ID Studios is happy to announce the promotion of Jill Russell-Layman CID NCIDQ, and Rich Guerena AIA LEED AP to Associate Principals. “In addition to directing some of ID Studios’ most significant projects, both Rich and Jill will participate in the day- to- day business operations of the firm. We are thrilled that both Jill and Rich have expanded their leadership roles at ID Studios, and we can already see the positive impact they have made,” says Principal Amy Morway.
Jill Russell-Layman graduated from the Design Institute of San Diego with a BFA in Interior Design in 2003. Jill has been with ID Studios since 2006, just one year after our inception. She has continuously exhibited her commitment to the success of the firm and to the happiness of our staff. Her inspiration comes from being in the outdoors, whether it’s camping in the summer or skiing in the winter, she says, “being in the outdoors buoys my imagination and prepares me to take on the next big challenge.”
Rich Guerena joined ID Studios in 2014 after a
successful 18-year start to his architectural career. He graduated from the
University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Architecture. Through his
positive interactions with clients, dedication to mentorship, and consistent
drive for improvement, Rich has demonstrated a consistent level of
professionalism. He and his college sweetheart moved to San Diego soon after
graduating in 2002 and have now, “gained an appreciation for good
tacos.”
“Jill and Rich have proven their value to ID Studios,” says President, Deborah Elliott, “through their strategic client leadership as well as being on the ground floor of the amazing internal culture of ID Studios – something that sets us apart from the everyday design firm in San Diego.”
We would like to extend sincere congratulations to them both!
Jeni Champion graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in Art/Interior Design in 2011. Since joining ID Studios in 2013, she has brought a unique joy to her projects that shines through into the final design. Jeni has committed to learn and give back by joining the NAIOP Developing Leaders program and as an instructor at the San Diego Design Institute. Jeni loves camping with friends and family with June Lake as her life-long favorite place in the great outdoors. Her most recent completed project is the West Coast office of Marsh & McLennan which has received excellent feedback from the Marsh & McLennan team.
Annie Wilson joined ID Studios in 2013 after relocating from Washington DC. She has a BS in Interior Design from East Carolina University. Not only does she bring beautiful design to the table, but her determination to get the job done right has earned her the title of Senior Project Manager. She recently completed Brain Corp, which consisted of 100,000 s.f. over 5-floors, including two cafes, a game room, and an outdoor patio. Outside of her project workload, she makes it a priority to network and continues her professional growth by being actively involved in organizations such as CREW and SAME. In her free time, one of the things she enjoys is watching football and is excited that her team, the Green Bay Packers, are in the playoffs.
Maegen Curry joined ID Studios in 2014 with experience in both commercial and hospitality design. After receiving a BA from the University of Washington, Maegen received a BFA from the Design Institute of San Diego in 2010. Her fresh take on design and attention to detail make her a perfect fit for the ongoing renovation of ResMed’s headquarters. She has joined CREW as a way to network and keep connected with like-minded professionals. With two young boys, her weekends often consist of designing and building complicated Lego creations.
Each of these key team-members have proven their design and leadership ability and are of great value to ID Studios. Congratulations to them all!
Crafting with local Boys and Girls Clubs to bring holiday cheer to local children
For the last 20 years, Herman Miller & Geiger have partnered with the Boys and Girls clubs in an event called “We Care.” The event brings holiday cheer to thousands of children by recruiting the local design community who create “craft stations” that enable the kids to make holiday gifts for their family, teachers, and friends while bringing the spirit of the holidays to the children with treats, games and special activities.
We love participating each year and thank Herman Miller & Geiger for organizing this event!
Whether they’re multi-story living-wonders or a preserved accent box, everyone loves green walls! And now there’s plenty of research indicating that a connection to nature through biophilic design is of great benefit. Including design elements such as green walls, photos of nature, or fractal shapes in the workplace provides benefits to both the employee and employer. Those benefits include lowering stress levels, uplifting mood, increased productivity, improved concentration and a reduction in absenteeism.
Whether they’re multi-story living-wonders or a preserved accent box, everyone loves green walls! And now there’s plenty of research indicating that a connection to nature through biophilic design is of great benefit. Including design elements such as green walls, photos of nature, or fractal shapes in the workplace provides benefits to both the employee and employer. Those benefits include lowering stress levels, uplifting mood, increased productivity, improved concentration and a reduction in absenteeism.
A 2006 meta-analysis published in Heath Promotion International found “empirical, theoretical and anecdotal evidence… of the human health benefits of contact with nature,” which can include, not only a natural environment like a park or garden but “any single element of the natural environment (such as plants, animals, soil, water or air).”
As we look back on summer, we’re thinking of some of our Coastal Clients and Brixton Capital comes to mind. With its space-ship-shape and rich history, the Brixton Headquarters building is iconic in San Diego’s coastal north county. The building’s location afforded the opportunity to capture breathtaking views of the only cove in Solana Beach, and yet it was starting to show it’s age.
