<<back to News Archive   7.2000 Columbus CEO New Lives For Old Buildings Barnes and his Columbus company, Jonathan Barnes Architecture and Design, are at the forefront of a growing trend in urban renovation that involves taking existing warehouses and adapting them to meet the needs of high-tech businesses. Keeping spaces open is a major objective in designing today’s high-tech offices, but having everything mobile is just as important. “These kinds of offices tend to be flexible and team-based,” Barnes says. Teams form for different projects and “fixed cubicles just don’t work as well.” Barnes found a way to make moving around easy by installing electrical outlets and dataports on the ceiling; they look like large versions of roll-up metal measuring tapes. A person can “park” somewhere for a day or two, then reach up to the data and electric plug-ins and move elsewhere. Heavily influenced by his experience in Italy, Barnes says his approach to architecture differs from the traditional American approach, in which the architect designs the exterior of a building and hires other designers for the inside. Like the Italian architects he learned from, Barnes offers his clients interior design, product design and graphic design, as well as building design. “Our practice is varied as far as project type, but it also varied as far as discipline,” he says. “We’re not strictly an architecture firm.” “An architectural background, in terms of education and experience, gives you the tools to do almost any kind of design art,” Barnes says. “Our work is better because we do other kinds of design.       153 EAST MAIN STREET SUITE 300 COLUMBUS, OH 43215 TEL: 614.228.7311 FAX: 614.228.7552