Archinect - News

Are ‘work resorts’ an answer to rising office vacancy rates?

2024-09-17T07:00:00-04:00

In an Archinect feature article published last month, we unpacked the residual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on office design. As our recent business survey found, a decline in demand for new office space post-pandemic is one of several factors currently feeding a turbulent economic landscape for architects, alongside headline forces such as interest rates and inflation.

As our feature article noted, 20% of U.S. workers are believed to be currently working on either a remote or hybrid work schedule. Meanwhile, industry studies posit that 50% of large international firms expect to reduce their existing office space over the next three years, while U.S. office vacancy rates sit at 20% and approximately 2 billion square feet of U.S. office space is underutilized.

Related on Archinect: The Pandemic Is History, but for Architects, Its Impact on Office Design Remains. Image: Aaron Thompson

Amid the warning signs for architects specializing in the design and delivery of new office space, ...

Herzog & de Meuron's mass timber HORTUS project advances in Switzerland

2024-08-27T12:13:00-04:00

The new mass timber HORTUS office project from Herzog & de Meuron is advancing towards completion in Allschwil, Switzerland. Construction will yield 600 workplaces and be fully offset after 31 years in use. The firm says it is “one of the most sustainable office buildings in the German-speaking world.”

KI Wall lets designers configure architectural walls and pods in a breeze

2024-08-21T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by KI Wall

This year’s NeoCon 2024 introduced KI Wall, a new interior architecture brand from leading commercial furniture maker KI. The line focuses on wall and pod systems and creates greater spatial configuration flexibility for designers of office spaces in corporate businesses, healthcare centers, government facilities, educational environments, and more.

Image courtesy KI Wall

Five products are available in a highly sustainable and easy-to-install suite that straddles the intersection of elegance and functionality. Each is custom-built to match clients' specific project specifications and a highly modern design aesthetic.

Image courtesy KI Wall

For those looking to enable impromptu private or collaborative spaces, a freestanding WiggleRoom Pod option and larger WiggleRoom Super Structures are also available. Both options are approved for use as Certified Autism Resource spaces and come backed by a ten-year warranty.

Image courtesy KI Wall

Architects w...

Take a look inside the new Eames Institute Headquarters Workspace

2024-08-14T11:53:00-04:00

The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity has shared first photos of its new Eames Institute Headquarters Workspace in Richmond, California. Following the opening of the Eames Archive, the organization's first public space, earlier this year, the new office provides learning opportunities with expanded work environments for its staff members.

Photo: Nicholas Calcott, courtesy of Eames Institute

The project included the gut renovation of an original Jim Jennings commercial design from 1997. Two floors – the lower 2,755-square-foot first-floor workspace and the larger, 4,739-square-foot second floor for offices – were remade over the last year after being identified by the owner of the San Francisco-based bookstore William Stout Architectural Books.

Photo: Nicholas Calcott, courtesy of Eames Institute

"It’s such a pleasure to expand the reach of the Eames Institute and further share t...

10 workplace designs we liked this week

2024-08-03T08:00:00-04:00

In case you haven't checked out Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while, we have compiled ten recently pinned images from outstanding projects on various Archinect Firm and People profiles.

Today's top images (in no particular order) are from the board Working Spaces.

Tip: use the handy FOLLOW feature to easily keep up-to-date with all your favorite Archinect profiles!

↑ Kloboucká lesní Headquarters in Brumov, Czech Republic, by Mjölk architekti; Photo: BoysPlayNice

↑ Healthy.io in Tel Aviv, Israel, by Switchup

↑ Interprotección in Mexico City by Space Mexico; Photo: Aldo Cárdenas Gracia

↑ Haas Jr. Foundation Headquarters in San Francisco, CA, by TEF Design; Photo: Mikiko Kikuyama

↑ Liminal House in West Vancouver, Canada, by Mcleod Bovell Modern Houses; Photo: Hufton + Crow

↑ Califia Farms Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA, by The S/L/A/M Collaborative; Photo: Nutana Studio

↑ Cannabis Corporate HQ in Seattle, WA, by Graham Baba Architects; Photo: Andrew Giammarco

↑ Davines North Ameri...

