Truss Me, Says Glendale’s Osborn Architectural Firm

Creative firms often prefer older industrial buildings to new office space, especially buildings with bow trusses on the ceilings. The arching structural supports add a note of visual excitement to the ceiling, as well as imparting a genuinely industrial look.

Osborn Architects appears to have built the ultimate bow truss: a series of trusses that spring from the floor and soar 30 feet to the ceiling. The enormous objects are large enough to walk through.

“This is a bow truss on steroids,” said Osborn principal Tim Ballard.

If the trusses are flamboyant, they are also essential to the building’s structural integrity, Ballard said. “People ask us, ‘Are these [trusses] real?’ We say, ‘Yes, if you chop off a piece of them, the building will fall down.’ ”

The truss is only one notable design feature of the 8,800-square-foot building in Glendale that is the new home of an architectural firm best known for institutional projects, such as school buildings and city halls. Another is a copper cone that encloses a conference area in an otherwise open office space.

The site of the Osborn offices is also eye-catching: The new building, with a cheerful yellow facade, is located next to a dark, turn-of-the-century mortuary.

“The building has a nice presence,” said a Glendale city official, who did not want to be named. “It doesn’t necessarily jump out at you, but the more you study this building, [you notice that] there is a lot going on.”

Inside, the building design emphasizes openness, encouraging communication among members of the 42-person firm that both designs buildings and serves as a construction manager.

“We don’t like to compartmentalize the way we work, so we don’t want to compartmentalize our space,” Ballard said. Even the offices of the firm’s principals have no doors. The only interior spaces enclosed by walls are the two conference rooms.

The building is intended to serve as a marketing tool as well as office space, Ballard said.