Howard Building Corporation

Project Description

Since 1988, First Quadrant has been an investment boutique specializing in alternative approaches to macro and equity investing. The financial services firm resides in a 20,000 square foot office space in Pasadena. Wanting to change their environment to reflect their company's innovative approaches to their industry, they hired architects at AREA and Howard Building Corporation to actualize their plans.

The project consisted of a complete build out of their entire floor while they resided in swing space on another floor in the building. Construction included a new elevator lobby with stone flooring, aluminum fin elevator surrounds, and wood wall panels. The lobby and reception area feature more of the stone flooring, wood veneer and fabric wall panels, a freestanding amber glass feature wall, and full-light, rated doors. A beautiful radius, wood veneer reception desk with stone top sits in front of the main conference room, which features full height glass walls. A series of complex, floating soffits wind through the space, starting at reception, creating a geometric, sculptural ceiling feature.

All conference and meeting rooms were constructed of full height and clerestory glass walls, fabric panels, motorized Mecho shades, custom millwork credenzas and stone top conference tables, and the most advanced audio visual components. In the open office areas, wood veneer millwork accents custom work stations, painted, open ceilings are punctuated with exposed ductwork, conduit and pendant lighting as well as the floating soffit that started in the reception area, and radius columns are painted with Scuffmaster paint. The lunchroom had an off camber soffit, glass tile backsplash, wood flooring, glass walls, millwork and island with stone tops, and 2 large LCD televisions. The project also called for a new server room with 24 hour climate control and open copy/work areas with custom millwork and wood flooring. Multi-occupancy restrooms were renovated and a single client restroom all with new tile, stone, fixtures, partitions and lighting was added.