‘Choice’ is new amenity in COVID-altered workspaces, says LPA design guru
After two years of COVID-19 restrictions, many bosses calling employees back on-site are revamping their spaces.
The conventional offices of old with their sea of workstations are making way for more immersive, flexible spaces that impact the users’ physical and mental well-being.
“Choice will be our new amenity, and I’m already seeing that happen,” says Rick D’Amato, LPA Design Studios’ design director of the workplace.
From new seating arrangements to touchless technology and improved air filtration and lighting systems, these next-generation workspaces reflect the factors people have come to expect amid the pandemic.
“The idea of being able to give the people who use a building this sense of choice, that they have that empowerment, they can create their own environment, they can create their own sense of safety and security, I think is going to be huge moving forward,” says D’Amato, based out of what the multi-discipline firm touts as its “LEED Platinum ‘living laboratory’ for sustainable workplace design” in Irvine.
It’s one of six studios in California and Texas, including Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, Dallas and San Antonio.
The amiable designer who’s also an award-winning architect creates sustainable interiors for corporate headquarters, healthcare facilities and civic environments to name just a few. We caught up with D’Amato recently to learn more about him and how he sees future workspaces. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Was there an architect who influenced your brand of design most?
A: It would be Frank Lloyd Wright. His take on the human experience has led me to interiors and the understanding of space, proportion, process and sequence, especially if you look at The Guggenheim in Manhattan and his idea of how space is perceived. You’re coming from the frantic world of Manhattan, and when you open those doors, you don’t want to boom into that rotunda space. You want time to decompress.
We just completed a space for RiverRock (Real Estate Group’s new Irvine headquarters) where that idea is very evident. I love working with that concept in the environments that we design.
Q: Is that LPA’s design trademark?
A: We don’t have a particularly recognizable style. But one thing that we’re trying to do at LPA is to pull apart interior design so that we can have a more specific approach to interiors.
We’re doing a big project for Hoag Hospital at the new Irvine campus, where we’re using personas and archetypes to get into different mindsets. The things that a patient looks for in a patient room as opposed to a physician or a nurse, it’s quite shocking.
We’re looking within our patient central spaces at this whole idea of empowerment. How do you do that? Just giving patients control of their light, control of their temperature, and control of their window coverings gives them a sense of security, and I find that fascinating. And it’s started to affect my vision of the workplace. That sense of empowerment is very important to the individual in the workplace, as well.
And then you layer over that what the last two years have done to not only workspace but all interior design.
Q: How has COVID-19 affected interior environments?
A: I hate to say some good things came out of COVID, but I think what’s going to happen to our interior environments could be very positive. It’s really just about good design. It’s about how we can make that human experience the best it can be for the person sitting at that desk, the person in the restroom, and the person using that coffee bar.
We’re working with a company in a very small space — it’s only going to be about 25,000 square feet or less because the number keeps fluctuating on how many people they want to bring back into the office.
So, how do you accommodate for when the entire staff comes back for a town hall meeting? It’s about adaptability, flexibility, all these things we didn’t really hear a lot about back before the pandemic but now is crucial.
If we can’t have a conference room that can expand into an all-hands space, but daily can be divided up into huddle rooms and focus rooms and process rooms, things like that, then why do you want to pay rent on that space? Or do those areas become common spaces within the buildings they occupy?
A lot of people are scared about the future of the office, but I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to give us the opportunity to be better designers who are more impactful to our clients because we have to understand them on such a deeper level than we ever did before.
So, it upsets me when I hear people say this is the death of the workplace. No, this is the rebirth of the workplace and I’m excited to be part of that.
More about Rick D’Amato
Title: Design Director at LPA Design Studios
Residence: Long Beach
Why he got into architecture and design: As the son of a contractor, D’Amato was fascinated by building. One of his earliest memories was building cardboard cities on his father’s bridge table, complete with plaster of Paris mountains and hillside retreats.
“I would be up all night long just building little cardboard houses, and then I’d be unsatisfied with them, tear them down, and build them again,” he said. “It was this constant evolution over the years that just kept developing. And that’s still how I think. Even doing interiors, building the hard model helps me visualize the space much more readily.”
College: Studied architecture at the University of Arizona at the suggestion of Newport Beach architect Rolly Pulaski, for whom D’Amato worked part-time.
His first taste of interior design: Never mind that he trained as an architect. D’Amato comes from a tradition of architects like Frank Lloyd Wright or Mies Van der Roche known for crafting the entire environment, from structural to interiors. Even landscape.
During college, D’Amato worked for an architectural professor who tasked him with the interior portions of projects.
“I became enamored by the intimacy of interior design,” he said. “It’s really about curating the human experience.”