Changing the Channel

BET’s executive floor gets a vibrant, neo-urban makeover that signals the network’s new direction

By Keija Minor
Photography by Cade Martin


Debra Lee’s appointment as chairwoman and CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET) in January 2006 marked a new chapter for the company, which had been run for 25 years by its founder, Bob Johnson.  And while BET is still undergoing a rebranding of sorts—tweaking its programming and launching Centric, a sister channel aimed at viewers ages 25 to 54—the redesign of the executive floor affirms that it’s a new day at the D.C. headquarters.  Lee inherited Johnson’s chairman suite, a long crescent-shaped space on the sixth floor.  However, she didn’t move in immediately, opting to stay in the office she had worked in as president and COO.  By many accounts, Johnson’s dark-wood-and­-black-lacquer-adorned office didn’t mesh with Lee’s personality.

Lee enlisted interior designer Courtney Sloane, owner of the New York–based firm Alternative Design.  Credited with helming countless residential renovations, Sloane was no stranger to corporate spaces, having revamped about 20,000 square feet for Sony Music and the original Vibe office (for which she won a design award for “best lobby in NYC” in New York Magazine).  It took nearly two years for Sloane to convert the chairman suite and much of the executive floor into a bright and modern space more in sync with the new boss’s style.  “When we started the process, we talked about what I needed in terms of functionality, and that I didn’t want [the interior] to be traditional,” Lee says.  To get a sense of Lee’s aesthetic, Sloane toured her home, the former Jack Kent Cooke residence in Northwest D.C.  Sloane saw that Lee, whose favorite hues are orange and yellow, is not afraid of color.  “Many clients say they want color, but as you start the process, oftentimes the whole notion of color goes away,” Sloane comments.

Ultimately, Sloane set out to marry style with function.  Before sketching any designs, she interviewed every person who worked on the floor to understand the needs of both Lee and the company.  “I have this amazing, outlandish taste,” Lee explains.  “I’m an executive in the TV business.  I’m also on four corporate boards.  I’m a CEO, a woman, and a mother.”  Lee needed a space that would complement her many roles. The two agreed to open up the suite into one long space that could be divided into a few work zones.  The distinct areas now appear “like vignettes, almost like a television [studio] set,” Sloane explains.  There is some fluidity, but each room is a different environment that can be closed off with folding doors.

On this page: Lee drives the network from her one-of-a-kind Waterfall Executive Desk; designer Courtney Sloane and Debra Lee strike a pose in the executive suite.