It’s about as sleek and precise as any reception desk on the planet.

Designed by Alicia Hylton-Daniel of HagerSmith Design in Raleigh for Grifols, a pharmaceutical company in Research Triangle Park, the glass and porcelain tile desk was fabricated by Eidolon Design.

It serves as a metaphor for the client’s commitment to advances in bioscience therapies.

“It’s so purposeful, so clean and very cutting-edge,” says Eidolon’s Ann Cowpertwaite. “Those are the qualities that reflect what they’re doing behind the scenes with some very advanced technology.”

Each tile is a buff-brown South African porcelain, eight inches by four feet; the glass is back-painted white and 3/8 inches thick.

“It’s all cantilevered up from ground level, where the porcelain tile is on the main floor and the same tile goes up into the front wall of the desk,” she says. “Our job was to integrate the porcelain tile and glass into the space.”

The desk structure and cantilever box were assembled in Eidolon’s studio, where the glass was applied to the cantilever faces before moving it to the site. Once on site, the end glass panels were installed. Fifteen glass panels in total are connected, some glued on edges at 90 degrees.

The desk is proportional and functional in a space that’s 100 feet long – almost a football field.

“It’s proportioned to the space, so you know immediately where to go when you walk in,” she says.

Discussions on the project started in November 2013; fabrication and installation were completed last month.

For more information, go to http://eidolondesigns.com/grifols-reception-desk/

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