Author: Sharon Lam

For us, architecture, interiors, and urban design are deeply interconnected. Two recent New York projects highlight our holistic approach: Amazon JFK27 transforms an aging department store into a modern workplace, advancing an architecture of repair that values preservation and adaptation over new construction. Microsoft Soho channels the neighborhood’s layered history, bringing the company’s creativity to the street. Both projects engage the city’s energy while interrogating structure, plate configuration, and material strategy to enhance comfort, health, and experience. 

A spirit of reuse over replacement

Every aspect of the project plays off the New York experience, from materials that echo the neighborhood’s iconic cast iron and steel structures to panoramic views showcasing the city’s enchanting rooftop water towers. The work of local artists celebrates the textile traditions, while artifacts from the former department store enliven new spaces throughout the building.

Community + place

Highly visible from the street, the ground floor accommodates food vendors and restaurants, welcoming both employees and passersby. Several public-facing spaces support partnerships between industry and academia, including the City University of New York (CUNY).

Connection + light

The centerpiece of the project is a grand stair that stretches from the second floor to the rooftop courtyard. This nine-story stair unifies the former department store and connects the building internally with the neighboring Dreicer Building, also renovated as part of the project. 

Capped by a transparent lantern, the staircase channels natural light into the deep floor plates and encourages employees to move about the building. The elegant black staircase recalls Manhattan’s ubiquitous fire escapes.

Artifact + memory

Artifacts and historic details serve as defining features in prominent social areas, inviting people to notice, touch, and tap into the collective stories of this place. Where historic elements were found to be well-preserved, they have been revealed and given new life. For example, cast iron arches and glass windows that once framed the building entry now “fold” down into an arched banquette.

Terracotta found in the ceilings and column capitals, bearing layers of details, have been left exposed.

The overbuild

New dining and event spaces are perched atop the existing structure in a glass enclosed addition anchored by a new terrace and a refurbished sunken courtyard. The terrace invites employees outside with a perimeter pathway, a dog run, and access to the historic courtyard. These spaces bring the Amazon community close to some of New York’s most striking landmarks, including the Empire State Building and the Main Library.

New York’s porous universities inspire planning

Microsoft envisioned a community-driven environment where employees and visitors could engage in the broader dialogue spurring innovation in New York. Taking cues from the city’s porous academic environments, design balances vibrant social and collaborative areas with spaces for focused, independent work.

Inspired by the traditional university library, researchers’ workspaces are divided by “stacks”—custom millwork providing storage, whiteboards, and personal libraries. The combination of wood, books, soft lighting, and hidden nooks evokes an academic atmosphere—one that could only happen in New York. 

Materials knit this workplace together

The extensive use of cherry wood ties the interior to the adjacent, iconic brick façade of the Puck Building, creating a warm, inviting “heart” visible from the street. Rough concrete tile wraps around the building’s core, reflecting the urban character and energy of the surrounding neighborhood.

Vertical connectivity

A dynamic communicating stair links the floors, creating a fluid connection between different work modes and levels. Crafted from blackened steel and stainless steel cable, the stair nods to Soho’s iconic cast iron buildings and fire escapes, paying homage to the neighborhood’s rich history of creativity and craftsmanship.

The Garage: a public-facing innovation hub

Located on the second floor—the building’s largest floorplate—The Garage is a flexible, multipurpose event space designed for public engagement, with direct access from both the street and lobby.

This space also serves as a dynamic maker space and learning lab where employees can experiment. Retractable walls allow The Garage to expand into adjacent spaces, including a multipurpose theater that accommodates up to 120 guests.

Gathering and dining

The sixth floor serves as a central gathering space where employees can dine and relax. A casual tea room opens onto a large wrap-around terrace, offering flexible seating and tables that can be easily reconfigured for any group size or event.

Enduring Appeal

In our experience, craft, technical innovation, and sustainability go hand in hand. When we create environments that perform exceptionally, spark creativity, and foster affection—especially when rooted firmly in place—they often endure. Attached to a layered and well-considered space, users are more likely to refresh it minimally, and only as needed, than replace it. This design ethos minimizes carbon and waste while fostering longevity.

