YDC: Red Thread Tour

This month PAYETTE’s Young Designers Core (YDC) organized a trip to visit the local showroom of interiors company Red Thread. The showroom, located on Boston Wharf Road in the Seaport District, doubles as both the regional sales and corporate headquarters and displays a number of unique interior layouts along an organized tour route. Upon arrival at the facilities we were greeted by a team of Red Thread employees, including John Mitton (VP of Audio/Visual), Larry Viele (VP of Architectural Systems), Susan Hughes (VP of Healthcare) and our contact Katie Grimes. The Red Thread Team had set up an array of hors d’oeuvres and refreshments for us while they gave us a brief overview of their company’s philosophy before kicking off our tour.

Our tour began with a showing of Red Thread’s “Interconnected Workplace,” the various furniture pieces and architectural systems that they use to plan corporate interiors. The interconnected workplace is composed of a series of four basic spaces ranging from I/owned stations (private offices) to we/shared stations (training rooms/café spaces).

Starting at the “we/shared” end of the spectrum, we walked by a work café which Red Thread employees were using for a large group presentation and moved quickly into I/shared and we/shared sections of the showroom. The spaces shown here were a series of shared private offices and conference rooms which used Red Thread’s “V.I.A.” (Vertical Intelligent Architecture). This system utilizes an integrated wall system to provide built-in monitors, magnetic/white-board walls and an excellent acoustic performance.  These rooms also all have display boards on the exterior which display the room’s availability throughout the day, and light up green or red to represent occupancy.

We next moved into the I/owned section of the office which featured a customizable open plan layout of desks and work stations. The featured desks were adjustable standing desks, and could move into either a standing or sitting position using a power switch. These were divided with a range of available storage panels.

Finally we briefly toured the healthcare section of the showroom, which featured Red Thread’s “re-thought” patient spaces. These were focused on providing a more comfortable and personal experience to patients and families, particularly those receiving radiology. Red Thread criticized the “drive-through” feeling of many radiology clinics and made it their goal to find a better oval layout. In addition to this, they showed us a patient room which featured a self-closing sliding door (work-in-progress) and an unfolding guest couch to provide space for larger visiting crowds. We, of course, had to test this couch for ourselves (as we did the desks and VIA rooms before) and found it to have ample room, even for the slightly taller guest!

As we ended our tour, we thanked our hosts and grabbed some literature on current research and trends in the interiors industry. We had a great experience on the tour and would like to thank the team at Red Thread for showing us around!