The artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Judith Jamison, has many things to be excited about in the company’s new building at 405 W. 55th Street, the much-anticipated, $54-million, eight-story Joan Weill Center for Dance. One is her new office.

“The old office was kind of organized bedlam,” Ms. Jamison, 61, said. “There were paintings, statues, pictures, way high up on these shelves and windowsills. It was really quite something.”

The bedlam extended into the hallways and other rooms of the former headquarters, two rented floors on West 61st Street that served the same functions as the new building but was half the size.

Now Ms. Jamison and everyone else at Alvin Ailey has room to breathe in the all-glass structure designed by Iu + Bibliowicz. There were once nine studios; now there are 12. And after sharing an office with her assistant for 14 years, Ms. Jamison has a corner office of her own (her assistant has her own office right outside Ms. Jamison’s).

It’s been about four months since Ms. Jamison moved in. So far, the office is the model of organized, artistic calm.

“It’s a pleasure for me to go into this space,” Ms. Jamison said.

The space is the creation of Cheryl Riley, 52, an artist and furniture designer with work in more than 20 museums including the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and the Museum of Arts and Design. For Ms. Jamison’s office, she created bookshelves, a desk, a console to hold videotapes, a chaise lounge, and two chairs.

She also chose the books on the shelves (all belonging to Ms. Jamison, on dance, photography, and African art), the color of the walls (a creamier white than the rest of the building), and created custom wallpaper for the architectural column that runs through the southeast corner of the building.

“I call her room an art installation. I even decided where the pictures are on the wall, and I picked the frames. She gave me complete artistic control of the whole place,” Ms. Riley said.

Ms. Riley, who, like the woman she designed for, is African-American, started the project by asking Ms. Jamison what she wanted the office to feel like. “I told her warm, with humor and power. I wanted it to feel African and African-American. I wanted it to have kind of a welcoming feel to it,” Ms. Jamison said.

Ms. Riley also visited Ms. Jamison’s home. “I needed to get a read on her as a person. I needed to see her style and her taste.”

There she found an apartment full of African and Asian art as well as piles of beads and textiles. She also discovered Ms. Jamison’s favorite colors – jewel tones, amber, mustardy yellows, and the blues of nature.

“People really love that woman,” Ms Riley said of Ms. Jamison. “I don’t know what she did in her last life, but everywhere she goes, everyone’s giving her nice gifts – everyone from the chief of an African tribe to a Buddhist monk.”

Ms. Riley incorporated Ms. Jamison’s aesthetic – and many of her personal treasures – into the office. She upholstered the chaise lounge with a Kente cloth from Ghana, which, like the fabric of the pillows, came from Ms. Jamison’s stockpiles.

Hanging on the back of the chaise, largely hidden from view, are strings of beads Ms. Riley created from Ms. Jamison’s collection. There are also Tibetan prayer beads, stones, acorns, a doll, and a silver belt from northern Egypt displayed under a glass panel built into her desk.

“I didn’t want her whole desk to be glass, I thought it was too cold. But I wanted her to have some special place that she could personalize and put her own things in there,” Ms. Riley said.

Ms. Jamison’s interest in her African heritage is reflected in an ornamental motif in the bookshelves and desk – Adinkra symbols are carved into the Filipino ribbon mahogany wood and lined with copper powders. Ms. Riley herself chose the symbols using a dictionary Ms. Jamison gave her. The symbol used on Ms. Jamison’s desk translates into English as “twisty.” “It stands for toughness, adaptability, and the ability to withstand hardship,” Ms. Jamison said.

The shelves are carved with several different symbols representing alertness, dexterity, strength, confidence, persistence, and a clean soul.

“There is a spirit in the symbols, and even if you don’t know what those symbols mean, when you come in, you feel the energy,” Ms. Riley said.

Some of Ms. Riley’s design ideas are much more subtle. For example, the top of the desk is in the shape of an ironing board. “Ms. Jamison’s grandmother had done ironing for a white family in the community. That’s true of so many of us, who are five or six generations in America,” Ms. Riley said.

A more literal personal reference comes in the legs of the table holding videotapes – two human legs carved of wood. Originally, Ms. Riley designed the legs with two flat feet, but changed them to have an arch at Ms. Jamison’s request.

These wooden legs have eight coats of lacquer and 10 coats of paint, and were sanded to give them a worn look and prepare for wear and tear. “If somebody walks up and kicks the leg, you’ll never know.” Ms. Riley designs her pieces to endure the heavy traffic of the office. The bottoms of the furniture are decorated with large bronze upholstery tacks to prevent scarring. “I have to take into consideration what’s going to happen to those things when the cleaning service people come and bang the edge of the table with the vacuum cleaner,” Ms. Riley said.

Ms. Riley also considered the way Ms. Jamison works. “I decided to do cabinetry that had doors, so all the clutter would be behind doors.”

What about file cabinets for paperwork? “Paperwork? She doesn’t do a lot of paperwork. She’s more a conceptualist,” Ms. Riley said, noting Ms. Jamison’s artistic role with the company.

Both parties seem satisfied. “This is probably my favorite com mission ever,” Ms. Riley said. “I took dance when I was a little girl, but I was taller than everybody else, and at that time you weren’t supposed to be tall. Then here comes Judith Jamison, she’s really graceful, she’s very tall, and she ends up being the muse for this brilliant choreographer who makes dances just for her. I’m crazy about her.”

Ms. Jamison especially likes the chaise. “It’s not for napping!” Ms. Jamison said. “It’s very comfortable to sit there, I can sit straight up or put my feet up, or sit in second position, and it’s very convenient for the dancers. Most of the dancers come and sit sideways on it. That’s going to be my favorite place to take photographs of people,” Ms. Jamison said.