Have you ever known someone who was truly a lover of their craft? Someone who didn’t just do their job but let their trade infiltrate who they are as a person? Well that’s Clete Kunce, architect and owner of One 10 Studio. He’s the guy that draws buildings on a napkin while drinking a beer and months later makes that very building comes to life. Which makes it even crazier is that Studio 13 has been photographing Clete’s buildings for nearly 10 years and this is the first blog we’ve written about it!
Clete works with his team Patrick, Marley, Andrew—and usually an intern or two—at One 10 Studio; together, they design both residential and commercial spaces. After the years of shooting their projects, they had us capture something a little closer to home: their very own corporate headquarters. This project was done designed in tandem with next door neighbors CORE Planning Strategies so we were able to photograph both spaces as they were really one architectural project (read about the joy it was photographing one of CORE’s projects here).
Although the projects were completed silultaneously, in the same building, by the same architects, the workspaces are very, very different. CORE’s space is designed for efficiency while One 10’s offices are focused on creative, collaborative work that mixes business with leisure.
As we went into CORE, the first challenge was the space we had to work with; the ladies at CORE maximize the space they have and we had to highlight that fact while fitting our equipment in the room too. The second challenge was hidden in the beauty of the architecture: too many shiny surfaces! Those details caused a lot of glares and reflections throughout the images; Lesle had to tinker with the lighting, bringing out all the tricks of the trade to pull it off.
Moving down the hall, Lesle was excited to reconnect with long-time friends at One 10 on a project that had such interesting design elements—from a centrally located pool table to a lunch table beer tap flowing with One 10’s special brewed stout. We came into the space and immediately wondered at the plentiful window light with a view of the surrounding cityscape—something Patrick was quick to promote with our images. With our shots, he wanted us to show that they are a part of the city; they aren’t isolated from the people around them and not closed into their office all the time.
The best part of this job was surely in all of the little details (and in finding the details in the large shots). From the moment we walked through their steel barn door until we set their awards back on the slatted-wood bookshelf, One 10 made this a day to remember.
Thank you for reading, as always. Come back soon for the recap of another one of our adventures!
