Archinect - News

WeWork is cutting back as losses continue into Q3

2022-11-14T17:02:00-05:00

WeWork said Thursday that it was going to close roughly 40 “underperforming” locations in the United States and tempered its revenue forecast for the year, highlighting the challenges the co-working company still faces after its near collapse and subsequent bailout in 2019.

The company reported a pre-pandemic level matching 71% occupancy rate for Q3 but will fall short of previously projected revenue values for the year owing to “lower than expected” growth in the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Its own S9-designed Dock 72 corporate offices in Brooklyn were also reduced as a result of the financials. In an earnings call, CEO Sandeep Mathrani pointed to the “headwinds in the office sector” as a potential advantage as it looks to rebound and pay back debts to SoftBank and JPMorgan before 2025.

Amidst post-pandemic transience, architects are shaping remote communities

2021-10-13T18:02:00-04:00

As is frequently discussed on Archinect, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the already-bourgeoning trend of companies offering remote working options to employees. In our recent survey of the architectural community’s plans to return to offices after the pandemic, only 29% of respondents said that their firm had required all staff to return to in-studio working. Architects are not the only profession likely to see long-term shifts in attitudes regarding office employment. In May of this year, USA Today reported on a survey which found that 30% of working professionals would quit their job if forced to return to the office after the pandemic.

The forced experiment in remote working witnessed by millions of people over the past 18 months may also have consequences far beyond the workplace. With the common link between personal identity and workplace occupation severed during t...

Workplace innovator is looking for designers to imagine the future of offices

2021-10-04T15:09:00-04:00

Last week, we published the results of our survey of the architectural community, which focused on workplace trends and a return to offices. Key findings from the survey, which can be read in its entirety here, included the finding that just over half of respondents had either returned to in-person working or had chosen to work some of their time in the office. Of those who were working in offices that had re-opened, almost 90% said that changes had been made to their office infrastructure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The results demonstrated a continuing dependence on local health requirements, adaptions to technology, and employee preferences, adding further credence to a prevailing view that workplace trends, including what we expect from the offices of the future, will be permanently changed long after the pandemic has ended. In this respect, architects sit at an interesting crossroads. As office users, architects will be among the professions whose work environments are destin...

WeWork plans a post-Covid return, hiring more architects while shifting efforts south

2021-06-03T14:50:00-04:00

Before the Covid-19 pandemic forced most office workers to indefinitely take their work home, the New York-based WeWork had a dramatic rise and fall. With a widely-reported, botched IPO in 2019, the office space company’s ascent was emblematic of an unprecedented alliance between data, finance, real estate, and architecture. This volatile blend of ambition earned it the notorious reputation as a multibillion-dollar “unicorn” and a Hulu special documenting its “shamanic” leader, Adam Neuman. Overvalued at $47 billion, investors pulled out in 2019, and the company’s rapid decline was compounded by white-collar workers’ widespread adoption of ad-hoc home offices.

Now, as people are increasingly—though unequally—vaccinated in the US, they are venturing out again. First to restaurants and bars, though the office may be next. WeWork is trying to lure them back to their desks.

Listen to our 2018 conversation with WeWork co-founder, Miguel McKelvey: From an All-Women-Led Collective to a M...

Second Home Hollywood pitched as a pandemic-friendly work environment

2020-09-25T15:37:00-04:00

At the end of 2019, Second Home Hollywood opened its doors to the Los Angeles area as a remedy for flipping the script on co-working spaces and a community-driven work environment. Designed by the Madrid-based studio SelgasCano, its fresh take on integrating the indoor-outdoor aesthetic, mixed with lush greenery, open office spaces, and wellness driven design created a working oasis for LA creatives. However, as the pandemic quickly impacted the day-to-day office grind, the transition to working from home forced a new outlook on the future of working in an office and creative workspaces.

Read Archinect's dive into Second Home Hollywood with Eric Lawler. Photograph by Iwan Baan, courtesy of SelgasCano

As California is slowly picking up the pieces and adjusting to COVID-19 safety precautions, businesses are opening; however, office culture is still reshaping its "new normal." Carolina A. Miranda of the LA Times, investigates office spaces in a post-pandemic future. Her case study, Seco...

MVRDV completes work on neoclassical, contemporary mash-up in Poland

2020-07-17T09:00:00-04:00

MVRDV has completed construction of Concordia Design, a mixed-use building filled with co-working spaces, an event venue, a food hall, a café, and a rooftop terrace.

The project is located on Słodowa Island in Wrocław, Poland and entails the renovation and extension of a 19th-century historically protected neoclassical building. As a result, the project retains the historic façade of the existing structure while augmenting the building with a new set of spaces on one side.

