richer projects visually and additional revenues. Like many other offices of its size, GGLO's divisions include architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, and interior design. But the firm pushes past even those labels by hiring people with different kinds of talents and backgrounds in the arts. "We take an integral approach to design, like being renaissance architects," says principal Bill Gaylord, AIA. "We look for people who go beyond the typical services an architect or interior designer would have, niches that can be used in more creative ways to expand our business and provide a higher level of quality and spirit of life."

creative support

One of GGLO's custom-home commissions included designs for a fountain, sculpture, stationery, cocktail napkins, and six years' worth of Christmas cards. On mixed-use projects, the firm is likely to design virtually the entire streetscape, including planters, decorative walls, kiosks, and outdoor cafe furniture. At Harbor Properties in Seattle, GGLO worked with the architect of record to design the interiors on two of the buildings. Subsequently, the firm offered a solution for the leasing office's entrance, which was hidden 25 feet off the street between buildings. Staff architect Leah Martin, who has a graphic design background, devised a banner three stories tall that grabs the eye from a distance. In the alleyway, track lighting and a fabric "ceiling" printed with a graphic of the city usher visitors to the office. Through the firm, Martin also creates signage packages for other developers.

Another multitalented GGLO employee is Kristin Ford, an interior designer, artist, and the office librarian, who used to own a special finishes business. She supplied the chalk work for a rolling chalkboard wall that divided a studio apartment into sleeping and living areas. The mural was displayed in a model unit to show how the wall could be used as a piece of art as well as a divider.

Gaylord says the firm's breadth of talent adds value and revenues to both single-family and multifamily work. "It comes into our planning, the way we do renderings for mixed-use developments or town centers," he says. "It definitely helps us get more multidisciplinary and more creative work."

It creates a lot of fun for the firm, too. Last year GGLO entered the Bra Show, a fund-raiser conceived by two Seattle sisters to raise breast-cancer awareness. Artists were invited to submit bra designs for purchase at auctions and for display through fashion shows at local restaurants. GGLO created the Double Mocha Brappucino Grande, which featured large ceramic cups, cut in half and held together in a wire mesh body. Woven into the bra was a swirling pattern of tiny wires embellished with coffee beans, depicting the aroma of coffee. A multidisciplinary team designed and built the bra, Gaylord says. And Jennifer Stormont, an architect who works in the single-family residential studio, built a showcase for the display at Starbucks, which purchased the piece at one of the auctions.