Pilot to Co-Pilot: Where Did You Put the Fax Machine?

Call it the modern version of beating swords into plowshares. Windmill Lane Productions, a television commercial production house in Santa Monica, is furnished with old B-52 bomber parts purchased by the pound by owner-directors Meiert Avis and Ben Dossett.

Combined with the company’s bare brick walls and open ceilings, the old airplane parts create a spare yet dramatic industrial-looking design that provides countless new twists on the concept of converting military technology to civilian use: B-52 wing sections serve as room dividers, instrument panels have been turned into tables where staffers sit in chairs that formerly served as crew seats, and other bits and pieces of the old airplanes function in ways not likely imagined by aerospace engineers.

Windmill Lane was formerly housed in a highly compartmentalized Venice building that “had the atmosphere of a 1930s detective office,” Avis said. Managers wanted a change to a work environment that would be both fun and functional.

“We were looking for a cost-effective way to partition out the space to provide people with enough privacy that they feel they own the area around their computer, yet to leave the space open enough that it facilitates communication among people,” he said. “We also wanted to provide some imagery that would be inspiring, both for our own people and our clients.”

For the design elements, airplane buff Avis and Dossett hit upon the idea of paying $2 a pound for parts of decommissioned B-52s, plentiful at Arizona junkyards near sites where old aircraft are mothballed. Then they added an eclectic mix of warm-toned sculpture, murals and found art.

For the floor plan, they arranged the wingtips and other bomber parts in a configuration that fits the way Windmill Lane works. “We might have five or six people doing computer work individually on the same job at any given time, yet all of their work is interrelated, so we tried to create a space where people could have their own work areas and yet be part of a team working on a project,” Avis said.

The floor plan also provides an open atmosphere where the company’s visual design artists are immediately visible and accessible to visiting clients--typically advertising agency creative directors--who are among those most likely to appreciate that the design and layout are both playful and purposeful, Avis said.