According to the architects, the design is influenced by depictions of Janus, the Roman deity of transitions, time, and duality. The architects write, "The form and interior layout of the building displays a certain symmetry, with triple-height stepped voids at the entrances on each end of the building. However, within this symmetry there are clear distinctions between the “formal” end of the building, featuring the retained façade of the historic building, and the new addition."

"On the formal end, the entrance...

MVRDV's Dutch Expo 2000 Pavilion may receive a second life after all

2020-07-10T14:18:00-04:00

Anyone remember MVRDV's Dutch Pavilion at the 2000 World Expo in Hanover, Germany? With its six layers of distinct Dutch landscapes stacked into one compact tower, the highly conceptual attraction was an instant audience favorite and a seminal early project in the studio's history.

Since then, nearly two decades have passed, and while MVRDV has grown into an established design force, the neglected, fenced-off structure has fallen into severe disrepair. There may be new hope on the horizon for the former pavilion though, as the Rotterdam-based architects just revealed designs for Expo Pavilion 2.0: a major conversion into a co-working office building surrounded by new a housing and mixed-use development.

"The current project maintains this 'stacked landscape' concept, renovating the existing building and adding two stepped buildings on the perimeter of the original site," explains MVRDV's description of the planned transformation.

"The renovated pavilion will house co-workin...

Woods Bagot and NeueHouse help breathe new life into L.A.'s famed Bradbury Building

2020-02-28T20:35:00-05:00

With its stunning interiors and handsome brick facades, the Bradbury Building has remained one of Los Angeles' architectural treasures for nearly 120 years. The building was constructed in 1893 and showcases Victorian-style interiors complete with ornate cast-iron railings, polished woodwork, masonry, and a mesmerizing glass atrium. Architects Sumner Hunt and George H. Wyman are listed as the designers who helped bring the project to life. However, the building's "final architect," according to the LA Conservancy, is still up for debate. Yet, despite its intriguing historical past and the building’s immaculate detailing, what is perhaps most exciting about the complex is its potential for a revitalized future.

Standing as one of the oldest commercial buildings in the city of Los Angeles, its relatively recent fame grew in large part thanks to the building's ability to role-play as an ideal design backdrop for fictional film locations. Most famously, the building appears in the well...

Architecture Office offers a different perspective on co-working design

2019-10-02T12:00:00-04:00

With their designs for a new flagship co-working environment "ShareCuse" in Syracuse, New York, Austin, Texas-based Architecture Office aims to reimagine the concept of an office cubicle by creating a "flexible office organization that does not kill the work environment."

While more conventional co-working spaces like WeWork and Cross Campus focus on interior branding and image, Architecture Office co-principals Nicole McIntosh and Jonathan Louie instead focus on understanding workspace typologies to challenge and fine-tune the mold of cubicle design.

Image © Caylon Hackwith

Set in a historic 1928 Syracuse Building within the downtown district, McIntosh and Louie pulled inspiration from the structure's 90-year history as an office space. Rather than using traditional cubicle enclosures that tend to create a daunting uniformity and repetative atmosphere, the duo played with black mesh screens to "filter the appearance of the spaces behind." When looking at the interiors of the co-wor...

Sou Fujimoto unveils brick-and-glass tower in Brooklyn

2019-09-25T16:00:00-04:00

Sou Fujimoto Architects has unveiled a proposal for the firm's first project in the New York City. The Collective, as the 10-story residential mixed-use development is known, is set to rise in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. When completed, the project will bring 440 housing units and a collection of co-working, dining, and public plaza spaces to the area.

Image courtesy of The Collective / Artefactorylab.

The three-building complex is faced with brick modules and features square-shaped punched openings as well as a series of all-glass enclosures designed to bring daylight and views into shared and amenity spaces. The Collective will bring a mix of unit types to the site, including 2- and 3-bedroom suites and studio apartments.

The complex is set to be built over the site of the former Slave Theater, a structure that once served as a community gathering and protest space. The Slave Theater that was torn down in 2016 after a protracted ownership dispute, according to Curb...

Selgascano and Second Home prepare for their colorful Los Angeles debut

2019-06-21T12:09:00-04:00

A sea of canary yellow office pods is taking shape on a dusty lot off of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. There, Spanish architects Selgascano and global co-working platform Second Home are busy finishing out the group’s new 90,000-square-foot Hollywood outpost, a mesmerizing construction site brimming with unusual architecture.

