Attention to Detail Pays Off

As a person who creates computerized images for a living, John Georgopolis says he was motivated to provide his clients and employees with an office that reflects the values of high finish and visual boldness.

The result is an interior design--rare in the cost-conscious world of tenant improvements--that could lay claim to being a work of art. With the exception of the computer equipment, everything in the Pasadena office of Georgopolis & Co., including furniture, the ceiling, even the refrigerator door, has been newly designed.

“I like design and I wanted a unique space for my clients to see,” said Georgopolis, who describes his firm as a designer of graphic interfaces for DVD discs. Many of his clients, Georgopolis added, are in the entertainment industry and often place a high value on presentation.

The attention to detail, bordering on obsessive at times, partly reflects the personal commitment of Georgopolis, who became deeply involved in the design process, according to the independent designer he hired, Mark E. McManus of Pasadena.

The design is neither timid nor conventional, least of all in the color scheme of bluish turquoise, lime green and rusty orange. Adding further variety in color are the natural finishes of the oak door and window frames.

And then there is the refrigerator, newly wrapped in steel plate and fitted with new exterior hinges.

The Georgopolis office is in a registered landmark building in Old Pasadena, and thus the historic details cannot be changed.

McManus said he worked hard to maximize space in the small, 3,000-square-foot office. A case in point is a 30-foot table that serves a number of purposes: It provides a working area and plentiful storage shelves, while hiding a vertical air duct. The office kitchen is tucked into the rear wall of the enormous object.

Georgopolis and McManus seemed to have enjoyed their work enough to have spent many hours creating elaborate devices. Besides the massive, multipurpose table, there’s a sort of wooden cage enclosing the reception desk. The front desk is actually in the elevator lobby and cannot be secured behind the locked office door. McManus created a carefully balanced system of counterweights. These keep the heavy cage in place, both when it is lowered onto the reception desk at closing time, and when it slides up above the desk and becomes a sort of ceiling. Electromagnets lock the cage into the up and down positions.

Georgopolis himself added an original element to the interior design: The computer-graphics expert, who hates clutter, designed a black nylon bag that hides the spaghetti-like tangle of wires found at the rear of computers.