By Office Snapshots Staff

Shay Hughes, COO of Southern California commercial real estate brokerage Hughes Marino, had one objective when designing the company’s newest office in Orange County. She wanted to retain the family oriented, home-like atmosphere that has become synonymous with Hughes Marino’s San Diego headquarters… but this time in a 4,500 square foot, high-rise office space.

“We have always believed that the family model is a good business model, and it is important that our space reflects these values,” Hughes says. “Our team members spend as much time in our office as they may in their own home, and we want them to feel happy, creative, and inspired when they are at work. Everyone knows that happy employees are productive employees,” she adds.

Drawing on ideas from the company’s corporate headquarters, which she also designed, Hughes chose to repeat some of the concepts that have worked so well in San Diego. But she was also determined to allow the company’s Orange County team to create their own energy and culture within the new office.

Located at 2 Park Plaza in Irvine’s beautiful Jamboree Center, Hughes Marino’s Orange County office boasts shabby-chic couches, a family-style farm table, pool table, and gourmet kitchen. A gallery wall features dozens of framed photos of HM team members with their families, while more than 1,000 additional photos stream throughout the day on a flat screen television nearby.

“The private office layout mixed with lots of open space, provides a great balance of privacy and collaborative space,” Hughes says. (Incidentally, the glass-walled offices boast stunning views of the San Bernardino mountains from their perch on the 7th floor).

Other noticeably unique features, particularly in a Class A office building, are the oil-rubbed oak floors which Hughes personally selected. She also brought in custom made decorative lighting fixtures, including a three-tier, pear-shaped chandelier over the billiards table and delicate, hand-blown, glass LED balls over the conference room’s custom marble conference table. For the kitchen, Hughes selected dark walnut cabinetry and iceberg marble countertops, which serve as a masculine counterpoint to the feminine, all-white workstations at the opposite end of the large, open space.

Even those who don’t identify the painstaking detail that went into selecting flooring, cabinetry and surfaces are immediately smitten with the artwork contained within Hughes Marino’s new office.

“The bright white walls were begging for pops of bold color, so we filled them with some of the most creative and innovative artists from around the globe, including Damian Hirst, Gary Polonsky, Rusty Wolf, Cecile Plaisance, Robert Mars, and a specially commissioned piece by artist Anja Van Herle that features 5,000 Swarovski crystals all placed by hand,” says Hughes. Indeed, the artwork delivers a heavy dose of whimsy and nostalgia – see the oversized Junior Mints and rainbow-colored jacks scattered across workspace walls, and a lenticular print of a Barbie doll, which changes images when viewed from different angles.

“It’s a space that is engaging, elegant and fun, yet cozy enough for our team to feel like they’re working from home,” Hughes says. She adds that, given their expertise in exclusively representing tenants in office lease and purchases, as well as their in-house construction management service, “we know firsthand how much of an impact office space has on building a great team, creating culture, and shaping a company’s future.”

Architect: Gensler
Designer/Concept: Shay Hughes, COO, Hughes Marino
Photography: Boyd Harris

This article originally appeared on OfficeSnaphots.com