Birch Telecom

Birch Telecom, a young, ambitious telecommunications company, renovated this storage warehouse into an office space within the Crossroads Arts District of Kansas City.  Spatial organization focusing on light and translucent material relationships separating circulation and work areas evolved to become a significant visual theme throughout most public areas, offering obscured visual connection of surrounding activity, movement and pattern while retaining privacy and task focus.  Stairways, corridors and lobbies were treated as accent elements to adjacent work areas requiring diffuse ambient light.  The physical presence of Industrial luminaires juxtaposing more refined luminous glass surfaces reinforces the client’s business attitude and ties to the evolving arts community in an abandoned industrial neighborhood.        

Owner: Birch Telecom
Architect: Wiedeman Architects
Lighting Designer: Derek Porter Studio
Engineer: Gibbens, Drake, Scott Inc.
Photographer: Michael Spillers

Details
Kansas City, Missouri
80,000 square feet
Tenant Finish
 .5w per square foot energy usage (open office area)

Awards
International Award of Merit, IESNA, 2001

Publications
“Kansas City Designer Derek Porter Illuminated Two New Offices with an Array of Lighting Looks,” Architectural Record