New facade
Actually only 1 block North – into the quaint, renovated, historic area known as downtown Tyler. Those of you who know us will probably agree, this is so right for us. Our bent on nostalgia has been a part of the brand since the early days.
Some of you might remember we had office space downtown in the early 90’s before moving into an old house on Bois d’arc (in ’93) and later to Fannin Street. This space, however, is the first to have that classic, downtown design studio appeal: 1930’s storefront, concrete floors, cavernous interior, 14″ ceiling with a loft.
As much fun as it might be to write a long blog on this topic, a quick photo-journal seems more expedient (1 pic > 1 thousand words). These semi-crude Instagram/iPhone 4 (need that 4s) snaps were taken over the past 6 months during the restoration and build-out of the new space.
Open House in planning. It’s going to take us a few months to settle in but after we get this space properly junked up with old signs memorabilia, drafting tables, file cab’s and… otherwise – office crap, we’ll invite you guys to an open house. Anyone remember the open house in 1996?
Original double doors, Un-salvageable. Note - green paint test swatch.
Rough. Great potential.
View looking at all the connecting storefronts. Pre-renovation.
We are huge fans of Tyler's red brick streets.
Another view. Signage for HIW comes next.
When we said "rough", we meant "there were dead birds & critters inside". RIP sparrow.
Previous paint job on restroom wall. Sick.
Upstairs build-out (copywriter/marketer - Bill Ferrell's office). Craig takes gander at progress.
Exposed rafters. YES. But there was no insulation. NOT cool.
Flumulin (insulation) was blown in to remedy problem. Flumulin is a bonafied, made-up word.
Painters mask off fans to spray black paint over Flumulin.
Dangerous, dark stairwell (before).
Safe stairwell (after).
One of many relics we will drag up to the new space.
Goobery artist surmises progress in wonderment.
100% US grade, aged, Grunge-Crete.
Interesting crooked pipe thing 'round back.
Picking a nice, eye-catching door stain.
Coffee Bar (some prefer the term 'Kitchen')
Speaking of... stop by any time for a cup on us. Picasso did.
Sketch overlay - rough idea for dividing up space.
They built us a nice parking lot in the back.
Heading N toward downtown, turn L on University Pl. after Front St.
We're a few blocks from Ricks, Don Juans, Downtown Coffee Shop, The Liberty, etc.
Who said our downtown wasn't cool. Eisley show at the Liberty last week.
Final clean up. He seals the floor next.
From our 1996 open house. This design is in Graphis Packaging 7.
Slouching Painter prepares to stain doors as new tenants heckle from on high.
Flat overhang/awning to be installed next wk (for when it rains).
Space. The final frontier.
Enough images. Be thankful since we had over 7 gbs worth on our iPhones. We’ll keep you posted. Thanks.
bd 19.14.11 5:38am
p.s. how many of you found our blog because of the e-blast we sent out? Just curious.
Way out of the box, over the top, off the page…quite normal for you guys! Great job – and best wishes for your new digs! I will come get a cup of that coffee soon!
Comment by Grant MacQuilkan — October 31, 2011 @ 2:26 pm
NICE! Where’s my office? :o)
Comment by Tena Jerger — November 1, 2011 @ 10:34 am
I found it because of your blast – and I am LOVIN’ the space!! Congrats!!
Comment by j-bird — November 2, 2011 @ 7:22 am
Hey there! I quite agree with your thoughts.
Comment by Julio Gayne — November 19, 2011 @ 3:04 am
Thanks Julio… and all of you who commented!
Comment by admin — November 19, 2011 @ 11:47 pm
Hi,
I accidently ran across your pics while looking for the term “loft office”. I just bought an old downtown storefront (built in 1908) in Oklahoma that looks VERY similar and it is almost strange how similar my renovation seems to be compared to yours. Going to use similar interior colors, black rafters, sealed/stained concrete, etc… and I was contemplating a green for outside (even though my partner thought I was nuts… yours looks great!) Anywho, I had a couple questions I was hoping you might have time to answer?
1. Did you just seal the concrete or did you also stain? I see a lot of stains that are real orangy and I hate them. I was wanting more of the distressed uneven darker color you seem to have. If you know product used as well would be much appreciated.
2. I am exposing raftgers and my roof is also uninsulated. I am considering putting a new TPO roof on just to put the insulation on the opposite side of the deck but noticed you chose to spray insulation on the underside of deck… how affordable was that… I hadn’t even considered that. My contractor was trying to get me to put Batt insualation in channels between rafters and paint the paperback with the black dry fall paint but I thought that would look terrrible.
Sorry for the long email. Your office looks great!
Thanks, Casey
Comment by Casey Massegee — January 7, 2012 @ 8:05 am
hey! Sorry… I get so much spam on the blog, it’s hard sometimes to get in here and actually answer legit inquiries/responses. Thanks. Wow – would love to see your place. Maybe shoot us over some pics. I’ve been to OK often (mostly Tulsa – Cain’s Ballroom but several times to OK City – Conservatory, which is also a music venue). The old buildings out there are very cool… especially surrounding the downtown area.
1.) So… yes, we simply sealed the concrete. There was a lot of just… i dunno – gunkish substance on the floor left from glued tile or something… so rather than stripping of everything down to the clean concrete, we just opted to smooth out the rough places with a sander, then we (they. contractors) applied the sealant. It looks gnarly… way better than I imagined. I have updated pics of everything but we haven’t had our open house yet so we might wait to toss those on line.
2.) On the rafters (or actually on the underside of the roof above the rafters), they sprayed foam insulation R-42. I don’t know how expensive but can find out.
Hope that helps. Sorry for the delay in answering this. Thanks!
boyd
Comment by admin — January 23, 2012 @ 5:21 pm
Hello! Just want to say thank you for this interesting article! =) Peace, Joy.
Comment by imideriaKit — January 23, 2012 @ 5:02 pm