We can’t wait to see what they create here.” It’s been an honor to work with The Swig Company, to put so many resources under one roof for Oakland’s innovators. There’s no other place in Oakland we could have realized this concept of a multi-industry entrepreneurs’ campus, on the scale needed – and certainly not in such a gorgeous setting. Both the space and owners provided remarkable freedom to explore a range of layouts, technologies and aesthetics. “We could hardly believe it when we saw these soaring, unobstructed spaces, next to BART, with lake views and a 3-acre roof garden for a backyard. “Thanks to the forward-thinking leaders at The Swig Company, we’ve had a wonderful opportunity to bring leap-ahead workspace design and use to this hidden gem of a property,” says Port Workspaces CEO and founder Joel Pool. On the 3rd floor, Port entrepreneurs enjoy a 4,500 square foot private bar and lounge, private offices, coworking spaces overlooking the 3-acre Kaiser Roof Garden, and a vast private terrace with Lake Merritt views, a 24-seat thatched Tiki bar, artificial turf and rolling lounge “hills.” An escalator (remnant of the building’s department store days) rises to the 2nd floor and The Port’s own 40-seat computer programming school, the Port Academy, a yoga studio, a presentation theater, and 180-seat “team room” – designed with bendable partitions and color-changing lighting for on-the-fly teamwork configurations. Other unique features include a towering LED-lit fountain, offices in former retail stores and meeting rooms made from a former walk-in restaurant refrigerator and from freight containers. Visitors at the first floor main entry are greeted by a “valley” of custom-made, sit-stand-lean workstations resembling icebergs, dyed terrazzo flooring and a massive 3D themed mural by renowned Oakland artist Sean Griffin. The Port Workspaces - Kaiser Campus renovation features a variety of visually stunning new design features. According to Deborah Boyer, executive vice president of The Swig Company, discussions with several parties about utilizing the previously unused mall space have occurred over the years but the collaboration with Port Workspaces brought the most creative and innovative adaptive reuse opportunity. As retail trends shifted, the tenant population of the mall dwindled and much of the three-story mall space, particularly space without exposure to the street, remained vacant. In later years, the mall was converted to a multi-tenant building and other retailers, including Joseph Magnin, Grodin’s, Casual Corner and Nesbitt’s, came and went. When Kaiser Center was first occupied in the early 1960’s as the headquarters of Henry J Kaiser’s industrial empire, the mall housed a department store, the White House. We innovated creative solutions for room dividing, such as rope walls, shipping container meeting rooms, and the inclusion of live, lush plants throughout the space.The third location for Oakland-born Port Workspaces, the Kaiser Campus occupies 60,000 square feet in Kaiser Center’s former mall area, a portion of the one million square foot property which itself has had a storied history.
Responsible for the architecture and interior design on all three floors of the space, we used own in-house fabrication team, as well as a larger diversified team of local artists to bring in some huge wall murals, bright, colorful floor staining, and large sculptural pieces. of the Kaiser Center (formerly a mall downstairs, restaurant upstairs and old office space). The campus for The Port Workspace is 60,000 sqft. The renovations cover a once very bland and very monotone space with art, color and striking sculptures. Catering to the young entrepreneur, the space offers various exciting work surfaces, visually stunning murals and custom-designed wall paintings done by local artists. This once defunct shopping mall was turned into a three floor co-working facility. A driving necessity behind The Port's design was to offer many different types of working environments within one large space.
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