Projects

Sapphire Ventures

In design, as in business, success is the product of competing impulses. An effective workplace dedicates space to robust teamwork and to private inspiration. It equips its users with everything they need to do their jobs and recognizes, as well, the value of leisure. It sets a tone but includes an innate capacity to change.

In design, as in business, success is the product of competing impulses. An effective workplace dedicates space to robust teamwork and to private inspiration. It equips its users with everything they need to do their jobs and recognizes, as well, the value of leisure. It sets a tone but includes an innate capacity to change.

  • City Palo Alto

  • Year 2018

  • Size 6,831 sq ft

  • Team Lisa Bieringer, Mindi Weichman, Dani Gelfand, Kristina Cho

  • Photographer Garrett Rowland

Balance of Powers

O+A designed Sapphire Ventures’ recharged space in Palo Alto to be an expression of these dichotomies. A visioning session with Sapphire’s team uncovered two-fold aspirations for virtually every aspect of the new space: elegant, but industrial; intense, but warm; edgy, but comfortable. (Not too comfortable). We recognized this duality as central to the success of a company that balances visionary resource allocation with asset management based on the classic principles of finance.

Scaling Up to Next Generation

The result was a small office that conveys a big scope. Sapphire’s specialty is venture capital for companies that have proven the viability of their concepts and are now at a point of scaling up. O+A’s design framed the office as a compact wheelhouse steering rapid growth companies to sustainable prosperity. The aesthetic requirements were comfort, strength, and openness to new thinking.

Harmony through Contrasts

A kitchen and a lounge space that would not be out of place in a cozy, modern apartment adjoin private consultation rooms appropriate to a bank. Sculptural light fixtures capture the modernity of a company that invests in the future, while warm wood reassures that that future will be shaped by values we share. Overall the impact is friendly, professional, forward-looking and confident—a message all can welcome in turbulent times.