Having designed offices for Facebook and AOL, San Francisco designers Studio O+A have completed the headquarters of another internet company in California - this time web hosts Dreamhost.
Meetings at the open-plan offices can be held either inside a black-painted conference hut or over a game of ping-pong.
Brightly coloured furniture fills the offices, whilst walls are decorated with patterned graphics.
Workplaces are arranged in clusters and are surrounded by informal rest areas.
See also: our stories about Google's offices in London and Skype's offices in Stockholm.
Photography is by Jasper Sanidad.
More stories about Studio O+A »
Here's some more information provided by the architects:
Dreamhost
Brea, California
Like other tech companies with a young and dynamic workforce, the web-hosting company Dreamhost wanted a work environment that would be easily adaptable to nonwork functions. In the modern business culture, a new profit initiative is as likely to be hatched over a cup of green tea or a game of ping-pong as in a formal meeting room. At the company’s new headquarters in Brea, California, the footprint of the existing building offered attractive potential for creating vistas of space and light.
Studio O+A’s interior design recognizes the lateral hierarchies favored by web companies, both in its placement of management and staff workstations and in the horizontal aesthetic that is a feature of classic Southern California architecture. O+A introduced broad, unbroken circulation paths and banks of windows and applied color and contrast to suggest both the boldness of technological innovation and the easy culture of web-based commerce.
The walls, the exposed ceiling, and portions of the floor tile are white. Against this blank canvas, sharp graphics are designed to arrest the eye. Red patterns inspired by the server room’s looping wire configurations give forward momentum to a series of long, low walls. Casual seating with red cushions provides additional graphic impact.
A free-standing black conference room and lounge area serve as additional dramatic visual elements. Throughout the complex—in meeting areas, workstation clusters, and recreation spaces—the color palette communicates informality and creativity.
Architect: Studio O+A
Location: Brea, California
Client: Dreamhost
Date of occupancy : July 2010
Gross square footage: 13,242
Contractor: KPRS
Photographer credit: Jasper Sanidad
Collaborators: POD Office, Shlemmer Algaze & Associates, MPG Office
Software used: AutoCAD, Studio Max, Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office
Awards: Shaw “Design Is” Award Finalist,
Project Team: Primo Orpilla, Denise Cherry, Kroeun Dav, Alex Ng