The corner office's long era of dominance is over. Make way for the new 'Workplace Power Symbols' says The Atlantic

2024-05-21T17:43:00-04:00

Many modern companies “have as many conference rooms as there are executives,” [Kay] Sargent said, and it’s become a “dirty little secret” that conference rooms are the new corner offices. [...] When a high-ranking executive parks themselves in a big conference room or spreads their stuff across the long table in the office coffee shop, no one is going to tell them to leave.

The influence that Google exerted over office design in the 2000s has been credited with starting the movement toward a post-COVID reality in which the private spaces within offices now occupy only 45% of the total footprint. (H/t CoStar.com from January)

Still, The Atlantic’s Michael Waters writes: “We may one day return to an older layout of explicit hierarchy: [Lenny] Beaudoin, the CBRE designer, told me that he recently worked with a bank that decided to reinstall corner offices for a group of senior leaders, hoping it would bring them back to the office. But even if recent changes prove lasting, with space designed to be up for grabs, there won’t be any illusions about who has the power to grab it.”

Snøhetta's high-tech Vertikal Nydalen mixed-use project opens in Oslo

2024-04-27T10:00:00-04:00

A new mixed-use project in Oslo from Snøhetta has been completed following a nine-year design and development phase that culminated in 118,400 square feet and 18 floors with restaurants, an office component, and 40 apartment units all built in.

Vertikal Nydalen is the focal point of a new town square in the Norwegian capital and features a self-sufficient climate system bolstered by PV panels, geo-wells, heat pumps, and an advanced building monitoring system that allows user feedback to inform its controls.

Image credit: Lars Petter Pettersen/Snøhetta

The project was born out of a pilot program that combined two research efforts supported by the Research Council of Norway. It focused on enhancing the building’s ventilation strategy and helping its heating/cooling systems run with little added energy at an efficiency rate of up to 2.5 times the industry’s current leading standard.

Image credit: Lars Petter Pettersen/Snøhetta

Snøhetta's Kjetil Trædal Thorsen says: "We are proud to f...

Construction starts on MVRDV's new Berlin mixed-use development

2024-03-17T08:00:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the MVRDV-designed LXK Office and Residential Campus in Berlin. The mixed-use complex will add needed office and residential space to a rapidly developing part of the city.

The project is located in the Friedrichshain district. It spans approximately 658,751 square feet and features abundant office, commercial, and residential space. The complex consists of two L-shaped volumes, with the residential component consolidated into a single block. The corners of each volume open up to create an accessible green, public square. This divide allows the project to integrate itself sensitively into the scale of the surroundings.

Image © MVRDV

One of the most distinguishing features of the development is its single continuous luminous band that wraps horizontally around each structure. The band unifies the fragmented structure into a single form. This component is further activated by green, accessible terraces that offer views into the surrounding city. It also hosts ...

OMA debuts PRINCIPLES Square collection for Perth Design Week

2024-03-14T19:28:00-04:00

Photos of the central hub for Perth Design Week, the eight-day event taking place now in the Western Australia capital, have been revealed by OMA to go along with the start of festivities.

Their colorful design for PRINCIPLES Square is located inside Cathedral Square in Perth's city center and features the Australian debut of the firm's office furniture collaboration with UniFor, which first premiered at Milan Design Week in 2022.

Intended as the main gathering space for Design Week, the concept creates a variety of socializing and spatial scenarios. For the event's second edition, no less than 20 events will be hosted there. Philippe Braun, the project's associate-in-charge, told the press that its realization "stimulated us to further explore how the collection can be applied beyond the typical."

Photography by Frans Parthesius, courtesy OMA

OMA says of the arrangement: "PRINCIPLES Square is the manifestation of the potential of the collection. The installation takes advantage of ...

