"In this project, a great deal of custom millwork was involved," reports Felderman, whose firm won the International Interior Design Association Caliber Award for its plan for the international law firm’s workspace in L.A.’s famed MGM Tower. "The millworkers brought modular-component technology to the design fabrication and almost viewed each piece of furniture as a total entity. But dTank dissected each workstation as a series of smaller pieces that could be built individually by different sources."

The approach proved to be both cost-effective and an intelligent response to a specific design challenge. Relying on dTank cost about half as much as going directly to a wood mill or traditional furniture manufacturer – and neither would have been able to match dTank’s highly custom design work.

After being shown a series of workstation renderings, dTank developed a methodology to fabricate its vision of the Felderman Keatinge & Associates design. "One of the tricky elements in this furniture is nothing touches," Felderman explains. "The vertical side panels float away from the work surfaces, which float off the file cabinets, and we have elements like that in the architecture as well."

As with most high-end architectural firms, Felderman Keatinge & Associates views furniture as a key architectural component whose look, style, feel and material fits the scale of the space and the culture of the tenant itself.

The objective always is to create a design indicative of the client’s needs and image. In this case, that meant internally conveying the precepts of honesty, trust and substance and outwardly projecting a sense of community and transparency through the use of light as well as a Zen-like feeling of meditation and empowerment. "It became a very quiet and serene space yet it was very dynamic and light-filled – an essence that’s also reflected in the furniture," Felderman says.

With law firms generally in an expansion mode, he notes that Pillsbury Winthrop and other top-tier practices like it have sought to create a working environment that differs from the norm – helping partners enhance their productivity and set the tone for fruitful on-site client meetings.

Describing his firm’s work as a moving target, Felderman explains that each project aims to reinvent design concepts, never replicate previous work and embrace the client’s unique qualities. "We’re known for designing corporate headquarters and a lot of our work tends to be cutting edge, in that clients are willing to push the envelope with the kind of space they work in and the way they work," he says. "This is clearly one of those cases."