Alexander Henry Fabrics and the deLeon Design Group, are a family of passionate designers who work together. Their company, a premier textile design house, produces original cotton prints that are in constant demand by retailers and crafters around the world. They recently bought a building and asked Sander Architects, LLC to design them office and warehouse space.​
The work space of this company requires two completely different approaches. One side of the company includes offices for the designers, offices for administrators, a gallery, reception, conference room and fabric archive—all of which need to flow together to facilitate the creation of the product and the running of the company.
Building in construction.
The other half of the equation is where the fabrics themselves are stored, wrapped, crated onto pallets and shipped out to destinations around the world. This needs to be a large open-plan space with lots of light to work, plenty of room for heavy machinery, easy access for the forklifts and durable surfaces.​
Building in construction.
​Add to this the studio design space that is conducive to working artists to both produce and display their designs-in-progress as well as a private area for the family to relax, get inspiration and have private conversations.
It is a complicated program and the challenge is to delivery functional space that is also design-savvy, since it is being created for a multi-generational family of designers. Inspiration from Pierre Chareau and Jean Prouvé provided a jumping-off point for the conference room which is a glass-brick jewel-box set in a horseshoe of floor-to-ceiling wood panels, all fashioned from solid core doors, some providing privacy, some rotating to provide the doors into private offices.
The family “Shed” in the rear of the building takes it concrete walls and simple, rectilinear shape from an inspiration image brought to Sander Architects by the client.
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See more about working with this client on our blog HERE.