In six years, Lara Merriken’s “10,000-foot idea” to produce raw-food energy bars blossomed from a few recipes hatched in a home kitchen to a multimillion- dollar Colorado business.
But finding the right office to reflect and promote LaraBar’s growth proved challenging. Location and access to major highways was key. Merriken also hoped to have everything her business needed – from the test kitchen to the shipping and receiving area – on one level. And, she wanted to be within walking distance of lunch and dinner spots. “It was just last year that I was doing product development in my house,” Merri- ken says of the significance of moving into a new office.
An old print shop on Grant Street met all her needs but only after some serious loving care. Four months later, LaraBar’s new home is a bright, loft-like space filling up with tasteful modern furnishings and favored artwork.
February: From the gut
Hazy winter light streams onto beat-up, exposed concrete floors at the single-story building on Grant Street being readied for La- raBar. The building is now a blank slate. Walls are down, ceilings raised and asbestos gone from the old flooring.
“That was a pretty big job,” says general contractor Clay Hitt. “They had five guys here for a week pulling out those old floor tiles.”
Next comes the design challenge: Create an eco-friendly work space for LaraBar’s roughly 20 employees. The new office should characterize the company’s holistic approach to food and life while minding its functional needs.
LaraBar enlisted Heather Mourer of One Home to help with the project. A Parsons School of Design alum who specializes in interior architecture, Mourer has grown her own business from a tiny vintage modern store in 2002 to a full-service design company rooted in Cherry Creek North.
She and Hitt have about four months and a thrifty budget to complete the LaraBar renovation. To cut costs, Lara Merriken’s mother, Jane, scouts for recycled furniture and materials. Technically, the team says, this whole building is recycled.
“I wanted (the new office) to be fresh and young, like the business is, and like Lara is,” says Jane Merriken, who studied architecture and later applied those skills to a career in retail visual merchandizing. Bill Merriken, Lara’s father and LaraBar’s chief operating officer, already has secured second-hand Herman Miller workstations for the LaraBar staff.
Under Mourer’s direction, the renovation team orders low-VOC paint, or low volatile organic compound paint. This nontoxic product is virtually odorless, costs the same as traditional paint and comes in most light colors, Mourer says. (Consumers also can find low-VOC stains and varnishes.)
Mourer also zeroes in on recycled carpet backing for the LaraBar floors. Then, another challenge: A wall must be shifted at the front of the building to allow for larger executive offices.
“It’s basically a symmetrical layout,” Mourer says of the old print shop. “The challenge now is the balance between form and function.”
April: taking shape
Building inspections pushed the renovation back about a month. But now, walls are up, and the old windows have been refurbished. The office’s clean, refined loft look is coming into view.
Mourer and Hitt also have negotiated the hairiest part of the renovation. They figured out how to realign walls so that Lara Merriken can occupy the most spacious corner of the building. That process included conceiving a floating glass corner on the opposite side of the building from Merriken’s office.
Mourer generally stays away from commercial projects. But she took on this one because of her for affinity for Lara Merriken and LaraBar. The modern-minded designer chose to expose conduits on the ceiling of the new LaraBar office. That helps underscore its lofty feel. “It was really important to Lara that it’s a comfortable place to be,” Mourer says of the thinking behind her design decisions.
Clerestory windows are in on either side of the conference room at the center of the entire building. “You have privacy but there’s still natural light,” Mourer says of that choice.
But the kitchen could pose a new challenge. The space needs to serve the LaraBar staff and work for product development, but building codes prevent the company from installing a fully functional oven. “Their product is raw anyway,” Mourer quips, deciding the kitchen won’t be a problem after all.
June: A place to move and grow
LaraBar’s executive offices now look out on Grant Street. They flank a reception area that’s punctuated by a luscious butter cream leather sectional, a glass Albini desk and Frank Ghery bentwood chair. A coffee table designed by another mid-century modern icon, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and a diamond mesh chair by Harry Bertoia characterize the new room’s urbane elegance.
“It’s like Lara’s product – honest,” Heather Mourer says of the natural, unfinished materials that round out the space.
“It’s harder (to design) with honest materials,” she adds. “You can’t hide your mistakes.”
The clerestory window between the reception area and the conference room are functioning as they were intended: Natural light flows throughout the entire building. Ditto for the frameless, floating glass corner in the lobby.
Personal effects pop among the office’s streamlined new look. In Bill Merriken’s office, for instance, a tiny model car is parked on an otherwise sparse glass desk. And in Lara Merriken’s larger office on the opposite side of the building, a folky little pot of succulents rests on her window ledge. On its side, a hand-written message characterizes what is likely in store for this building and its new inhabitants. It reads:
“Grow as plentiful as mother hens and chicks.”
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-820-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