On a mission to bring this beauty back to life, Brixton retained ID Studios to consult on its design transformation, both inside and out. As we researched the building’s history, we quickly discovered that the story of this uniquely shaped building is as interesting as its unique shape.
Brixton Capital Building Today
The History
The building currently located at 120 South Sierra Avenue, started as the Solana Theater in the 1930s with its main entry, and address, on South Acacia Ave. It was built by Smith Construction which was run by Dorthea Smith and her husband Milton Smith who built several landmarks during their tenure in Solana Beach, including the simple, rectangular theater.
[note: The best pictures we’ve found of the original theater are by photographer Eleanor Antin in her “King of Solana Beach” series. Due to copyright issues, we can’t post them in this article, but they’re out there if you do an image search.]
The earliest reference to the theater we found was in the book Seabiscuit, An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. In the book, she recalls a famous 1938 horse race, Seabiscuit vs Ligaroti, which was reportedly replayed at the theater after being run on the nearby Del Mar Racetrack. The theater stayed in business for decades and holds a fond place in many people’s memories and is often recalled in the Facebook Group, “You Might Be From Solana Beach If…”
Unfortunately, the pizza restaurant didn’t last long, and the building started its next life when it was converted to office space. In the ’80s, big changes were in store for the building. Following a leveraged buyout of The Chart House, the executives turned its sights to Solana Beach and the historic theater for their new headquarters building. They hired Architect Joe Lancor, who added the curved roof and nautilus shell shape which is now prominently featured as the entrance.
When Chart House decided to move its headquarters to Chicago in 1997, the building continued its corporate identity, by housing various companies. When Brixton purchased the property in 2016 they did so with the intent to modernize it for their Corporate Headquarters.
The Rejuvenation
According to CEO, Travis King, Brixton wanted their offices to reflect the “hardworking, get it done East Coast/New York mentality combined with the laid-back vibe of San Diego.” ID Studios brought those ideas together, with a design based on an open concept, maximizing the coastal views of Fletcher Cove and to bring those elements to the interior of the building.
When Brixton approached us, we knew the almost windowless wall that previously housed the large movie screen, hid a stunning view of Fletcher Cove. The design team went to work relocating restrooms and other core services to maximize the potential held in this solid wall. Piercing this wall with a line of windows also created access to fresh air for its occupants along with the coastal views.
The renovation also features a new monument stair which took into account the circular theme inherent in the nautilus shaped entrance. With office space on the two upper floors, the basement was converted into a fitness area, complete with a jiu-jitsu studio, showers, and surfboard storage. Separate access to the fitness studios is directly accessible to the community park and beach access which has the added benefit of minimizing the intrusion of beach sand into the main office. The result is a refreshing interpretation of Coastal Modern, bringing an infusion of natural light, fresh sea breezes, and an active vibe to the entire building.
ID Studios is proud to have been a design team partner to this beautiful, coastal restoration and to join the mission bringing this historic building back to life.
We’re happy to announce the latest addition to our design team, Ashlynn Meyer. Ashlynn grew up in San Diego, and graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 2018 with a BFA in Interior Design and a Minor in Business Marketing. She returned to San Diego to work at an architectural firm specializing in Hospitality and Multi-Family Residential Projects until she joined ID Studios in September.
We love her bubbly spirit, and in fact, Ashlynn was a cheerleader all through college! She enjoys traveling and her favorite vacation was a tour through London. The beach is always on her summer “to-do” list, and she also enjoys snowboarding in the winter.
We’re excited to get to know her and integrate her creative talent into our team!
This year’s Tables for Tots, organized by GMBI, raised a record amount of over $103,000 to benefit the local Ronald McDonald House Charity that provides a “’home-away-from-home’ for families with children being treated for serious, often life-threatening conditions at local hospitals.” Prior to the event, “Each Architectural and Design firm is given an unfinished child’s table and two chairs to design an ‘adventure’ for children.” ID Studios supported the fundraising efforts by providing a custom-designed piece that was auctioned off for the event.
The theme this year was “Turn Up the Music, a celebration of music through the decades.” Our “table” was a play-space styled like a futuristic, Juke-Box Time Machine. In addition to the money raised by the sale of the “table”, our design team won first place in the Freestyle Table Category!
We are very grateful to our sponsors. Spooners Woodworkers made our design come to life. Scantech provided the beautiful juke-box styled graphics, Sherwin Williams provided the paint, and the local representatives of Designtex and Coalesse provided all of the beautiful accessories!
We are grateful to GMBI for hosting such a fun, and worth-while event that, not only brings the design community together but also reaps such wonderful benefits to families in need. We hope to continue to support this worthy cause!
We’d like to welcome Lauren Zinn and Holly Cogan to the ID Studios family!
Lauren graduated from SDSU in 2014 and has worked for the last four years gaining experience in the design industry, including the Hospitality arena. She believes the key to great design is to empathize with the client, so she can better understand how to provide design services tailored to their individual needs. She loves taking her two rescue dogs, Bud and Luna, to Dog Beach to burn off all their extra energy. They will be joining a thriving “dog loving” community at ID Studios!
