Edmunds.com’s Santa Monica Office Space Wins Interior Design Award

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Southern California Chapter of the International Interior Design Association has announced that the winner of a Calibre 2008 Design award is Studios Architecture for its design of Edmunds.com’s headquarters in Santa Monica, California.

“Edmunds realized – way ahead of the current curve – that business and architectural design should mix and that the result is a powerful creative factor in how a business can succeed and stay ahead of the competition”

Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, contracted Studios Architecture for the design of an employee-friendly and productivity-enhancing work space for its 400 employees. Both a photo gallery and a video tour of the office space are available on Edmunds.com’s Web site.

“We invested in this process to create a more effective working environment, and we selected an architect who shared that vision,” said Avi Steinlauf, President and Chief Operating Officer of Edmunds.com.

“Edmunds realized – way ahead of the current curve – that business and architectural design should mix and that the result is a powerful creative factor in how a business can succeed and stay ahead of the competition,” noted Chris Mitchell, a Managing Principal at Studios Architecture.

Interior Design magazine highlighted the office in its January 2007 issue, sharing that during the design process, Mitchell “played a quick word-association game: What are cars about? Sunset Boulevard, motion, being hip…This is L.A., baby.”

“Filled with open work areas, including the Great Room in which all employees gather weekly, [Edmunds.com’s office] space is lined with vertically mounted whiteboards to accommodate the frequent ‘agile stand-up meetings’ managers hold,” reported BusinessWeek.com in November. “…there’s a real sense of can-do within the firm, which mixes Southern California casual with the highly creative, breakneck pace of a Web startup.”

About Edmunds Inc. (http://www.edmunds.com/help/about/)

Edmunds Inc. publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. Its most popular feature, the Edmunds.com True Market Value^®, is relied upon by millions of people seeking current transaction prices for new and used vehicles. Edmunds.com was named “Best Car Research Site” by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the “Most Useful Web Site” according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM), was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites by The Wall Street Journal and was rated “#1” in Keynote’s study of third-party automotive Web sites. Inside Line launched in 2005 and is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace launched in 2006 and is an automotive social networking Web site and home to the oldest and most established automotive community. AutoObserver.com launched in 2007 and provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.