SODO Kitchen, Starbucks Headquarters, Seattle

The idea behind the design of the café, says Stromire, was to create a space that puts the traditional corporate café to shame.

"The café is really sexy," Stromire says. "It has different heights of seating. We have leather, we have marble—just very high-end finishes. It’s phenomenal. It’s not a flat space. The lighting is very unique. We used a lot of wood grains to create a kind of rustic feel. The design of the servery is a similar kind of thing. It has subway tiles in the back and we have stainless steel hoods on the equipment and white marble counters. It's very sleek."