Total transformation: Yellowstone Building goes digital deluxe

The outside of the old Yellowstone Photo building looks pretty much like it has for years, at least from the street. Industrial brick faces Front Street, but a new façade and grand entry now open into the eastward parking lot that abuts the building. Inside the building, architect John Paoli has crafted a river of stone, a mirage of movement with angled walls and off-kilter angles that remind a visitor of flowing water. Sue Barrett and her husband John, who run Barrett Productions from the third floor of the building, commissioned Paoli to weave his magic throughout the space. “I told him I’m not a big fan of straight lines,” John Barrett said. Apparently, neither is Paoli. “I’ve rotated the internal grid a bit,” Paoli, who owns Inkstone Architecture, said of his renovation’s architectural landscape. It’s a trick he’s used before, he said, that “breaks the monotony and invigorates the space.” And it does. Following the slightly angled corridor to the elevators or stairs, the inlayed slate on the floor of the entry way appears to wave in strips that mimic a river’s flow pattern. Upstairs, on the floor that houses Barrett Productions, the walls themselves have been moved, off kilter from the external rectangle. The walls slant and occasionally slope to create a feeling of motion that keeps the mind alert – important in a field where film editors spend hours upon hours before computer screens and sound equipment, editing and re-editing footage of the great outdoors. “It’s the great conundrum,” said video editor Bob Ambrose. “We work indoors on outdoor film production.” In fact, the editors spend so much time in the building, the whole internal structure was designed to capture some of that outdoor feeling, said designer Shannon Callaghan, who selected the cool, mineral color palette for the wall surfaces. So who gets the credit for creating such an innovative space? “We worked together on it,” Barrett said of the building’s design. “We told John what we needed in the space and what we were looking for.” What they needed was surfaces that absorb sound, not bounce it around. And light filtering shades that allow the outside in, without the scenery becoming a distraction to the work at hand. And internal light, as many of the offices have no exterior windows. Paoli selected numerous green materials for the building, including energy-saving light fixtures that are hung perpendicular to the hall walls, shaded with frosted glass “so it wasn’t directly lighting into people’s eyes,” Paoli said. On the hall ceilings, odd wedges like plates on a reptile’s back keep the eye in motion, moving forward. Each editing room had to be sound proofed from each other, Paoli said. Special wall panels made from crushed sunflower seeds (a matrix of both hulls and shells) were selected for their ability to dampen sound. In addition, they add an earthy beauty and calm to the space, with a golden-black coloration noticeable up-close. “Have you felt how heavy the doors are,” Paoli asked. “The doors are special order doors that are extra heavy and double insulated,” he said, providing even more of the sound isolation required for the high tech work. “It’s a great editing environment,” said video editor Lin Brummett, working on outputting a show for the Travel Channel. One wall of Brummett’s internal studio has a slanted, pale creek-colored window panel, sloping upward and outward from the wall. That, too, adds “a higher acoustic value to the corridor” said Paoli, drawing sound out and away from the room. The panels have another benefit, as well. They are translucent, not transparent, allowing light in without the distraction of noticing what is outside the window. And they sport an internal waffle structure that also dampens sound. The end result is a cool, dark environment that is silent as the bottom of a stream. Paoli chose the watery green color, in fact, to reflect the earth-based feel of the building. “It’s very calm – just what us video editors like,” Brummett said. For the video editors who are facing the outside world, woven shades “cut out most of the direct light, but still have the view,” Paoli said. Indeed, they’re reminiscent of gazing through a screen door, where the world outside is muted, but apparent. For these edit bays on the building’s exterior walls, Paoli added blackout shades as well. Because the company uses so much high tech equipment, static charge is an issue. To reduce the opportunity for stray electrons to disrupt the editing equipment, Paoli selected flooring of Marmoleum, a static-free linoleum, for the business’ corridors. On the stairs between floors, an anti-static rubber tile was used as well. In all, the building is a triumph of new modernism. The walls are dark, but not oppressive. The palette is muted, yet not depressing. And the structural design flows with life. Every angle, subtly placed, keeps your eye and your mind centered, but moving forward. The over all effect is of walking through a wooded creek. The rippled interior glass the color of water, the mineral tones the color of rock, all replicate the sense of peace you find out in the woods. For an outdoor film production company, it is a natural fit.