Our firm’s vision for the 16th floor of LiveRamp’s San Francisco offices is rooted in the design we developed for the company’s first space on the 17th floor. That project focused on creating self-contained pods of high finish in an otherwise raw framework. This one reverses the process, taking a highly-finished space and pulling it back to its “unfinished” essence. To accomplish the transformation, our designers executed what they termed “The Takeover”—ie. a complete stripping back of the existing space’s Victorian touches, crown molding, etc.. The initial impact of the space is of a work in progress occupied and set in motion before it’s quite finished—rough brick, exposed ceilings, steel studs framing non-existent walls. But of course it is finished—the “roughed up” textures are carefully achieved. Those steel stud partitions were never meant to hold drywall; they’re designed to support shelving and writeable surfaces. LiveRamp is a textbook example of how a tight budget and short-schedule sets the stage for a less-is-more aesthetic. This project was completed in three months from start to finish. Its design character emerged from creative use of color and graphics and from the consistency of its “finished-to-unfinished” concept. Even the paint scheme demonstrates that dynamic. LiveRamp’s office is U-shaped with the entrance at the center of the curve. At that entry point the palette is warm and consistent, almost monochromatic, but as you proceed along the two arms of the U the color choices fragment —cool and neutral hues intervene. Similarly the tightly interlocking pattern of a conference room’s wall graphic flies apart when repeated on the wall of a leisure area. Throughout the space finished details reverting to their raw “origins” reinforce the back-to-basics aesthetic.

Photography: Emily Hagopian