Interior Design 2008 Cover

Interior Design, 1/1/2008 — RTKL

It would clearly take some very enticing bait to hire Yvonne Colacion away from Gensler, her professional home of 11 years. What lure did RTKL Associates offer? To be the senior design director of a start-up interiors department and to debut with a renovation of the firm’s own studio in Los Angeles. Colacion bit. And a five-month, phased construction process ensued.

For 12 years, RTKL has occupied 41,000 square feet on the concourse level of the Bank of America Plaza tower downtown. The space was divided in two by a courtyard, which might seem like a drawback. But the location had a built-in storefront presence right on the B of A concourse, which suited Colacion just fine. “I love retail,” she says.

To make sure that the larger of the two spaces would catch the eye of clients, vendors, and passersby alike, she and principal Jennifer Cardinal came up with a window display every bit as alluring as Simon Doonan’s extravaganzas for Barneys New York—if not quite so cheeky. Who could resist the RTKL staff’s fetching faces, printed on acrylic disks strung together horizontally on a standard store cable system? “They’re the jewelry of the space,” Cardinal notes. “They glitter and shine.”

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Project designed by Yvonne Colacion while associated with RTKL.

Colacion Studio - Interior Design Lounge