A small kitchen with gold half-circle cabinet hardware and an archway with floating shelves with a backdrop of tile above the kitchen sink.

Awarded Best Small Showroom and Best in Show at NeoCon 2019 by IIDA and Contract Magazine

We believe that the story of a space is just as important as the design and the objects that go into it – it all plays into the experience. Hightower, CEO and founder, Natalie Hartkopf waited ten years before the perfect showroom became available at the Chicago Merchandise Mart. When she signed the lease for her Chicago showroom, opening in 4 short months for NeoCon, she enlisted Casework to bring it all together.

At the start of each project, we work with our clients set the tone. We asked Hightower to define three words. Founder, Natalie Hartkopf, and Marketing Director, Jessica Ahlering, came back to us with varmt välkommen (Swedish for 'warm welcome'), linger, and unexpected. Hightower wanted guests to feel welcomed and at home, even during the chaos of NeoCon. We set to create a variety of moments to sit and rest tired feet after walking the 4 million square foot Chicago Merchandise Mart all day. The bar, designed to feel more like a kitchen where friends would sit and drink late into the evening did just that.

A view through two arched wall openings with a view into a room with a sectional ottoman seating, and artwork of squares of graphic, horizontal lines.

Keywords

Lingering

Unexpected

Varmt VAlkommen

Why incorporate residential elements in a commercial space?

Kitchens are no longer just for cooking food. When done right, they are some of the best gathering spaces. And we like bringing people together!

A side angle view of a kitchen sink with a brass faucet, and shelves above it holding glasses of different sizes, plates, bowls, and framed artworks.

A bright loveseat with pillow cushions sits on a shag rug with tassels between two plush matching loveseats with a wood coffee table between them.

A brightly colored covered booth connects to a matching sectional with bright contrasting pillows, a wood-top bistro table, and a matching chair.

A room with a privacy screen and abstract art holds a long conference table with an open book, glasses, a vase of eucalyptus, and textured chairs.

“An entire showroom full of goodness.” –Design Milk

Through space and scale Casework explored unexpected details. Traditional arches were paired with upside down arches to create vignettes into other rooms. We brought the focus back to the female founders with a wallpaper installation by Chicago artist, Laura Berger and Portland company Juju Papers. Scale was played with in a big way. From the custom blush pink 12’ Boxplay sofa by Swedish furniture partner, Swedese, to the 37’ Four Likes booth by Four Design in the atrium that feels like it could be at home in a restaurant or hotel as easily as an office.

An angled view of a sitting room lit by a large window, with chairs, a sectional sofa, and a geometric wooden table resting on an embossed area rug.

A row of pendant lights hang from the ceiling above a conference table with rounded ends, with textured chairs and matching bench seating around it.

The palette was decidedly neutral with hints of everyday luxury like shearling and spun wool

We played with textures and incorporated color and pattern to create unexpected statements. North Carolina based Haand Ceramics contributed pieces for the plate wall installation as well as the serving pieces on the open shelving.

A round cork coffee table with a matching tray and vase of flowers sits with a sofa with a high-back and cushions on a rug with a lattice shag pattern.

An angled view through an arched doorway into a room with ottomans with wooden backrests next to two coordinating chairs on a textured patterned rug.

From day one, every selection aimed at a warm, welcoming and intimate experience

We wanted visitors to linger, immersed in Hightower’s unique experience. There are so many amazing furniture details one would not see had guests not been invited to stop and enjoy the space.

An angled view of chairs, matching benches, and a long table holding an open book, a glass of water, a pair of glasses, and a vase holding eucalyptus.

CASEWORK BEGAN WITH THE FURNITURE THEN PLANNED THE ARCHITECTURE

From small scale to large, most often, it’s the other way around. When the arches were put into plan, we knew exactly how each vignette would look. Furniture is often the last element we pull together but it’s one of the most important. It’s what you rest on at the end of a long day or where you sit to have a meal with your family. Here, we began with the human experience and built our environment around how space would be used. Then, and only then is the architecture built to complement that.

A wide plush armchair with a wooden base and cushions sits on a textured rug in a room with matching wood coffee tables holding books and a brass lamp.

A tall planter holding decorative pampas grasses sits on a wood floor in front of a pair of arched openings in a wall, both a transition between rooms.

WHY ARCHES?

The arches are transitions separating rooms but they also add a unique moment when walking from one space to another. They create vignettes from room to room adding a unique perspective wherever you might be in the showroom.

In a room with chairs, two ladder-style shelving units lean against a wall with signage reading ‘Hightower’ above a smaller shelf of the same style.

A wall with 3 arches, two on the outside and one wider in the middle leading into a room with sectional seating, chairs, a rug, and framed artwork.

The left corner of a sectional with matching cushions joins with a booth seating area next to a wooden bistro table beneath an abstract pendant light.

Colorful velvet pillows sit on a sofa next to a wide window with a view through other windows revealing the other rooms of a furniture showroom.

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Credits

Thank you to the team at Hightower for their trust, collaborative spirit and for approving fabric samples without seeing them IRL! Thank you to Chicago based Bushman Construction Management for the dozens of measurements taken, photos snapped and attention to detail it takes to communicate to a design team 2000 miles away. Permit set by Fitzgerald APD. And last but not least, thank you to the Casework design team; Casey Keasler, Miranda Williams and Haley Voght, for the early mornings and late nights in making this project come to life.

Location: Chicago Merchandise Mart, NeoCon

Photography: Petra Ford and Casework

Videography: Matt Simmons

Video Editing: Casework’s own, Lana Boelter