-By Danine Alati , Photography by Benjamin Benschneider

Women love shoes. It's a fact. The delightful exhilaration that a new pair of fashionable three-inch sling-backs, sexy stilettos, or sensible ballet flats elicits from the average woman quite possibly could reach intoxicating levels. But chances are that she has not thought about the long journey that those python peep-toes or patent leather Mary Janes have endured before reaching the prominent place on her closet shelf. Shoe designers painstakingly sketched and measured, constructed then dissected models, before ultimately settling on a design to be made, marketed, and sold. In what type of setting does this work take place, one might wonder? Some fanciful place on par with the North Pole or Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, perhaps? The truth for Bellevue, Wash.-based shoemaker Topline Corporation is that design and operations are housed in a new consolidated headquarters in a warehouse facility designed by Seattle-based NBBJ.

Parent company to footwear lines Report, Report Signature, and R2—which produce women's, men's, and children's shoes that are sold through specialty retailers and department stores—Topline has been popping up on the red carpet and in fashion magazines for more than 20 years, with the likes of current celebs such as Paris Hilton, Fergie, and Heidi Klum donning various styles. The Topline design team seeks out global inspiration by traveling the world and analyzing foreign trends before returning to the West Coast design studio. According to Topline CEO Bill Snowden, the need for the new headquarters was "to create a modern space for our corporate model in an effort to reenergize our business and remind everyone that we thrive on new ideas."

One of the main goals for the project was to create a place to house design and operations functions in one consolidated space that truly reflects the Topline brand and would connect with the customers—who in this case are the wholesale buyers. Previously, these departments operated in the top of a warehouse with no windows and no light—hardly an inspirational environment. "It was overcrowded and stifling," says Alan Young, NBBJ principal in charge of the project and design lead. "The success of the new headquarters has more to do with it being a huge transformation from the old space. Before, the [office/showroom/design studio] did not reflect the mission of Topline. Our concept was to create a place where, as you enter, you understand that this is a place about fashion and design."

NBBJ retrofitted a giant 38,000-sq.-ft. warehouse, organized into a series of vignettes to create a studio space where employees can work and market themselves, while the attached office portion remained the place to house the president's office and sales staff. In the main warehouse area, where the ceilings are 30-ft. tall, NBBJ instituted a mezzanine level that connects to the former studio spaces, which are now used to archive old collections—some might call it a shrine to old shoes, which are kept for inspiration.

The lobby, with its intimate, subdued lighting, exudes a serene, understated vibe that becomes more energetic as one travels through the corridor toward the dazzling product display area. "The hallway is still a bit more introverted to allow the surrounding products to sparkle," Young says. After passing the employee lounge/café, the corridor opens into the main area containing product displays, workstations, and design studios.

Constructed like a runway, an aisle features tiered seating to one side with mannequins showcasing shoes on the other side, set in a curved fixture that delineates this area from the central product display area. These product display walls form a flexible showroom, which can adapt as needed to accommodate buyer meetings or presentations, and bright stage/show lighting spotlights merchandise. Workstations are set outside this zone, with design studios on the perimeter flanking the work areas. Snowden feels that this new headquarters achieves a perfect balance in its circulation and floor plan. "There's a very open area where all creative minds can circulate and at the same time have private space to design," he says.

Concrete floors, high, exposed ceilings and fixtures harken back to the facility's roots as a warehouse and allow the white-white product displays to pop and really showcase the merchandise. Red and white are signature colors of the brand and, therefore, essential elements in the design scheme. "The client was very involved in the design process, and he wanted a very pure, spare, clean space," offers Young. "The of head the company is a Modernist, essentially, but he likes to play with complementary elements—for example using contrasting textures, colors, and forms," like a red wool carpet set on the concrete floor.

This stunning project that perfectly reflects the Topline brand with interiors as edgy as the shoes themselves did not come easy. It was five years in the making. And dealing with city constraints for an industrial area and trying to stretch the budget as far as possible posed considerable challenges. But in the end, NBBJ made it work. "We had to figure out what to do—that was affordable and reasonable—to take a stagnant building and turn it into something vivacious," Young says. "It was like remodeling a garage into something else entirely. And in essence, that's exactly what we did here."


who
Project, client: Topline Corporation. Architect, interior designer, lighting designer: NBBJ. Structural engineer: Harriott Engineers. Mechanical engineer: MacDonald Miller. Electrical engineer: Hill Electric. General contractor: Joseph S. Simmons Construction. A/V Communications: Sun West Communications. Furniture dealer: Commercial Office Interiors/Western Office Interiors. Photographer: Benjamin Benschneider.

what
Wallcoverings: Cork by Vertical Resources. Paint: Sherwin-Williams. Laminate: Formica. Dry wall: USG. Flooring: finished concrete. Carpet/carpet tile: Bentley Prince Street. Carpet fiber: XT1 Nylon. Ceiling: Armstrong. Lighting: LiteLab; D’AC Lighting; Portfolio; Resolute; Focal Point; Metalux; Insight. Doors: Lynden Door. Door hardware: Corbin Russwin/Stanley. Glass Doors: Blumcraft Architectural Glass Doors. Railings: stainless steel with cable hardware by Johnson Architectural Products, rail supports by Julius Blume. Workstations/workstation seating, files, shelving: Knoll. Lounge seating: Bensen; Inform. Cafeteria seating: Design within Reach; Inmod. Other seating; cafeteria/other tables: Inmod; Capellini. Conference table: Design within Reach; Michael Hancock Originals. Architectural woodworking: Urban Hardwoods. Cabinetmaking: Interior Environments, Hafele Hardware. Underfloor duct: Walker Duct. Plumbing fixtures: American Standard, Kohler, Blanco, Franke.

where
Location: Bellevue, Washington. Total floor area: 39,508 sq. ft. No. of floors: 2. Total staff size: 102. Cost/sq. ft.: $71sq. ft.