This project consisted of the design of the public spaces for the new one million square foot Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey building, located between the edge of the ironbound district in Newark and the river. The primary function of the building is to facilitate the collection and management of data concerning the health of those insured by the organization.

Three revolving doors lead from the street into a rectangular double-height hall. Access to the building is also provided through this hall from lower level parking areas and from the river side of the building.

The walls at the lower level of the hall incorporate various openings for access and security within in a design of blue-grey ceramic frit glass in stainless steel mullions which fill the wall surfaces between grey granite pilasters. At the mid-level a band of book-matched slate grey and gold Polissandro marble rises above a stainless steel lighting channel. At the upper level of the wall a grid of blue mirror in midnight blue mullions encircles the room. The ceiling is coffered and is reflected in the upper wall surface mirrors. The geometry of this ceiling is echoed in the floor of polished and flamed Georgia grey granite.

The elevator vestibules are symmetrically arranged on either side of the hall at the far end. They are single height spaces, but within the ceiling of each is a recessed ten foot tall elliptical lighting drum. This drum is paneled with book-matched cherry and glows softly to direct attention inwards and towards the elevators. The walls of these antechambers are gridded with pilasters and pale rose colored ceramic frit glass. The floor reflects the ceiling opening with a central elliptical pattern of polished and flamed red granite cut in a radial grid.

In developing the design, the metaphor of the body and its control was primary. The symmetry of the plan arises from this consideration, as does the development of the two elliptical vestibules, internal organs of the plan that “cleanse” the circulation flow through the apparatus of security turnstile filters. These internal organs, the kidneys of the plan, which are treated in the pinks and reds of tissue and blood, are contrasted with the main hall, whose blue and grey rectangular monumentality represents the bureaucracy of health, as epitomized in the architecturalized Blue Crossing of the pilasters and marble band.

In developing these metaphors, the architecture of Adolf Loos was of great importance, since many of his projects deal with the opposition between an outward refined anonymity and an inward psycho-physical complexity. In particular, the banking hall of the Vienna Bank and the interior of the Villa Karma were of decisive influence.