Google NYC's new adaptive-reuse HQ design by Gensler and COOKFOX opens at Hudson Square

2024-02-27T12:52:00-05:00

Google’s brand new New York City headquarters inside St. John’s Terminal at Hudson Square has opened following the completion of a five-year and $2.1 billion project designed by COOKFOX Architects and Gensler.

The renovation of the two-block-long former rail terminus yields a total of 1.3 million square feet of new offices. Another nine stories were added above the existing structure. The building will house some 3,000 employees of the tech giant, who said in a blog post that its design is responsive to a research-driven office strategy and supports a new workplace model that’s meant to foster greater collaboration, creativity, and growth.

Image: courtesy of Google

After restoring the original three floors remaining from its peak usage in the 1930s, the design team created a welcoming space defined by an exterior cut facade detailed on its northern side with reused rail beds that had been leftovers and are kept semi-exposed to create a visible linkage between past and present.

Image...

Google unveils updated renderings for Thompson Center rejuvenation

2023-12-13T17:11:00-05:00

New renderings for Google’s $280 million redevelopment of the Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thompson Center in Chicago have been released by the company ahead of the start of construction activities early next year.

The announcement was made via Google’s The Keyword blog and appears to show improvements to the ground-level plaza area, facades, and HVAC system, minus the significant alterations to the atrium that were first detailed by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lee Bey back in October.

The existing colonnade and plaza at street level will be redesigned to allow for more food, beverage, and retail opportunities, along with seasonal activations for the public. JAHN, its original architect, will lead the overhaul in line with Google’s pledge to deliver a LEED Platinum and all-electric building. The “postmodern legacy” of their late founder's design will reportedly also be “honored” by retaining its 17-story atrium space — an area that became a point of contention for preservationists ...

MVRDV completes colorful HAUS 1 office conversion in Berlin

2023-12-04T14:24:00-05:00

MVRDV has completed work on a vibrant new conversion project in Berlin called HAUS 1 that reworked an aging office building from 1997 into a new hub for innovation and community.

Other than the eye-catching canary color finish, the project is visually dominated by an extended grand external staircase. A new terraced timber pavilion space is enacted on the rooftop, completed by an arrangement of native plants and constructed using a palette of bio-based materials. Inside, floorplans are altered to maximize flexibility. Other important aspects of the design include low-temperature underfloor heating and a rainwater harvesting system that will help the building to function sustainably year-round.

Photo © Lukas Drobny

MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs says: “The newly transformed HAUS 1 is more than a gateway to this unique campus devoted to impact. It is a representation of the Atelier Gardens community and their commitment to chart a different vision of society...

Foster + Partners' 270 Park Avenue replacement tops out in Manhattan

2023-11-21T20:00:00-05:00

A celebration was held this week to mark the official topping out of the new 60-story JPMorgan Chase headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Designed by Foster + Partners to feature the latest approaches ascendant in post-pandemic workplace design, the building is beset with flexible office configurations and wellness spaces.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

The project was undertaken with a fair amount of controversy, as several preservation groups and AIANY had lobbied heavily in favor of preserving its SOM-designed predecessor, known by its original title, the Union Carbide Building.

Foster + Partners hopes the new building will follow its lead to become an equally revolutionary contribution to American office design.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Norman Foster said: “In 1811, when this site was countryside, the city commissioners created a master plan for New York. It was bold, innovative, and reflected an optimism for the future. Today, over two hundred years later, th...

New photos of Kinzo-designed interiors in Foster + Partners' record-setting MOL Headquarters

2023-10-11T13:36:00-04:00

Archinect has received new photos of Foster + Partners' now in-use MOL Group corporate headquarters tower in Budapest following a public opening that took place in the Hungarian capital earlier this spring. The building's interiors were designed by Berlin-based architecture studio Kinzo Architekten.

