Interview with Karen Starr

Interview with Karen Starr

Karen Starr and I have been friends since we were teenagers, yet somehow our paths have crossed in such a fortunate way just this year with the design of Nanotronics Imaging Ohio Office Space. Though it is just an office space, I think you will see why both Karen and I consider it important, and how I hope the Nanotronics team and those that visit the space can share in the experience.

Matthew Putman
CEO Nanotronics Imaging

Matthew: When our Chairman stepped into the new office space he said it looked like Silicon Valley in Akron. We had talked about it being high tech, but did you research other tech company offices when creating this design?

Karen: Excellent. That’s what I wanted people to feel. But no, I didn’t research other tech company offices. The design was based on meeting your specific needs and our conversations regarding your wishes on the vibe of the office.

Matthew: We have been friends forever, but it wasn’t our friendship that made me want you to design this space, it was more how you made a philosophy about old and new into a very cool reality. Can you explain that philosophy a bit, and how it manifested itself for Nanotronics Imaging?

Karen: I love mixing old and new together in my designs for many reasons but mostly it’s an environmental choice. The way I see it, the less new stuff we make and the more old stuff we honor, the better off we are with our resources. Socially, it also really makes me smile...redesigning an old-something into a new-something takes the skilled hands of a local worker. That’s also an environmental positive because things aren’t traveling far and we’re supporting the local economy.

I love the way old things evoke a sense of nostalgia and a sense of connection. And, I love the way it looks! Old and new can always dance beautifully together in my book.

For Nanotronics Ohio, it came through in two pieces in particular: the conference table and the entry table. The conference table is actually built around two salvaged 10’ aluminum and brass doors that came out of a bank in Cleveland. The entry table is constructed of scraps of stamped steel sheeting from a local manufacturer of tractor parts.


Matthew: The table was the first thing you mentioned, and it will no doubt be memorable for those who use it in the conference room. I spoke with the artist Dominic Falcione about it, and felt completely different about it after speaking with him. To me it is a postmodern piece. It is deco meets minimalism. To him it was about gravity and weight. The table top is heavy, yet it appears to float. Still the two of us were not the ones with the idea in the first place. Can you talk about how this piece came to be?

Karen: Sure. I first came across the bank doors over a year ago when one of my salvage guys, Matt, called me and said, “You’ve got to come see these…” (I live for those calls!)
At first glance, the instant idea that came to mind was to turn them into a bar top for someone. A few months later, I had Matt deliver one of the doors to the showroom and we used it as a shelving unit for a while, supported by some wire racks he had also salvaged.

During one of our design conversations, you mentioned the need for a conference table - that was when I immediately thought of the doors and could envision them transformed into a table for your company.

Like I do with a lot of the pieces that end up in my designs, I come across the salvaged materials but then hand it over to the artist or fabricator to see what they can come up with from here. I’ll communicate necessary parameters like dimension, functional needs, budget, feel of the overall design, and room photos. I get them familiar with what else will be happening around their piece, then let them tell me what’s next.

The idea of the red legs and support beams on the conference table actually came in the middle of production. The design up until that point was planned for the natural steel color to remain but when Dominic called and said that he would prefer to apply paint to those parts of the structure to get a sharper finished look, he had me considering colors past grey and black.

The red paint we selected was the perfect accent color for that piece and that room, for many reasons. The unexpected pop of color you see down through the glass and metal as you sit at the table is just plain sexy. My favorite single element, I think!


Matthew: Do you see the furniture that Dominic and the other artists did as sculpture or design or does it matter?

Karen: I see them as furniture necessary to the function of the design first…then I see them as sculpture.

In reverse of that, I think the art on the walls is something to comment on here. The highly-magnified photos, taken through a microscope transform themselves into colorful and abstract works of art. But they started out as a functional research images. I really love that.


Matthew: I love the resin walls, and have absolutely no problem with using any materials. I am not as environmentally conscious as you. How do you justify when a material is too environmentally bad to use? What is the compromise?

Karen: Good question. This is always something I struggle with, no matter what design I am preparing.

The resin was made of 40% recycled content and made in the USA. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

The truth is that the resin doesn’t have the greatest overall environmental footprint in my opinion. This is due to the energy-intensive process of recycling itself, the fact that it is plastic, and it traveled thousands of miles to get here…but we specified it anyways because it was one of the elements that made that space feel the way we wanted it to. It was necessary in this case in my mind, therefore I justified it.

The truth of my industry is: the really cool stuff people are seeking isn’t always the best environmental choice and sometimes it travels far to get to us. It is a constant internal struggle. Because of this though, I have daydreams that one day I’ll be able to complete designs using all existing materials, then just finishes and local labor to turn it into what we need. I don’t know if that will ever become reality, people want what they want to a certain degree, but I do keep it in mind when working on designs in an effort to stay focused on the bigger environmental picture.


Matthew: If I were to pick one thing I like the most is that everything pulls to the center. The island where the actual instruments are, is the centerpiece of the room. This is actually unique. Most people put demo rooms in a corner somewhere. Was this your idea? Did you think of it more practically or aesthetically?

Karen: Front and center was definitely the focus of this design. As far as the demo island goes: For me, the equipment you work with to demonstrate your software is king. I love the notion that as soon as you walk through the doors, you feel like you are part of discovering what will be seen through the lens of a microscope. It creates a sense of adventure and also one of strength due to the size of the island and the equipment itself, and I wanted to play it up by focusing on it as the centerpiece of the main area.