By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Rob Sears is a hometown guy who can trace his Grand Rapids roots back to his great-great-grandfather. But his company, Sears Architects, has left their distinctive mark across the land: Harbor Springs, Grand Haven, South Haven, and even Seattle. Even so, Sears is set on keeping the firm in Grand Rapids, and the renovation of their new office space is providing room for them to grow.
Sears has purchased the main level of 16 Ionia SW, the former Rock Kauffman’s Urban House. The firm is moving from a 900-square-foot office on Cherry Street to a 2,200-square-foot space that will have ten workspaces arranged in an open plan furnished with ORG office furniture systems. Each area will have “lay space” for 24-inch by 36-inch architectural drawings. Two conference rooms, a reception area, and a small kitchen complete the new digs.
“We have six employees, but we’ll be able to have 12 to15,” said Sears, who started the business in 1996 with his wife, Julie, who is also an architect. “We’ll start adding them next month and add them over time.”
Sears plans to divide the former furniture showroom with a wall that runs from the front of the store to the back. That will create a second storefront with about 1,500 square feet of space for a retail or office tenant. By dividing building that way, each space will get a share of the “great natural light in the front from the huge storefront windows,” Sears said.
“We have exposed brick, maple floors, and 13-foot ceilings, and a few exposed beams right down the center of the building,” Sears said. “We want to leave a lot of the character of the building.”
Source: Rob Sears, Sears Architects
Deborah Johnson Wood is Development News Editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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