Render to Reality | Marcus Street Gym

It's one of the best things about our job and we could hear the excitement of having this space finished, feeling more usable and more intentional. To hear that we accomplished the goals to have this space serve it's purpose: to give their employees the outlet they need to be happy and productive at work, made us all beam with smiles.

This cool cat couple are incredibly savvy, forward thinking, generous, kind, focused and all while wanting to create an atmosphere for their team that is a good notch above average with a work-life balance that promotes health from only a few steps away.

They came to us with the need to transform their underutilized garage at their company into an on-site gym. As you can see in these before pictures, it's sole purpose was to house some mechanicals. That's it. No storage or real intentional benefit came from the 345 square foot space.

Until Covid hit, and many of their employees were without their gym. As we saw in 2020, this was an outlet and key component to productivity as well as mental and physical health, that kept everyone feeling balanced. The owners saw the opportunity and need to keep their employees feeling focused and without this amenity, knew that this could be counter productive if they waited. So they wasted no time to get started with us on the process to create the space that was now a priority to keeping their employees healthy.

It was important for us to understand the use of the space for an initial design and how they see their employees using the space. They took inventory of the type of movement that was requested and from that, as well as logistics, complying with code, addressing noise and other details that certainly informed a design. And then the design grew, morphed and expanded. The need for showering, restrooms, changing rooms and a laundry space that wasn't initially important, became a necessity. This forced us to take over a few other spaces that were flexible to loose in order to meet code and make the gym facility meet the requests of the users.

Then it came to (what many refer to as) the "fun stuff". Making final selections that honored the budget, the application, met code and established the aesthetics that they will carry into the other projects down the road. Bold. Industrial. Modern. Functional. Ease of use. All were considered when making the selections.

Construction started and the team got to moving and grooving to make this space come to life. A shout out to First Companies, who did a fantastic job at executing the project. We thoroughly enjoyed working with them and their team of trades. We find it so important to have details ironed out for the trades to keep the project moving smoothly. And if a small detail is left out, they can take what has already been decided on and make an well-influenced decision that honors the aesthetics and goal of the space.

Knowing that the space has a purpose that can deliver everyday has been an improvement to their (already stellar) company. Now it's onto the planning stage of their next project and we simply cannot wait to work with these wonderful clients again!