Holly just graduated from SDSU this past June and completed her internship at ID Studios this year. Her friendly personality, sense of design, and work ethic fit perfectly with the ID Studios team. When she’s not searching out new coffee shops around San Diego, her favorite place to travel is NYC where she was lucky enough to do a summer interior design internship.
Give a warm welcome to our expanded design family!
In the design world, trends come and go, however, one design trend we see sticking around is workplace wellness and health for employees. Over the past two decades the workplace has changed substantially. Prior to the early 2000’s, the typical workplace was an artificially lit cubicle farm surrounded by enclosed private offices that blocked all the natural light. Since then, designers and clients have embraced workplace trends from open planning concepts to game rooms and sliding boards instead of stairs. We think planning for the health and wellness of employees in the workplace is here to stay.
A workplace that promotes health and wellness has positive effects on both the employees and employer. Studies have shown that a healthy lifestyle and environment enable employee productivity, engagement and retention. Given that we spend up to 90% of our day indoors it is important that we are surrounded by an environment that supports our health and well-being.
We’ve found that the WELL Building Standard is a great guide for best practices to achieve a healthier workplace. The WELL Building Standard is the first standard with a focus on health and well-being of the building occupants. WELL is focused on seven concepts: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Fitness, Comfort and Mind. Below are some examples of how you can integrate some of these concepts to your workplace.
Indoor/Outdoor space at Voit San Diego
Air Air quality issues cause respiratory problems, diminish work productivity and lead to sick building syndrome, below are few easy tips to improve the quality of air in your workplace:
• Select low VOC paints and finishes
• Have walk-off mats at the entry of your space
• Install operable windows/doors in your workspace for natural ventilation
• Use green cleaning products
• Install carpet tiles
Water 80% of the US is mildly dehydrated which can cause many health issues. It is recommended that men consume 125 oz and women 91 oz of water a day, below are a few ways to encourage healthy hydration:
• Provide safe filtered water within 100’ of regularly occupied areas
• Change and maintain water filters
• Test drinking water
Lunch Room at Marsh and McLennan which provides fresh fruit and purified water to employees, along with coffee, tea and lunch delivery.
Nourishment Dietary guidelines for Americans recommend 4 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. In addition to nourishment guidelines the WELL Building Standard has recommendations to prevent food borne illness in the workplace. Below are a few tips to champion proper nourishment in the workplace:
• Provide disposable paper towels at sinks in lieu of hand dryers
• Provide .7cf of refrigerator space for each employee.
• Have an office garden with vegetables, herbs and edible plants.
• Provide plenty of spaces for eating, tables and chairs for 25% of employees
• Make fruit and vegetables available to staff
Light filled conference room at Brixton Capital.
Light Access to natural light is important to health and wellbeing, here are a few ways to achieve better lighting in your office • Maximize natural light • Control glare • Select light paint colors for the majority of for walls and ceilings.
Fitness center at WD-40
Fitness It is recommended to get 30 minutes of activity per day, a few ways to encourage movements are below: • Provide access and encourage use of stairs • Storage for bicycles • Provide areas for physical activity • Height adjustable workstations • Shower
Comfort Comfortable, distraction free environments lead to happier employees who are more productive, here are several ways to support greater comfort in the workplace:
• Providing adjustable chairs and workstations for proper ergonomics
• Invest in a white noise system
• Provide employees with a choice of areas to work throughout the office
• Limit noise created from building mechanical systems
Biophilia wall at Mission Federal Credit Union Headquarters
Mind Interior environments at are aesthetically pleasing and that incorporate nature can enhance the employees experience, mood and happiness, below are some tips to promote emotional health:
• Bring the outdoors in with plants and patterns that evoke nature
• Provide opportunities for connections to the exterior
• Create collaborative spaces and areas to meditate and relax
At ID Studios, we are passionate above creating spaces that promote health and wellness as well as environmental sustainability. Reach out to see how we can help.
This Spring, bkm OfficeWorks hosted a design contest and Charity Auction to benefit David’s Harp Foundation. The goal was to design a one-of-a-kind table top for the Bassline Table Legs made by Steelcase. This line is specifically designed to host a customized table-top for anything you can dream up.
David’s Harp Foundation uses the power of media creation as
a platform to inspire, educate and empower “at-risk” and homeless youth to
achieve academic success through music/media education, sound engineering and
multimedia production.
Using music as an inspiration, we took lyrics to the next level by incorporating them into a beautiful graphic design. The result was a “Judges Choice” award winning tab table that also inspired a bidding spree at the silent auction.
Through the organizational efforts of bkm, over $5,000 was raised to support David’s Harp Foundation including table sales, event donations and a generous in-kind match by bkm’s owner, Bill Kuhnert. Thank you to everyone involved with organizing a fun, event that also provided another way for our designers at ID Studios to “give back” to the community.