While touring the site, Second Home co-founder Rohan Silva explains the basic premise behind the budding social-business venture: “We want to put creative people together and help them do great work.”

Interior community arts spaces will be housed within a repurposed Paul Revere Williams-designed building. Image courtesy of Second Home.

That vision guides the architectural design of the complex as well as the company’s business plan. The site, arranged in two opposing configurations, mixes old and new, formal and ecstatic, staid and colorful. At the front of the complex, for example, an existing 1960s-era Paul Revere Williams-designed building that once hous...

Women-focused co-working space The Wing makes a new home in West Hollywood

2019-04-20T11:31:00-04:00

Los Angeles is filled with members-only workspaces that are quickly becoming overcrowded and perhaps not filled with enough women. However, this past week the "women's - focused co-working and networking space" The Wing opened its first LA location. Located in West Hollywood off of Santa Monica Boulevard the 11,00 square foot location offers more than an open concept workspace.

Image by Madeline Tolle, courtesy of The Wing

Officially starting in New York, the members of The Wing have created a space where women can not only work but also thrive. Before we get to the heavily curated and designed interiors, the location offers a space for women to feel empowered, safe, and free to "create, connect, and generate opportunities." Other than the typical co-working space amenities, The Wing provides a locally sourced menu, ample work, and outdoor spaces and a pump room.

Image by Madeline Tolle, courtesy of The Wing

Image by Madeline Tolle, court...

WeWork is making moves, should other co-working spaces be worried?

2019-01-11T15:12:00-05:00

The We Company will be comprised of three main business units: WeWork, its main office business; WeLive, a fledgling residential unit; and WeGrow, a still-evolving business that currently includes an elementary school and a coding academy. Although the company could not provide specifics, it says plans are in the works to build out its residential and education units this year. Also

Early this week, WeWork's CEO Adam Neumann revealed significant changes to the infamous co-working space that took the globe by storm when it opened their first workspace in 2010. Quickly becoming one of "the fastest-growing lessee of new spaces in America," by 2014, the company seemed unstoppable. Since then, numerous other co-working/office space companies appeared on the scene. However, many alternative companies could not compete with WeWork's services as well as their overall design aesthetic.

Draw made by WeWork CEO Adam Neumann and co-founder Miguel McKelvey during a brainstorm session in 2009 Image © WeWork

Singapore Beach Centre - WeWork's 200th Location Image © WeWork

Paddington Location in London Image © WeWork

2019 will be a big year for the company turning 9. Neumann will announce at the WeWork Global Summit that the company will no longer be called WeWork, but The We Company. In a recent interview, Neumann expressed the company's transition from renting desks and office ...

PAO completes office headquarters with a running track and suspended vegetation

2018-10-23T16:09:00-04:00

People's Architecture Office has applied their unique approach to accessible and affordable design to the new office headquarters for the Leping Foundation. Known for creating modular buildings with portable, detachable parts, the Beijing-based studio has completed a flexible office design promoting social well-being for the equally impressive and socially conscious non-profit.

Photo courtesy of People’s Architecture Office, Jing Weiqi.

One of the largest funders of social entrepreneurs in China, the organization offers job training for migrant workers, supports agricultural research, is working to improve preschool education, and provides micro-financing. As for the ideal office space, the Foundation's CEO Jaff Shen says "the most important thing is to create an environment that encourages innovation in a perceptible way, where highly motivated individuals can take part in forming an environment that fosters creativity."

Ho...

WeWork may become NYC's largest office space renter with 1 World Trade Center deal

2018-09-04T13:05:00-04:00

The company is negotiating a lease in 1 World Trade Center to take over about 200,000 square feet in the building, a source close to the deal told CNNMoney. WeWork recently became the second-largest renter of office space in the borough, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report earlier this month. WeWork trails just about 74,000 square feet behind JPMorgan's New York tenancy. If the deal goes through, WeWork would surpass the bank.

According to Crain's New York Business, WeWork is close to finalizing the lease with 1 World Trade Center. The co-working space company has grown tremendously in the past 8 years it has been operating with offices now in over 20 countries around the world.

For more backstory on WeWork's success, check out our conversation with co-founder Miguel McKelvey, recorded live from New York, during this year's AIA National Convention.

From an All-Women-Led Collective to a Multi-Billion Dollar Startup; Miguel McKelvey Shares His Story

2018-06-28T18:08:00-04:00

Last Wednesday, on the eve of the AIA National Convention, I had the pleasure of talking with Miguel McKelvey, co-founder of WeWork.

