Elliot Center

In a competitive office lease market, owners are looking for advantages to attract their prospective clients and retain leaseholders. Refreshing existing facilities can include adding amenities as done here with a redesign of a dusty catchment basin into a welcoming outdoor lunch/break deck, surrounded by lush landscaping, where food trucks gather and people can get outside the office to enjoy the outdoors even in the heat of the summer.

G.H. Bruce’s assignment was to shade the amenity deck, and its design of the Tensile Sculpture accomplishes this with a pair of nestled fabric canopies. The graceful curves of the canopies complement those of the seating, the plantings, and the hardscape. As the platform is on the public side of the office park, the GHB design team leveraged the benefits of the client’s investment by creating dynamic angles that soar out into space and catch the eye of commuters passing the property on one of the City’s major roads. Furthermore, they chose a rich purple fabric to compliment the lush lawn and planting of the new landscaping and to give unmistakable identity to this place-making addition within the otherwise neutral-toned office park.