The tower was inaugurated in December and is the tallest structure in Hungary, topping out at 469 feet and 28 floors. It joins F+P’s Varso Tower design in Poland, now the EU’s tallest building, as two record-setting constructions that were completed last year. The firm says it is part of their focus to design office spaces that meet contemporary demands from workers and environmental advocates.

Image: © HGEsch

In terms of sustainability, the low and zero-carbon technology offerings include a 900-panel rooftop photovoltaic array, ground source heat pumps, greywater recycling, and a state-of-the-art rainwater harvesting system. Heating and cooling provided by a radiant panel system work to ...

PAU-designed The Refinery at Domino reopens Brooklyn's most iconic building to the modern workplace

2023-09-27T15:25:00-04:00

A landmark era of high-profile additions and architectural changes to the historic Brooklyn waterfront has ushered in a new chapter with today’s official public unveiling of the PAU-designed The Refinery at Domino office component at the 11-acre former Domino Sugar Factory site in Williamsburg.

The new, 15-story glass commercial space was constructed inside the building’s old brick masonry shell, offering tenants 460,000 square feet of Class A office space enhanced by carefully-inserted biophilic elements and marked by the firm’s attenuation to ascendant health and wellness considerations typical in modern workplace design.

Photo: Max Touhey

A 12-foot gap left between the new and old structures provides space for Field Operations’s 17-count in-house arboretum while standardizing a misalignment with the floors and helping to flood the bonetti/kozerski-designed office interiors with natural light and expanded access to vegetation throughout the day.

Photo: Max Touhey

A vaulted 27,000-s...

UNStudio completes Booking.com City Campus HQ in Amsterdam

2023-06-28T14:39:00-04:00

A new HQ project from UNStudio for the Dutch travel site Booking.com has opened in Amsterdam, offering a dynamic central location it says will serve as a “recruitment machine” while creating a more inclusive, healthy, and socially engaging experience for the company’s 6,500 employees.

Video courtesy UNStudio on Vimeo.

Designed to maximize connectivity for its users and visitors to the campus’ Oosterdokseiland location, the nearly 700,000-square-foot plan creates a highly-visible, activities-laden consolidation of disparate office locations that, for over a decade, had been spread throughout the city.

Image: © Hufton + Crow

Anchored by a striking main building made of glass and steel and sited on a double-height plinth that creates an urban element underneath and around a cantilevered overhang, the development was influenced by years of research into comparable corporate headquarters and engenders a “platform for human activity,” the architects say.

Image: © Hufton + Crow

A network o...

Gensler survey reveals the ways Gen Z workers are being drawn back to the office

2023-06-23T18:03:00-04:00

Remote work is second nature for Generation Z, many of whom graduated college and started careers during the pandemic. And yet, many are now transitioning to in-person work as they look for more workplace connections, learning opportunities and socialization with coworkers. That means figuring out what kind of workspace environment will keep Gen Z workers interested, is becoming a higher priority.

According to the 2023 Global Workplace Survey Comparison by Gensler, there has been a sudden split, spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic, in the workplace preferences for Gen Z workers compared to older generations.

To start, the findings reveal that Gen Z workers place more value on learning and socializing at work, along with flexibility. Essentially this means that younger workers value having a variety of experiences in the workplace. These experiences include having both private and collaborative spaces, made possible by open, changeable layouts, access to more amenities, and having more in-person, social interactions.

The survey has found that younger workers are being drawn towards offices and away from remote work due to the accessibility of leadership and continued education that could help drive career growth. Some companies looking to adapt to meet these evo...

Zaha Hadid Architects on using AI in workplace design

2023-06-15T13:01:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid Architects has offered The New York Times an insight into how the firm has deployed artificial intelligence in workplace design. Times writer Farah Nayeri spoke with Arjun Kaicker and Ulrich Blum from Zaha Hadid Analytics + Insights (ZHAI) which uses data and artificial intelligence to design workplaces.

“The pandemic has really supercharged innovation in the workplace,” Kaicker told the paper, noting that before 2020, “the majority of office buildings had a one-size-fits-all desk for everyone, and the same environment around them, the same everything.”

