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Julien & Lambert Photo
An aerial sketch of downtown Fort Worth stretches across a wall at the top of the stairs at TBG Partners' office.
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Julien & Lambert Photo
A semitransparent wood partition separates the welcome area from the workspace while still maintaining a feeling of openness.
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Julien & Lambert Photo
TBG has an open concept workspace.
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Julien & Lambert Photo
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Julien & Lambert Photo
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Julien & Lambert Photo
Dark metal and wood predominate the design of the conference room.
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Julien & Lambert Photo
TBG Partners had about 1,600 square feet to work with when it moved into Suite 200 of the building at 1306 May St. about four years ago — a building shared with hip Magnolia Avenue establishments like Spice and Proper, smack in the heart of the Near Southside.
But it wasn’t long before the landscape architecture firm began to realize the limitations of its small space. Instead of looking for something bigger, TBG opted to renovate, using design conventions that would give the environment a more open and friendly feel. The renovation completed in January, signage and graphics were installed by April, and so far, managing principal Eric Garrison says the company has been enjoying its first few months in the revived space.
The office renovation was a collaboration by TBG, Beck Architecture and contractor Domeo Design Build. The idea was to create a space that matched the Near Southside. It’s a concept that each of TBG’s locations follow — a relation between the office’s architecture and its surrounding neighborhood. The Austin-based company, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, also has offices in Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and Fort Lauderdale.
The Fort Worth office is responsible for multiple projects around the city. In the Near Southside specifically, TBG helped design the Magnolia Micro-Park and South 400 apartments, and is currently working on the South Main Village Parks on East Broadway Avenue and Crawford Street. And the construction happening on a five-story, 231-unit multifamily just across from the office — that’s TBG’s project too.
Though small, TBG’s office wasn’t easy for clients to navigate prior to the renovation. Visitors would come through the front door into the first-floor entryway to find no greeter at the front and no signage to direct them. Coming up the stairs, clients were met by a blank wall and solid door that led to the actual workspace.
It felt like anything but visiting an office, Garrison says.
“This [renovation] was to help create a sense of reception and identity,” he says.
To make the space more inviting, TBG had to improve two aspects: wayfinding (the way people navigate a space) and openness. Luckily for TBG, environmental graphics and signage are among the company’s specialities, so the Fort Worth office collaborated with in-house designers at TBG’s Austin flagship to create wayfinding arrows out of black raw steel, which would direct visitors from the entrance, up a wooden staircase, and to the office itself.
Now at the top of the staircase, visitors are greeted by a massive, 9-foot mural of old-time Fort Worth — an aerial sketch of what downtown looked like in 1891, with views of the Trinity River and familiar streets like Houston and the misspelled “Trockmorten,” adding a quirky dose of personality. The image, obtained from the National Archives, was printed on a vinyl sheet and overlaid across the wall.
To create a feeling of openness and sense of arrival, TBG took down that floor-to-ceiling wall at the top of the staircase. The solid door that opened to the office itself was replaced with a glass door, so visitors can easily see what’s inside.
Past the glass door is where the real magic happens — the welcome area, conference room and workspace. The modern industrial office has an exposed ceiling and touches of wood and metal throughout.
Furniture in the welcome area is kept simple. Adding a pop of color to an otherwise neutral space are red upholstered, midcentury modern chairs from West Elm (which recently opened a Fort Worth location on West Seventh Street). A concrete and fiberglass planter filled with snake grass adds a dose of life to the space.
Much of the photography displayed on the walls was taken by Garrison himself or another member of the TBG team. But the most obvious focal point in the room is the wood partition separating the welcome area from the workspace. Hoyt Hammer and Chase Harper of Beck Architecture designed the piece, made from separated wood panels that mimic lath and plaster. Its semitransparent design creates a greater feeling of openness for the room. On the partition are rectangular plates of black steel, also made by TBG’s Austin office, that form the TBG logo. And if visitors were playing close attention, they’d notice the design of the wood partition repeated on a window on the wall by the staircase.
The back of the partition also serves as a pinboard where the team can post site plans and sketches. Behind the structure is the workspace itself — an open concept office meant to make team meetings easier.
“We’re a creative group, so it’s really important for us to have collaborative discussion,” Garrison says. “We don’t want a lot of barriers between anybody to where that conversation can’t happen on a fluid level. We want everyone in the office to basically hear everything that’s going on.”
Meetings also take place in the adjacent conference room, designed with predominantly dark metal and wood against white walls. The conference table, from Restoration Hardware, features a metal top and legs made from reclaimed wood. Unlike the rest of the office, the conference room features carpet rather than wood flooring to dampen the echo of the space.
The remaining room in the office is a kitchen, where custom tables and red metal chairs line a wall with windows overlooking the Near Southside.
“That’s the first thing we take into consideration every time we address a project,” says Jeff Raudabaugh, TBG’s director of environmental graphics, signage and wayfinding. “Where’s [the building] going to live? Who’s going to use it? And how is it going to last within the setting and not look like it was brought in from Mars and expected to be accepted? We want it to be important to the people around and make sense with where it lives.”
The “where” was one of the biggest influences in the office remodel. “We love the Near Southside,” Garrison says. “Culturally we fit into this neighborhood.”
Overall, Garrison says the renovated office has helped not only create a more aesthetic space, but also a more practical one.
“We moved into a new space that originally wasn’t perfect, and now we’ve customized it to do what we want and feel like we want it to feel,” he says. “I think everybody’s a little happier.”