Wood-Screened Walls Create Versatile Workspaces for Portland Tech Firm

Three years ago, New York City-based security software company Varonis set up a temporary satellite office in Portland, Ore., to support its West Coast clients. The tech firm quickly realized that securing a permanent Pacific Northwest location would give them ample opportunity to grow and evolve.

The company, which protects firms from insider threats and cybersecurity attacks, moved into its 12,500-square-foot Portland office last March. It is situated on the eighth floor of the post-modern, four-star KOIN Tower, the third-tallest building in downtown Portland with 35 floors.

New York-based Pliskin Architecture, in collaboration with local firm GBD Architects, designed the space. Besides Varonis' Portland office, Pliskin has designed the interiors for the company's New York City headquarters, its support center in North Carolina, and its Western European headquarters in Paris.

A long, multifunctional table accents the reception area. It begins as a reception desk, then turns into a communal table for conversation and collaboration, and finally dips down into a sofa bench to visually connect the office's front entrance to a game room toward the rear.

In between personal and communal spaces, a hybrid glass and wood screen wall with diagonal wood slats creates a unifying transparent layer with seating, storage, and acoustical privacy for private, glass-walled offices. Additional wood screens soften other portions of the space.

Pliskin's design incorporates integrated technology to provide multiple opportunities for Varonis to connect to its far-flung international offices.

“It's very common for a meeting to exist outside of one location," says Barak Pliskin, principal of Pliskin Architecture. “They haven't limited how they work to where specific teams are situated on the globe."

The design firm placed desks along the perimeter to capitalize on the natural light from eastern and southern exposures. Its design introduces a variety of ways to work “down to the desk level," Pliskin says.

This concept of deconstructing the typical workspace to create multiple ways to work individually or collaboratively at the desk level was a favorite element of the design, Pliskin says. “We wanted to expand on what employees could do at their desks. Instead of trying to take certain tasks out of the desk—going to a huddle room or conference room to collaborate—we brought some of that granular thinking to the workspace."

Both sitting and standing desks and sofas all co-exist to provide flexibility for the way people approach their work. Each work area can also be reconfigured due to an adaptable power supply designed into the space.

Pliskin tucked the office's communal functions—formal and informal conference rooms and a kitchen and break room—within the core.

Compressed-paper tiles with hints of the company's turquoise and red branding colors accent individual offices and conference room walls while absorbing sound. Fuzzy pleated lights made of felt soften noise in one of the casual conference rooms.

Pliskin says he hopes an area called “The Hub" will encourage creative use. “It's not a conference room, you can't book it; it's just there. You can sit on settee seating or on high-tops or pull out an ottoman and create your own mini-meeting," he says.

On average, office space in the KOIN Tower located at 222 SW Columbia St. rents for $26.00/NNN, according to CoStar data.