BMT Design

Big Monster Toys
10,000 s.f., 1 Level
750 N. Orleans
Chicago, Illinois

Creating an office and studio for the toy industry’s preeminent designers called for an imagery evocative of the firm’s purpose.

First seen through a seamless glass storefront within the shell of an existing loft, are a profusion of different colored and textured fragments of support offices that establish the theme of the “secret workshop.” Visitors encounter spaces connected by a suspended model train and defined by iridescent glass panels and a backlit glass door. The elegance of the partners’ conference room, with its orthogonal relationship to the building grid, inviting black leather chairs, and mahogany, ebony, and fabric paneled walls, provides a respite from the prevailing anarchy.

A translucent gate swings into the terrazzo-floored presentation room, where rolling chairs can be pulled up to a round table beneath a skewed red soffit for game-storming sessions.