Blum shared that ZHAI possessed a computer tool that, within 27 hours, could generate 100,000 designs for a building interior — a feat which would take an architect a decade to deliver if producing 40 drawings per day. The team cited the firm’s Infinitus Plaza in Guangzhou, China, which saw AI deployed to generate options for positioning the bui...

Five unique workspace projects by ShubinDonaldson: Your Next Employer?

2023-05-22T13:28:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Culver City-based Johnson Favaro, we are keeping our Meet Your Next Employer series in California this week to explore the work of ShubinDonaldson.

Led by partners Russell Shubin, Robin Donaldson, and Mark Hershman, the firm comprises 40 staff spread across offices in Culver City, Santa Barbara, and Orange County. Describing their approach as being “informed by modernism, craft, and a culture of experimentation,” the firm’s portfolio spans mixed-use, workplace, retail, multifamily, and custom residential typologies.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring a Project Coordinator for commercial projects to join its Culver City office. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the studio’s work, we have rounded up five workplaces by ShubinDonaldson that demonstrate their design approach.

3101 West Coast Highway

Located at Mariner’s Mile in Newport Beach, CA, ShubinDonaldson’s project a...

COOKFOX's 555 Greenwich office complex in Manhattan nears completion

2023-05-08T17:19:00-04:00

*Editor's Note: The 555 Greenwich project officially topped out on April 22, 2022, and is slated for completion in 2023. Details below have been adjusted for accuracy.

COOKFOX’s 555 Greenwich project, a 270,000-square-foot, 16-story office tower in the heart of New York City’s Hudson Square, is near completion. As reported on NewYorkYimby, images by Michael Young show the installation of the building's brick facade and windows.

Rendering: Vocon, image courtesy COOKFOX

The structure will seamlessly combine with the adjacent 1931-built 345 Hudson to form a singular full-block building. The development was led by Hudson Square Properties, a joint venture of Trinity Church Wall Street, Norges Bank Investment Management, and Hines. The combination of 555 Greenwich and 345 Hudson aims to be a benchmark for sustainable and environmentally responsible office development.

Rendering: Vocon, image courtesy COOKFOX

The new building will feature geothermal and radiant heating and cooling, full el...

3XN tops out a modular timber office park for two robotics companies

2023-05-05T14:57:00-04:00

3XN is celebrating the topping out of Cobot Hub, a timber office park that will serve as the new joining home of robotics companies Universal Robots (UR) and Mobile Industrial Robots A/S (MiR) in Odense, Denmark.

Photo by Rasmus Hjortshøj

The approximately 215,000-square-foot campus was designed to enhance collaboration and employee well-being while offering specialized environments that foster robotics research and development. It features open office layouts, along with common areas and amenity spaces where employees can interact informally. Increased visibility and transparency throughout the spaces that encourage social interaction were prioritized.

Photo by Rasmus Hjortshøj

Cobot Hub is composed of flexible, cubic modules that are tailored to the needs of the two companies. This approach allows the building to be scaled up or down according to future needs as certain parts of the structure and materials can be reshaped and reused. It is also primarily made of wood, allowing the...

The Willis Tower turns 50

2023-05-05T12:24:00-04:00

Now called Willis Tower, the building has been a trendsetter since its debut. After starting life as a headquarters for Sears, Roebuck & Co., the building saw its namesake tenant relocate to the suburbs. Along with the rest of downtown, it suffered other blows, including fears raised by the terrorist attacks of 2001 and the Great Recession. It’s always bounced back. But the tower now faces what might be its biggest test.

SOM won the commission from the Sears corporation in 1970 at a time when office parks and the desire to project a stronger image of America against the backdrop of the Vietnam War were separately prevailing forces in the AEC industry. Sears eventually sold the 110-story building, which was the world’s tallest for 22 years, for more than $1 billion in 1988. More recently it has turned into a focal point of the city’s office vacancy crisis, and new owners Blackstone are now looking forward to returns from a $500 million-plus renovation led by Gensler with optimism.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)'s CEO Javier Quintana de Uña agrees. As he said, "It always keeps ahead of everything else."

