This new corporate headquarters for a local advertising agency is a reaction against the standard issue office environment. People require interaction in today’s workplace. They go to work to collaborate, to brainstorm, to do research, to “work” in nontraditional sense of the word. Much of what we observe in creative environments involves informal interaction in atypical settings, such as chance meetings in corridors or conversations around the coffee pot. Our design is structured to reinforce that culture of openness.

At its core, the design is informed by these basic tenets: people like variety; they need places to congregate; casual interaction fosters teamwork and creativity; natural light is a good thing; and a little visual excitement can’t hurt. To accomplish this, we radically altered the internal configuration of a 115,000 square foot 1970’s era data center while leaving the exterior essentially unchanged. In addition to the insertion of a large, interior light court dropped into the building, further structure was removed to connect the space between floors into one communicating whole – reinforcing the culture and identity of the company as a single creative community.