sshape designed the shared offices for three organizations, The Fertilizer Institute, Crop Life America, and the Agricultural Retailers Association, located in Arlington, Virginia.

sshape executed a full build-out of a 25,500 RSF space to co-house three organizations with a shared commitment to supporting the agricultural economy. The Fertilizer Institute, Crop Life America, and the Agricultural Retailers Association each advocate for a different aspect of the national food system, and their areas of the new space are visually designated through careful use of their individual brand palettes. In common areas, agricultural themes unite the three organizations. A large greenery wall anchors the reception area, while “barn booths” in the common area reference agrarian structures with their use of wood and metal. As in farming, natural light is important to the workspace. With individual offices located on the perimeter, sshape incorporated large glass sidelights to allow light to flow to interior spaces. For the configurable conference room, sshape designers employed patterned, green tectum wall panels to evoke fertile fields, while the ceiling, too, references the three organizations and their missions. Playing on the theme of “three”, a triangle motif forms hexagons to create a honeycomb ceiling pattern, a tribute to the busy bees whose work underpins American agriculture, and a reference to the cross-pollination of ideas the new space enables.

Design: sshape

Design Team: Liza Raff, Heather Zup, Roger Sola-Sole, Camila Molina

Contractor: DFS Construction

Photography: Max Zhang

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