Celebrating its 50th anniversary in a big way,a digital information behemoth, car data provider edmunds.com, moved across the street in Los Angeles. If the new headquarters, with its blazes of Ferrari red and bold gestures galore, presents a sense of déjà vu, that’s because Chris and Sandra Mitchell were in the driver’s seat for both projects. The previous HQ was completed when the couple were at Studios Architecture. They’ve since cofounded M+M Creative Studio, serving as CEO and president, respectively. At first, edmunds.com CEO Avi Steinlauf’s main reason for the relocation was more space, 133,000 square feet on two levels, plus a 10,000-squarefoot central courtyard, an asymmetrical outdoor space that Chris Mitchell calls “the big hole in the building.” Sheer numbers pale, however, in the face of the Mitchells’ visual tour de force, aimed at impressing the car-guy clientele. It all starts in the reception area, where the desk’s mirror-polished stainless steel is an ode to the chrome bumpers on old Cadillacs. Visitors look up to see a 2016 Corvette Stingray convertible, gleaming in silver with a crimson leather interior, mounted upside down on a turntable set into a huge round cutout in the ceiling. But the real punch line doesn’t become clear until you walk up the stairs: On top of the same turntable, right side up, sits a 1966 Stingray in Nassau Blue, that year’s most popular color.
Equally eye-catching is the U-shape floating staircase. The drywall underside is painted red to match the epoxy flooring right below. As for the Previous spread: M+M Creative Studio parked coin-operated miniature Corvette Stingrays under the staircase that rises from the reception area at edmunds.com in Los Angeles.