As we say on our website, “We are a team of experienced innovators who are as invested in your project as you are.” But what does that really mean for you?
It’s a question that we regularly get asked, so here’s a story of how we worked with our client, developer AIG-Lincoln, on an award-winning project in Moscow, Russia, White Square.
Many water feature projects start as a blue dot on the site plan, something our Director of Creative Design, Rob Mikula, is deeply familiar with. At the beginning of this collaboration, Rob traveled to Moscow to gain inspiration and direction from White Square’s space. He recognized that the blue dot was an opportunity to connect the old with the new. While the site was a new Class-A office building development, there is an Orthodox Church that stands directly adjacent to the plaza. Keeping that in mind, Rob began conceptualizing and collaborating with the team to create a water feature that was a historical reference to White Square’s space, connecting the new site to its heritage and ultimately giving the design a “sense of place.”
For example, the local subway station’s decorative cast iron works inspired the final design of the water feature’s geometry. The square is also home to several restaurants and cafes, so the new space needed to be an attractive element that complimented existing activities happening in that area. Collaborating with developers from AIG-Lincoln, our team developed several formal concepts for the space, that were presented to our clients in Moscow. Upon approval, we began collaborating with a local design-build specialist contractor for a smooth transition from design to execution, including commissioning, training, and hand-over to the owner group.
Today, White Square holds the title for The Moscow Times Awards 2013 for the Best Business Center and the CRE Moscow Awards 2010 for the Best Class A Business Center.
Bringing a space to life and crafting joy with water is a collaborative process. Our collective efforts ensure clients and owner groups reach success. Our ability to address technical and commercial concerns that inevitably follow an idea, are often the difference between incorporating a captivating water feature versus a plain ‘ol planter box.
For more information on our design mockup to the testing process, check out this video of our Director of Creative Design, Rob Mikula, and Business Development Manager, Asmaa Elkorazati, as they talk about how we use our test pool.