The Tribune has historic photos of the tower under construction here.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (@skidmoreowingsmerrill)

Five creative workplace interiors by Float Studio: Your Next Employer?

2023-04-17T12:46:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to New York-based S9 Architecture, we are using this week’s edition of our Meet Your Next Employer series to explore the work of fellow New York firm Float Studio.

From their office on West 25th Street in Manhattan, the full-service interiors firm specializes in designing creative spaces for start-ups and tech companies. “Every company has a unique story, which can be told through the design of their workspace,” the firm says about its mission. “We help tell that story, and create spaces for our clients to make great things happen.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for a Summer Design Intern to join their New York office. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the studio’s work, we have rounded up five creative workspaces by Float Studio that demonstrates their design ethos.

Casper HQ

Completed in 2016, the Float-designed Casper HQ consists of 34,000 square feet of renovated...

UNStudio refurbishes former banking HQ in Eindhoven

2023-04-11T17:55:00-04:00

UNStudio has just unveiled a completed redesign of a former bank headquarters building called Fellenoord 15 in the Dutch city of Eindhoven.

The project transformed the former Rabobank HQ into a 32,000-square-meter (344,440-square-foot) governmental facility equipped with the latest building management technology and capable of hosting more flexible work concepts that are better constituted for the demands of our century.

The building before its transformation. Image: Studio Hans Wilschut

The completed building following the redesign. Image: Studio Hans Wilschut

Taking the shell of the existing building, UNStudio says they were able to save roughly 40% of the CO2 footprint required by new construction. Its design enables the use of a new public space between the building’s entrance and the adjacent bus station. A series of high-tech sensors decreases energy consumption while increasing the efficiency of workers’ use of the building through data.

Image: Evabloem

Geotherma...

Foster + Partners completes flexible office complex in Luxembourg

2023-01-26T14:45:00-05:00

Foster + Partners has completed a new office complex in Belval, Luxembourg that promotes flexible and collaborative working environments. Called ICÔNE, the 202,362-square-foot structure is filled with light and greenery, cultivating a safe, spacious atmosphere while referencing the rich industrial heritage of Belval. The project aims to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

ICÔNE’s location is described as a new city quarter that combines research, education, leisure, and commerce. The complex relates to the scale of the neighboring buildings, along with the varying characteristics of the surrounding streets. Its entrances are oriented differently in response to Porte de France, the main urban street to the west, and the Place de l’Académie to the east. These entrances will be enlivened by new shops, cafés, and restaurants.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

“We are delighted to celebrate the opening of this landmark project for Belval, which we began des...

HWKN's upcoming commercial tower will bring a 'grade A, sustainability-certified workspace' to London's Canada Water Dockside

2022-12-02T14:24:00-05:00

UK real estate developer Art-Invest has announced Matthias Hollwich and the team at HWKN Architecture will be the designers for a new commercial tower at the Canada Water Dockside in London. The tower will be one of three new commercial buildings built on the 4.5-acre development, which will be master-planned by BIG.

The New York-based studio will make its UK debut by reportedly designing a 1.5 million square feet of "grade A, sustainably-certified" office workspace for up to 10,000 workers. The project includes 100,000 square feet of "affordable offices for small businesses, alongside community spaces and other amenities" located on the building's ground floor.

"Having worked with Matthias [Hollwich] and his team previously we knew his visionary and innovate approach would be well suited to Canada Water Dockside, and we’re delighted to be bringing his architecture to the UK for the first time," Luka Vukotic, the Development Director for Art-Invest, said in a statement.

Image court...

