Float Studio on Designing for Work
The office sits high above NoMad, ten thousand square feet across a building shaped by another era: waffle slab ceilings, deep columns, windows set into thick concrete. Float Studio designed these offices for a financial firm in Manhattan, their second project for this client, on a brief that asked for something a sector rarely asks for: openness over status, connection over hierarchy. We spoke with the studio about that brief, the building it grew from, and where the Plié Wall Shelves and Plié Wall Unit found their place within it.
A financial firm's office carries strong expectations about how it should look: formal, hierarchical, serious. What was the initial brief, and where did you want to depart from those expectations?
The brief was really about redefining what a financial firm's office could communicate. Rather than leaning into the formality and hierarchy that's traditionally in this sector, we wanted the space to express openness and confidence through transparency instead. Our goal wasn't to design something that projects status, it was to design something that lets people do their best work together.
The space draws on 1970s references, in a building designed for how people work today. How did you approach that combination?
There are slight architectural nods to that era throughout the space, and we wanted to take our cues directly from the building itself: the waffle slab ceilings, the columns, the proportion of the windows, and use that as the foundation for the design. Every decision came back to the same question: how do we honour the character of the building while designing something that actually works for how people work today.
What specific challenges of a financial environment weighed most on the layout and furniture decisions?
Circulation mattered a lot. In the plan, the town hall sits as a nexus point between the phone booths, private offices, and conference spaces, so movement through the office naturally brings people past each other. We never wanted to force interaction, but we wanted to make it easy.
How did you approach furniture specification for this project?
Every piece gets checked against three things. Does it support the aesthetic brief? Does it support the concept and the feeling we're trying to create? And is it actually comfortable, does it support the posture it's meant for? Something in a fast, collaborative zone should feel active, not built for lounging. Something meant for solo focus work needs to hold up over a couple of hours.
What matters to you when choosing which furniture brands to work with?
Flexibility first, timelessness close behind. What I actually care about is honesty in materials: specifying things that are healthy to build with and live around. Sustainability matters enormously to me, not just the health of the materials themselves but the embodied energy behind them, how far something travelled to get here. I'd rather lean on local resources than specify something beautiful that shipped from the other side of the world.
Where do the Plié Wall Shelves and Plié Wall Unit fit within the project, and what were they bringing to that part of the space?
Decor in an office is always tricky, because everything is supposed to have a specific function. There's often a blank wall that doesn't have an obvious use but needs to be filled thoughtfully. Shelving is one of the most useful ways to fill those voids while adding character and utility at the same time. In this space, the Plié Wall Shelves and Wall Unit help anchor a specific dining area, while also housing all of the team's portable chargers.
Now that the project is finished, what stays with you about it?
Honestly, how much the client loves it. There's also a balance in this project that I keep coming back to. It's a financial firm that's growing, and there are still moments that feel light and playful, without the whole space taking itself too seriously. And this being their second space with us, getting to watch that evolution over time is something that stays with me.
