ArchitectureWeek People and Places: BNIM in Des Moines, Iowa

BNIM designed its new satellite office in Des Moines, Iowa. Photo: © Farshid Assassi

The new Des Moines, Iowa office of Kansas City, Missouri-based BNIM are located in a former bank building lobby.

The space is divided in two zones by a north-south wall clad in cork panels, and used for pinning up work. One zone is a studio space, while the other comprises an open conference area and kitchen/library/work space.

The new BNIM office is in a ground-floor space formerly occupied by a bank. Photo: © Farshid Assassi

Full-height glazing along the north and west exterior walls of the office admits ample daylight.

This collaborative office environment was designed to accommodate an expanding architectural practice in an existing street level urban office building located in the Central Business District of Des Moines, Iowa. While the work stations are relatively fixed, the organization of the spaces, the communal tack wall and open conferencing areas provide for flexibility and sharing of ideas and concepts. Designed initially to provide work areas for 14, the space can comfortably accommodate 18 work areas for future growth. Few walls subdivide the space providing a volumetric environment that can be adapted and changed as working methodologies change over time.

Collaboration and communal space is provided at each work area, at the tack wall, in open conference rooms and in the storage and coffee area. Work stations and the conversation table in the coffee area are designed at standup or tall stool height to easily accommodate spontaneous and scheduled conversation, discussions, critiques and interchange. – BNIM

The office, which faces the intersection of a busy local street, sat vacant for 10 years before BNIM's decision to reuse it.

The day-lit studio space of the BNIM office. Photo: © Farshid Assassi

Jury Comments

This project has the mark of a mature designer, willing to reduce the existing space to its barest essentials. It exhibits restraint and control to make a very elegant and sophisticated design solution.

The scheme integrates and adapts a classic exterior language into the interior space.

The connection to the street is celebrated, using its activity to enliven the interior, where the details are conceptually aligned to the language of the architecture.