.

Project Location:  6401 Hollis St., Emeryville, CA

Project Size:  35,000 SF

Date completed:  Summer 2006

Client:  Leapfrog Enterprises

Contact:  Jay Momet - Manager of Facilities [jmomet@leapfrog.com]

Additional Information:

LeapFrog is a leading designer, developer and marketer of innovative, technology-based educational products and related proprietary content. LeapFrog is 100% focused on developing products that will provide the most engaging, effective learning experience - for all ages, in school or home, around the world. LeapFrog’s corporate offices are located in a single story converted warehouse building which is divided into four distinct suites of roughly 35,000SF each. The tall open space of the building allows for each suite to incorporate an open mezzanine of approximately 4,400SF.
 
FENNIE+MEHL Architects assisted Leapfrog with an number of facilities support services including Space Programming, Due Diligence Building Reviews, Strategic Move Planning and Interior Design Services for Suite 125 (approximately 35,000 SF). This suite is tailored for their hardware group and includes a 6,000SF hardware lab area for design and testing of their upcoming devices.

The interior design concepts of suite 125 addressed the creation of separate "rooms" to give staff a unique interior experience depending on where their local workplace is located. These areas were conceptually identified by biospheres (e.g. deserts, rainforests, alpine and oceans). This concept was then supported both spatially and by color. A main pathway links these areas and several casual collaboration areas as the overarching organizing element to the space.

Creative teams are situated in collaborative clusters of workspaces with a teaming center area around a common table. Low furniture panels divide the teams and higher translucent panels limit noise from the common walkways as well as provide for visual privacy without diminishing access to the natural light.

Floating "clouds" of suspended acoustical ceiling with indirect linear lighting provide good acoustical attenuation of noise and even illumination which is supplemented with task lights within each workplace. The discontinuity of the ceiling plane allows for glimpses of the original timber truss structure to provide the occupants with a sense of the original use of the building, while providing a majority of the users with the benefits of a modern ceiling system. Conference rooms are all equipped with LCD video monitors, white boards, and tack surfaces for active collaboration between staff. The space also includes a Usability Lab for observation of focus groups and device interface testing, a small training room, a creativity lab, and data center.