Preserved moss walls are meant to add a touch of nature to Inhibrx’s new labs and offices. Photo courtesy of DZI Construction.
Give the best views of the ocean and surrounding landscape to the researchers up front.
Stick the executive offices in the back of the building.
Those were the instructions a Torrey Pines biotech company— Inhibrx — gave DZI Construction and Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects for a $6.5 million renovation of office and lab space the company leases in the Torrey Pines Science Park.
“That was just the outlook of their company, that the science came first,” said DZI President Greg Dziewit. “The lowest guy on the totem pole has a four-foot carrel inside the lab with the best view of the Torrey Pines golf course.”
That’s not to say that the executives in back stare at four walls or the backs of people’s heads.
Everyone Gets a View
To the contrary, led by FPBA’s Vice President Amanda Schultz and Project Manager Ann Shelton, Ferguson Pape Baldwin (FPBA) came up with a design that ensured everyone got some kind of view.
All the interior walls are glass, even down to a series of folding glass walls meant to bring the outside in.
“You can see right through everything,” Shelton said.
Those executives stuck in the back of the building get a clear view right through the office and lab space to the outside.
“It’s a very open concept with a lot of glass so even the most interior spaces have access to views out,” Schultz said. “It was a complete shift in aesthetics from a traditional, closed-type space to something very open and collaborative.”
Open office space has been trendy for several years, but Schultz said this remodel was unusual because of all the interior glass and the placement of executive offices.
“A lot of companies have cultures where the executives are on the window lines in the corners with the best views,” Schultz said. “In this case, they really wanted to maximize the view for the people who are going to be in that space for the majority of the day and that is in their lab spaces.”
Inhibrx officials declined to be interviewed, but the company’s founder and chief operating officer, Brendan Eckeleman, said in a statement that “DZI did an amazing job of capturing our vision of creating a unique research and development environment that fosters innovation and communication.”
“We thoroughly enjoyed our interactions with Greg (Dziewit) and his term and were impressed by their ability to execute on a complicated build-out,” Eckelman said.
Working with DZI and FBPA on the project were Rebecca Gallegos of Project Management Advisors and Mike Dorris of HCP, which owns the building.
Before the renovation, the space was a warren of small offices.
“It was very hard to circulate through the space and orient yourself in the space because there were so many hallways and private offices. It was very compartmentalized,” Schultz said. “It didn’t have an open feel whatsoever.”
It Wasn’t Making Use of Setting
Shelton said the offices could have been anywhere and ignored the stunning setting.
“When you were in the old space, you couldn’t see any of the views. You didn’t know the ocean was out there, but it was,” Shelton said.
Dziewit described the space as “a maze.”
“It was really cut-up and dark and dingy,” Dziewit said.
DZI gutted the entire second down to the concrete.
“All the interior walls were removed, all the ceilings. It was taken back to the shell,” Dziewit said.
In addition to opening up the office and lab space, the remodel included a break room of about 850 square feet with movable glass partitions that open out onto a balcony overlooking the ocean.
“Everything was designed to maintain that transparency from one side of the building to the other,” Schultz said.
Solar tube skylights were added to bring in more natural light.
Interior spaces were designed to have a blend of industrial and back to nature feel.
The floors are polished concrete in the lab and research areas with exposed ductwork, piping and other mechanical equipment across the ceilings.
Moss Makes a Cool Amenity
To give the space a touch of nature, small sections of walls are made of preserved moss were installed in two locations where they wouldn’t block the view lines, and the carpeting in the office space was designed to resemble lichen, Shelton said.
The preserved moss walls “provide lots of texture and color,” Shelton said.
Founded in 2011 by Greg Dziewit and Debra Bermudes-Dziewit, building and renovating lab space has been one of DZI Construction’s specialties.
The company has done projects for Millennium Laboratories, Synthetic Genomics, SGI-DNA, and Molecular Medicine Bioservices Inc., among others.
“This one’s kind of special, the whole thing with really emphasizing the science” Dziewit said.