When an industrial building near their Berkeley office became available, the creative agency John McNeil Studio asked Envelope to turn it into the ultimate space: a place for video shoots, lectures, strategy sessions, art openings, and much more. Our response is a gallery-style box within which key building systems—facade, partition, storage, and lighting—act as a series of architectural-scaled switches and spatial valves for .

An operable front facade and a large pivoting wall beyond allow for a range of configurations, from an open spatial tube connected to the street to a series of discrete cellular rooms. A reception area furnished and finished entirely in black defers to the purity of the white-walled volume with its original wood-truss ceiling.

A seamless storage wall runs the full length of the space, concealing programmatic activators—tables, seating, modular dividers, and photography equipment—until they’re called for. Chairs come out for a performance; the next day the photography lights move in. A team moves in for a week long workshop, then the entire office sits down for dinner. This day-to-day makes the annex an invaluable platform for the work and the culture of the studio.