A collaboration between architects, educators, students, and manufacturers

Organized by WRNS Studio, Pacific Clay Brick, and Cal Poly College of Architecture & Environmental Design, the Architectural Brick Workshop brought together educators, students, architects, and manufacturers to investigate new possibilities with architectural brick. Students examined the relationship between craft, fabrication, and the calibration of unique visual and textural effects at multiple scales.

Organized as a series of charrettes at Pacific Clay’s Southern California Production Facility and Cal Poly’s campus, the workshop immersed teams in hands-on experimentation with the tools and processes of brickmaking.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Ryan Gobuty, Ben Mickus, Mila Kim, Josh Higgins, Mark Cabrinha,
Celso Rojas

The prompts: exploring different scales and uses

Brick has many elemental qualities; earth, water, fire and air are all intimately involved in its creation.  Likewise, the workshop encouraged elemental thinking about design, using clay brick as a medium.  

Students were given a series of prompts—like design at the scale of a brick and at the scale of a wall—to explore through conceptual sketches, prototype formwork, mock-up scale installations, and design drawings.

Participants were introduced to color and texture, uniformity and variegation, pattern, proportion and scale of an individual brick and a field of assembled bricks. Topics of structure, aperture, planarity and distortion were discussed in the context of human scale and placemaking.

During one week at Cal Poly, each group designed and built a custom formwork element, as part of a conceptual brick wall design. Then over 100 students boarded charter buses bound for the Pacific Clay Plant.

The groups arrived at Pacific Clay with their formwork creations in hand, ready to spend the day learning about the process of brick-making and going to work making some custom bricks of their own.

Pacific Clay plant visit

Pacific Clay was established in 1892, and has been in continuous operation for over 130 Years.  Today, Pacific Clay Products is a leader and innovator in the clay brick manufacturing industry.

In the late 1800’s, the discovery of high quality clay and coal deposits near Alberhill, California led industrialists to this area in pursuit of raw materials for numerous fired ceramic products. This clay is geologically unique in that both sedimentary (lake, stream, or ocean deposits) and metamorphic (altered in place) clays are present. This allows for the necessary blending to make many different ceramic products. There is no other deposit of clay like this in the world. These clays are over 200 million years old! The Alberhill area has supplied clay for fine pottery, clay sewer pipe, face brick, brick pavers, roofing tile, clay pots, firebrick, lignite coal, and modeling clay. 

The action-packed 5-hour visit served two purposes for the workshop. First, the students were given an in-depth tour of the facility, with each step in the brick-making process explained, and often demonstrated, by the Pacific Clay team. Second, the student teams gathered at a row of stainless steel work tables, and using their own formwork along with a variety of specialized tools provided by Pacific Clay, made their bespoke bricks. 

Presentation: crafting ideas into reality

In the weeks following the brick making session, Pacific Clay’s team dried and fired the prototype bricks while the students documented their brick design with a series of drawings and diagrams. Integrated into the second-year architectural technology curriculum, the workshop challenged student teams to demonstrate how their prototype bricks could be used in distinct architectural wall applications. 

Each team illustrated their concepts with initial sketches and individual brick module shapes augmented by plans, sections, elevations, and axonometric diagrams, exploring how their custom brick modules could translate into real-world construction.

When the students received the final products they had created themselves, the thrill on their faces was unforgettable! The bricks were assembled and arranged together with the presentation drawings, and the next few hours were spent talking about design possibilities with the Cal Poly faculty, along with the WRNS Studio and Pacific Clay teams.

See more of the students’ work here.

Brick design in practice: Elco Yards, Redwood City, CA

At WRNS, practice and academia are a virtuous cycle. We initiated the Architectural Brick Workshop following years of collaboration with Pacific Clay, most recently on our work together at Elco Yards, where brick features prominently. Read more about this project here.