About Omgivning

Omgivning is Swedish for ambiance, setting, and environment.

Omgivning strengthens urban communities through architecture and interior design, emphasizing reuse. With the goals of the owner or investors as our point of departure, we consider the neighborhood's history, aesthetics, current uses, and growth patterns, as well as the building’s particular challenges and opportunities. We combine this understanding of place with our substantial experience with City requirements and regulations, creating spaces that succeed for the client and the community.

About Karin Liljegren

Karin Liljegren, AIA, has spent the last 10 years designing adaptive reuse, hospitality and interior design projects, developing and leading efforts in those project types during her 15 year tenure with Killefer Flammang Architects.

She has designed over 3000 completed live/work lofts in existing historic Downtown and Hollywood buildings, and thousands more for concept and feasibility studies. She initiated a hotel and restaurant division at Killefer Flammang focusing on the complex code issues of existing buildings as well as on interior design.

A believer in the possibilities of Downtown, Karin has lived in Pacific Electric Lofts and now makes her home in the Roosevelt Lofts, both projects she designed and led.

Karin is especially grateful to Wade Killefer and Barbara Flammang, as well as to the entire Killefer Flammang staff, for the opportunity to have worked on remarkable city-changing projects, which comprise much of the content depicted here in Omgivning's web portfolio.

Services

Architecture:

Conversion of existing buildings into new uses:

Updating/Renewing existing spaces
Drawing Production and Permitting
Roof gardens/pools
Historic façade and interior rehabilitation/restoration
Apartments, stores, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, public places

Interior Design:

Loft residential, tenant improvement, hospitality and commercial interior architecture
Omgivning's design ethos is to complement the personality of a space's client or program through beauty and function.

Consulting:

Code Consulting: Assistance with code navigation for existing buildings – feasibility studies, general advice and overview, quick plan analysis
Interior Consulting: Assistance with the general direction or specific choices for interior design
Feasibility Studies: Initial study of concept plans, costs and code analysis

Real Estate Development:

Assistance in feasibility studies
An integral member of the development team

Product/Furniture Design:

Development of furniture and product lines that suit and enhance urban lifestyles

Omgivning: A pivotal part of the Development Team

Omgivning is actively seeking partnerships with Developers pursuing downtown building reuse. Our knowledge of the distinctive aspects of reuse projects, from feasibility to occupancy, is a key ingredient in the venture's success.