The workplace of WMA Consulting Engineers Ltd. is a breath of fresh air in the typically staid world of engineering offices. Since WMA works mainly with architecture firms, the company wanted the office to show that its engineers understand their clients.

On paper, floor plans for the office were an orderly, rational grid of workstations and private offices that appealed to engineers. But once built, the office was anything but bland.

Visitors to WMA are first greeted by a spaceship-like entryway, a stainless steel inverted conical drum that resembles the ducts typically found in large industrial projects. Pie-shaped sections of the cone form the letters W, M and A over and over again to act as a transition from the street to the office.

Inside, open-air workstations were designed to suit the engineers' needs and inspire an active, energetic environment. Vertical lights hang in a diagonal pattern to look like high-rise office buildings lit at night. Using the materials that the engineers work with, panels of sheet metal hang suspended in space between workstations. The dividers act as blinders to keep distractions at a minimum.


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