Media contact:
Roger Darnell
DWA for Shilo
+1.828.264.8898

Shilo was established in 2004 in Del Mar, California, and in New York City, by co-founders Jose and Danielle Gomez, Andre Stringer and Tracy Chandler, with Shilo East opening for business that year in lower Manhattan.  Since then, the Emmy Award-winning company's reputation for creating original and commissioned work that is powerful, provocative and visually extraordinary has spread internationally, and as a result, they have grown steadily.  With recent attention-grabbing projects spanning short films, commercials, music videos, a groundbreaking MTV public service announcement produced to aid the people of Burma, and many more high-profile assignments currently underway, the partners confirmed that their New York operation was ready for an upgrade.

"Based on having outgrown our previous space, we were really excited to set ourselves up with a new environment that would be client-friendly and also facilitate collaboration," Chandler said.  "Artists are at the center of our work process, and having the right flow, energy and vibe in our workspace was key.  While we all are personally interested in amazing architectural design, because we do so much lush visual work, we were more intent on having our space function as sort of a minimal backdrop where we can work effectively.  Technical workflow was obviously also very important, to accommodate all of the computers and other machines we use everyday.

"Finally," she added with a smile, "we also saw this as a great opportunity to dial-in some of the creature comforts that left something to be desired in our old space, like, you know, bathrooms, water and air conditioning."

After finding an interesting new location on the fourth floor of 12-16 Vestry Street, a typical light-manufacturing building with high ceilings, masonry walls and a wood structure, Chandler and her colleagues took a meeting with the team from Studio a+i, and the chemistry instantly produced positive results. 

Studio a+i's Lily Lim served as the point person for the project and handled its day-to-day management throughout the six-month project timeline.  "What was unique was that the building was on an irregular lot, so in the depth of the floor, it had exposure on both north and south face, and a 45-degree kink in the plan," she said.  "When we first walked in, though we had to look past the layers of paint hiding the brick walls, wood beams and columns, we had a very clear impression of the potential of the space."

During that very first meeting, Lim drew a sketch on a piece of scrap paper that showed what she called a "blob" – a huge, kidney-bean shaped table in the center, following the turn in the building floor plan, with all the support and auxiliary spaces falling on either side of it.  "This workspace was so huge, the idea of an 85-foot table running down the center of it was something we fell in love with right away," said Chandler.  "Even when it was just a sketch on paper, we recognized it as a perfect way to facilitate our artist-centric workflow, our philosophy and flexible team structure.  We knew it would give the space a cool circular traffic flow, and provide a solution that is totally unique – totally Shilo."

With Shilo's enthusiastic response, that sketch set the stage, and work commenced on designing the rest of the space to meet their needs.  As Lim explained, "After making the grand gesture that captures their essence, we had to make the space work for more pragmatic needs, like privacy, storage, open/shared and closed areas, and technical requirements, all while addressing their interests in having the overall design be as clean as possible," Lim added. 

The last week of construction saw the giant table take shape at the hands of Corian manufacturer/installers Evans and Paul.  "It was amazing watching them carry in all these panels and create this seamless giant table top," Lim concluded.  "The best ideas often happen when there are many design criteria and even more design latitude. With Shilo, we were able to take the conventional ideas of an open workspace and really make an open space without walls.  The desk that stretches through the entire space is a true collaborative process at work.  The design is a testament to how they work and play."

The team at Shilo is equally thrilled with the finished results.  Though their first nod goes toward the showpiece table, which can bring together dozens of people to collaborate simultaneously, their top-level reviews also highlight interior doors added by Studio a+i, which allow them to change-up flow and visibility in the space.  Also, tying the new design into the building's original brick and wood construction materials scored highly with their collective aesthetic senses.

"While our two businesses are similar enough that they instantly grasped our overall needs, they're also different enough that we often found ourselves asking for a lot of custom solutions to particular challenges," said Chandler.  "In the end, although we kept throwing them curveballs, they listened, they were very collaborative and excellent problem-solvers – and they innovatively resolved everything we threw at them, even to the point of helping us handle our landlords and the crazy mayhem of building something in New York City."

Consultants on the project included Malek Associates (MEP Engineering), and AWA Construction served as the contractor.

About Shilo
Shilo is an Emmy Award-winning creative production company representing a group of filmmakers led by directors Jose Gomez and Andre Stringer.  Internationally known for creating original and commissioned work that is powerful, provocative and visually extraordinary, Shilo's deeply held passions for design-infused storytelling and their innovative applications of live-action, design, and animation techniques deliver breakthrough experiences for screens large and small.  From its studios in New York and La Jolla, California, where recent projects have spanned short films, commercials and music videos, Shilo has the capacity and experience to originate ideas and handle all aspects of production.  Shilo published its first book, We Make It Good, in 2007, and also curates the site www.WeMakeItGood.com. For more information, or to request a reel, please contact Tracy Chandler at +1.212.219.4700, or visit Shilo online at www.Shilo.tv. 

About Studio a+i
Studio a+i was created by Lily Lim and Mateo Paiva in New York in 2004.  Both are licensed Architects and have worked for Rafael Viñoly Architects in New York for number of years as Project Managers for large scale institutional and commercial projects all over the United States as well as in Asia and Europe.  They have since been joined by Aki Shimizu in 2006, whom they worked with at RVA.  Aki has extensive experience on large scale institutional projects as well as residential and retail projects in New York and California.  Since its inception, Studio a+i has been involved in projects from residential buildings to commercial retail and office spaces in New York, Argentina, Uruguay and Singapore.  At Studio a+i, every project is a set of unique design challenges that are met with simple and elegant solutions.  For more information, please visit www.studioai.com, or call +1.718.488.6268.

Shilo's Andre Stringer.
(Image courtesy of Shilo)
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Shilo's Jose Gomez.
(Image courtesy of Shilo)
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