A Day in San Francisco with Office of Tangible Space’s Kelley Perumbeti
Kelley’s Portrait by Sahra Jajarmikhayat.
Kelley is the co-founder of Office of Tangible Space, a multidisciplinary studio focused on architecture, interiors, furniture and curation and range in scale from intimate objects to the urban. Guided by a vision to reshape the design community into an inclusive, collaborative space, Kelley’s approach invites a dialogue—one that engages the senses and builds connection—between space, objects, and people.
Kelley is also the co-founder of Works In Progress, an exhibition series with a mission to amplify, archive and create dialogue around the Bay Area craft + design community. This particular day was the opening of Works In Progress II in San Francisco. Works In Progress III opens on Jan 24, 2025.
7:00am: My mornings start slower than I would like them to, but between my studio, family and personal projects the days are often fast and furious. I try to take a few deep breaths in bed to center myself. Because of life’s typical pace, I’ve been focused on smaller, more attainable actions that help me feel grounded. I’m moving toward a routine where I exercise, meditate and get dressed before my two kids are up — but it’s a work in progress.
San Francisco Office HQ (design by OTS). Photo by Elizabeth Carababas.
7:15am: A staple in my morning is espresso made by my partner, Nitin. It’s his morning ritual and passion that I pleasantly benefit from. We spend the morning as a family of four in our kitchen, listening to music, eating breakfast and enjoying the sunshine. We live in Bernal Heights and are lucky to be able to see a good portion of the city from our kitchen. I appreciate that San Francisco can feel like you are both in nature and in an urban setting at the same time.
8:45am: I head over to Dogpatch, the neighborhood of the west coast studio of Office of Tangible Space (we also have an office in Brooklyn). Dogpatch is a creative, growing, lively community that is small but mighty. The streets are always bustling when I arrive. I visit Neighbor Bakehouse and Paper Son first thing before heading upstairs to the studio.
9:00am: I hop on with the OTS team. The majority of our team works in NYC and their days have been going for hours before I’m online. We work on many types of design projects that range from architecture and interiors to curation and community programming, so every day has a different makeup for the team. I thrive on the diversity and depth in our daily workflow. We value a collaborative workspace where ideas can flow freely across coasts and disciplines.
10:00am: I like to utilize my early-day brain for any creative or deep thinking work. I also have a research-oriented brain and like to think about how new information can be applied through a creative process. In the studio we are often referencing books, historical studio practices, or completely unrelated ideas to generate concepts for our work.
Works in Progress II curators, Kate and Kelley. Courtesy of Kelley Perumbeti.
12:00pm: I’ve been really enjoying meeting people for lunch, but if not, I like to get some movement in by walking and getting food solo. I often bring my sketchbook and often work on any product or furniture-scale concepts we need to generate.
1:00pm: This day in particular is the opening of Works In Progress, an exhibition series I co-founded with Kate Greenberg. We started the series to create deeper dialogue and greater awareness around Bay Area craft and design. The exhibition features fourteen artists and designers from the Bay who have been paired together to craft a screen. By bringing together artists who’ve never collaborated before, we hoped to inspire a shared sense of community from a new angle — generating new relationships through generating new objects.
1:30pm: The Works In Progress catalogues finished printing so I drive to grab them. This special companion to the show visually illustrates the essence of the collaborative process. We visited each studio over the past three months to capture the pieces as they were being created. We also interviewed the artists to understand the depths of their experience working together. It’s a really exciting moment to see this book in the flesh, especially because it is a reflection of two talented people, MC Madrigal & Sahra Jajarmikhayat, and our community who helped make it happen.
2:30pm: I go to the site, a renovated historic paint factory at 198 Utah St in the Potrero District, to meet Kate and Michael — my business partner at OTS who flew in from NYC — to get ready for the opening. Production of the show has been months in the making. The pieces are large, impactful, and many interact with the architecture of the space. Each screen owns a different material and form, yet they read like a family that was meant to be together.
3:00pm: This is the time for my typical end-of-day studio check in with Michael, and it’s important because we don’t get to see each other in person on a daily basis. It’s typically a reflection of the day and what’s to come but frequently goes beyond that and into the broader vision for OTS. Today, our conversation centered around expansion into hospitality.
Kelley and her son, Orin. Courtesy of Kelley Perumbeti.
4:00pm: Everyone who is working the show is now on site. We set up the entry tables with exhibition maps, catalogues and improvised candle holders that are repurposed from our studio’s aluminum screen wall extrusions. My family is here to help us run the show so we have the ultimate support staff. Annie from Etteilla sets up a beautiful natural wine bar, the DJ booth gears up, and we get ready to welcome the five hundred guests that we expect to come through.
Works in Progress II Opening. Courtesy of Kelley Perumbeti.
5:30pm: Nitin comes with our kids to see the show before it gets too crowded. Even though they don’t fully grasp the prompt, I walk them around and explain each piece. I love exposing them to environments focused on design and art and the fact that this is so personal makes for quite the moment.
6:00pm: We watch as people take in the environment and welcome everyone as they enter. I love to hear everyone’s take on the pieces and their holistic experience of the show, and the many “why” and “how” questions that inevitably come up about the process of creating it.
9:00pm: We close down the space for the evening and prepare it for public viewing that begins tomorrow. The night was filled with a very hopeful, positive energy and it feels good to be building a piece of community in this way. Today was a reminder of the many people that value being part of a conversation between space and objects, particularly in this city.
10:30pm: Bedtime with a book or podcast to wind down. While I don’t always get to this each night, I have a stack of reading material next to my bed that spans design-focused content to nonfiction reading. Right now I am reading my Untapped Journal and A Colorful Life about Gere Kavanaugh, the latter being a book loaned to me by Works In Progress artist Ruth Kneass. There’s nothing better than recommended reading from someone you look up to in the creative world.