Title of world's highest outdoor pool goes to new supertall tower in Nanning, China

2022-11-10T13:08:00-05:00

Goettsch Partners has completed work on a new 1,322-foot-tall tower in Nanning, China, topped by a special feature they say sets the record for the world’s highest outdoor swimming pool.

The new Guangxi China Resources Tower is a mixed-use design that incorporates a 336-room hotel, office spaces, and retail into its over 2.93-million-square-foot supertall structure, which now stands as the 18th tallest building in China and the 37th tallest in the world.

GP CEO James Zheng called his team’s design a “symbol of rising prosperity for the city.” At 1,060 feet above grade, the swimming pool feature, located inside the 71st-floor terrace of the hotel, is higher than the iconic infinity pool located on the 57th floor of Moshe Safdie’s Marina Bay Sands, which was previously considered to be the world-record holder.

Its tapering form presents clear delineations between the lower-level office program and the hotel amenity above. The t...

Gensler’s Culver Crossings Apple campus proposal goes under the planning microscope in Culver City

2022-11-09T16:05:00-05:00

Apple, currently the world's most valuable company based on market capitalization, faces a key test in its bid to construct a new office campus in Southern California, when the project goes before the Culver City Planning Commission this week for consideration.

Gensler’s plans for the new 536,000-square-foot campus were first revealed last October and will reportedly entail office spaces, production suites, and a 1,200-spot parking structure spread across three subterranean levels beneath the 4.5-acre site at Venice and National Boulevards. The project will be constructed in two phases culminating in Q4 of 2024 and 2025, respectively. An environmental study from the city mentioned Apple’s intention to assign 2,400 employees to the site by the time the project opens in 2026.

Gensler has also previously completed designs for TikTok’s new headquarters in Culver City, the speculative C3 office development, and the transformation of the historic Culver Studios for Amazon. The firm’s late founder was considered instrumental in developing some of the initial brick-and-mortar retail strategy for Apple after meeting Steve Jobs at a design conference in the early 1990s.

Related Companies expands into Austin with a pair of new office projects from Gensler and KPF

2022-09-19T12:39:00-04:00

The ever-changing skyline of Texas’ eccentric state capital is getting another pair of new additions after Hudson Yards developer Related Companies announced plans this month for two new separate Austin office buildings designed by Gensler and KPF.

Related says both projects will be located in South Austin and are slated to be completed in 2024 and 2025 respectively. The larger 15-story One Ladybird Lake tower is designed by KPF for a 3.3-acre plot located along the waterfront at the city’s Lady Bird Lake reservoir. Its total 475,000-square-foot construction will include a mixed program of ground-level retail spaces topped by office amenities with four wraparound terraces, a bar, green spaces, and an activated rooftop area created by the local landscaping concern TBG.

One Ladybird Lake by KPF. Image courtesy Related Companies

This is to be joined by a shorter 5-story development located half a mile to the south on 901 South Co...

Office buildings are deploying the power of scents to lure workers back

2022-09-15T14:29:00-04:00

There’s been a surge of demand from real estate owners for pleasant fragrances to make the air a little fresher and the workplace a little more comforting and energizing [...] “Here in New York City, for example, real estate companies are interested in scenting the building itself, as opposed to just the individual tenant spaces [...] There are lots of vacant office spaces these days. So what can the real estate companies do to attract tenants?”

So-called "scent profiles" have been documented to improve productivity, avoid a phenomenon known as olfactory fatigue, and achieve a psychological familiarity helpful to marketers when developing brand recognition. This is one of many approaches companies are attempting to use in order to lure workers back into the city's emptying central business districts.

Marriott, the nation’s second-largest hotel chain, has for two decades incorporated scents into all 30 of its Bonvoy properties, and (despite the HR headaches caused by allergy risks) there is now a growing interest among heavyweight commercial clients like SHVO and CBRE looking to improve indoor air quality in the wake of the pandemic.

Allison Lobay, global account manager of Air Aroma, shared with the Commercial Observer: "Some scents are associated with improved productivity. In the office, citrus fragrances are used to energize...