The conversation was held in Midtown Manhattan, in the Project 6 by AF showroom to an invited crowd of 75 architects. The event was co-hosted by Project 6 by AF and Designer Pages, and sponsored by Graff, Julien, Geberit, Kaldewei and Wetstyle.

WeWork Paddington, London, photo courtesy of WeWork

For those of you unfamiliar, WeWork is a co-working startup currently valued at somewhere between $20B and $35B, with almost 400 locations scattered around the world in 69 cities. While WeWork wasn’t the first company to enter the coworking space, they approached it in a very different way, focusing on creating physical environments that connected with workers and business owners, while crafting a culture of super-dedicated members.

WeWork Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, photo courtesy of WeWork

WeWork Montes Urales, Mexico City, photo courtesy of WeWork

Migu...

Co-living + 'nomadism': Roam wants you to sign a lease to live around the world

2016-05-05T12:58:00-04:00

If you can afford the airfare, it's getting easier to be a digital nomad. Roam, a new network of co-living spaces, offers a lease that lets you continually move: After a couple of weeks or months in Madrid, you can head to Miami, or Ubud, Bali. By 2017, the startup plans to have 8-10 locations around the world. These aren't designed as places for vacations. Instead, it's an alternative way to think about home for "location-independent" people who can work remotely.

"Residents each have their own private bedroom and bathroom, but they also have access to a coworking space and shared communal areas. The point is to meet as many people as possible."

Their website includes copy like, "A new way of living: Sign one lease. Live around the world," and, "Show up and find community everywhere." And high-speed wifi is guaranteed!

No place like home, eh? For more on the changing landscape of domesticity today, check out some related Archinect coverage:

WeWork + Airbnb = PodShare? New live-work space emerges in Los Angeles

2016-03-29T13:06:00-04:00

PodShare's site is laden with millennial-friendly tech buzzwords, like the sharing economy, pod culture, nomadic freelancers, access not ownership, and even “Podestrians,” the company's name for guests, each of whom get profiles on its website. “We’re creating a social network with a physical address,” said Beck. “Our open-floor model offers the highest rate of collisions for social travelers. We do not identify with hostels—we are a co-living space or a live-work community.”

Related on Archinect:

Can WeWork re-engineer the spatial dynamics of society?

2016-03-17T12:57:00-04:00

WeWork’s inspirational mottoes—"Do what you love," "Thank God it’s Monday," among many others—its evangelical faithful, and gatherings like the summit all have religious echoes..."Start imagining it a bit bigger," Neumann says about WeLive, stoking his idyllic view, "an entire building. And then instead of having just one building doing it, five buildings doing it. Then you’ll be able to imagine what a WeNeighborhood or a WeStreet would be."

This in-depth profile of WeWork founder and (pro-capitalist) visionary Adam Neumann is worth the read. Whether you like to freestyle your work and life or prefer the centuries-old model of deeded quiet, WeWork (and now, WeLive) is making a previously unsustainable model profitable. Is Neumann just creating a fashionable new real estate bubble, or is he reengineering the way society operates?

To catch you up:

ARExA to renovate WeWork's first co-living project on Wall Street

2015-10-21T18:28:00-04:00

The tower, owned by Rudin Management, currently has 260,000 square feet of floorspace that counts towards zoning, and of that, 133,000 square feet will become residential, resulting in 205 new apartments. The remaining 127,000 square feet will stay commercial. [...] 110 Wall Street will be WeWork’s first foray into residential development [...] The inclusion of Class B dwelling units, which denote transient housing, likely signals living options will range from communal to private.

According to CurbedNY, ARExA will head design on the renovation of WeWork's first residential project under its co-living offshoot, WeLive. Completion date is currently slated for March 2017.

WeWork is also hiring multiple positions in New York at this very moment. Check out their listings here:

WeWork: openings for Interior Design Lead; Project Architect; Building Information Specialist

UPDATE: an earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to FXFOWLE as the designer for the renovation, referring to an earlier version of the same news posted to CurbedNY.

More on WeWork and its residential foray, WeLive:

More details emerge about WeWork's residential endeavor WeLive
WeWork moves into residential development with WeLive
Working out of the Box: Miguel McKelvey, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at WeWork

Can't find office space in San Francisco? Try the mall.

2015-06-02T18:21:00-04:00

For a fledgling startup, finding an office in San Francisco can be a real nightmare. Rents are now climbing past $60 a square foot, second only to Manhattan in the US [...]. This means young startups have to get creative if they insist on staying within the city. And Westfield, one of the world’s largest mall operators, has a solution for them: Bespoke, a 37,000-square-foot coworking and event space within its shopping center in downtown San Francisco.