Cool Cribs: A First Look at JCI's Funky New HQ
Jones Commercial Interiors president Andy Jones took his love for collecting vintage items and turned it into a funky new HQ for the design firm. The focal point for the Deep Ellum warehouse conversion: colorful travel trailers that now serve as offices and meeting spaces. Andy walks us through the space.
Andy (right, with Bradford’s Susan Singer at an open house earlier this month) tells us JCI took a 10k SF multi-level space within a WWII industrial building at 3900 Willow St. Among the office features are six fully renovated vintage travel trailers (from the 1950s to the 1970s) converted into private offices with custom decks, lighting and design schemes. JCI’s only function is to design office space, Andy says, so three years ago he began hatching this off-the-wall idea for a design studio, and two years ago he began buying broken-down vintage travel trailers, gutting them and turning them into offices.
Turns out a camper makes a perfect office, Andy tells us. It’s quiet, has lots of windows, is fun to decorate, and is very human in scale, he says, and working in a trailer is like writing by candlelight in a Hobbit hole. It’s intimate, but not claustrophobic. It’s low tech but has everything you need. Pictured is Andy’s office, aka the Helga trailer. She is a 1950 Schult 22-foot Camp Model (early mobile home) named Helga because of the German association, Andy tells us.
The trailer renovations were all done by Andy, his CEO Debra Hayner, CFO Adrienne Holst, and friends and family working in the evenings and on weekends for two years to restore trailers, build workstations, construct wood decks while setting up the ideal event/office/design space. Here’s the interior of the orange, olive and silver Helga trailer, which was purchased in Hillsboro. Designed with a bunkhouse theme, the exterior was painted and the floor is reclaimed gym flooring. The bathroom and kitchen were removed and the interior was gutted with a corrugated plastic ceiling (painted silver) added. Interesting tidbits: the chair rail is old fire hose and the upper cabinets are original but repainted.
The Ethel orange and silver exterior is at the office front entry. The 1963 Mobile Scout 14-foot camper was built in Arlington and serves as the office manager’s trailer. Purchased in Tyler, this one had no walls or a floor, Andy says. Andy says the concept for the trailer park office was to create a fun environment for clients to relax and get into a creative frame of mind.
Click here to see a slideshow of the office space.
