White & Case LLP
Law Office Relocation
San Francisco, CA

Prior to the White & Case's move to 4 Embarcadero Center, Huntsman designed offices for the law firm at 3 Embarcadero Center, where the practice relocated from temporary offices at 2 Embarcadero Center and One Market Street. The office consolidation consisted of three separate phases, due to the project expanding as more space became available on the floor at 3EC. So, when a single floor became available at 4EC in 2005, White & Case seized the opportunity to develop a new office in which the design would incorporate their objectives from start to finish.

Recognizing the floor plate creates an outer and inner level of workspace between multiple routes of circulation, Huntsman's designers utilized transparency and light to open the interior. Two corridors that run along the wider spans of the office define the main circulation. Huntsman created not just an aisle to connect the two longitudinal paths, but a series of spaces that rest along a cross-axis.

From the elevator lobby, visitors are greeted by a reception desk surfaced with green onyx - a material the client and designers both thought reflected the interior of a reputable and trusted law firm. The other benefits of onyx include translucency, color and natural pattern when the stone is backlit. Natural patterns of onyx form unique and intricate designs. When lit up, these patterns appear slightly three-dimensional. Past the reception desk, a visitor's lounge becomes the anteroom to an executive boardroom flanked with two columns clad with glowing onyx. Opposite of the lounge, smaller conference rooms step back to reveal the boardroom. Walnut columns line up with walnut flooring and define these bays. T-8 fluorescent strips illuminate the organic pattern of resin panels inside the columns.

On the other side of the elevator lobby, the same pattern of layers repeats. The corridor passes through another guest seating area and ends in a library and research room, whose entrance is also marked by a pair of onyx columns.

Off the main corridors, attorney offices are paired with paralegal workstations. "Private" offices are framed in windows and clerestories to allow daylighting and views from San Francisco's Financial District in. Resin panels raised to eye level provide privacy and give workstations the same transparent treatment as their office counterparts. Clusters of workstations for administrative teams utilize the same translucent panels as partitions. The designers pay homage to the Embarcadero Center's iconographic silhouette by replicating its image in the panel frames.

Completion Date: May 2006
Size: 20,000sf

photography by David Wakely