HOK Designs Boston Consulting Group’s Canadian Headquarters

Long before the pandemic, Boston Consulting Group had embraced hybrid work, giving employees the freedom to come to the office—which total more than 100 across the globe—meet with clients at their workplaces, or complete certain tasks from home. Whichever made the most sense for the business at hand. That said, collaboration is at the heart of how the management consultancy, often referred to as BCG, operates: Staffers form teams to tackle knotty problems clients are facing and puzzle through the issues to arrive at solutions. And this sort of teamwork, BCG felt, is best carried out face-to-face.

Back in 2017, when the company tapped HOK for its new Canadian headquarters on three floors—46, 47, and 48—of a tower rising in Toronto’s financial district, BCG sought an office that would be dazzling enough to draw employees to the workplace, that would provide a variety of bespoke settings so that teams could be as productive as possible while on-site. All of which is to say that when the pandemic hit in 2020—sending companies around the world scrambling to, first, figure out how to work remotely during lockdowns and, then, how to lure employees back to the office after they’d become accustomed to doing their jobs from home—BCG was way ahead of the game. Sure, there were tweaks to HOK’s concept for the 100,000- square-foot BCG project because of the pandemic—designers had to make sure work- stations were 6 feet apart, for example, and they loaded up meeting rooms with video- conferencing and audiovisual equipment for staffers participating remotely—but the changes amounted to fine-tuning a good plan that was already in place. And the result is this spectacular, ultra-sophisticated space that serves as a showplace for the company and a magnet for a workforce now numbering more than 400. “On the busiest days, we’re approaching pre-pandemic attendance levels,” Nina Abdelmessih, BCG’s chief of operations and external relations in Canada, says. “Everybody is coming in.”

HOK Designs a Hybrid Office for Boston Consulting Group

The plan’s success started with carving out an atrium near the window wall on the two lower floors—one advantage of coming to the project while the building was under construction was that this could be done before the floor plates were in place. Working with the developer, HOK specified an opening measuring a generous 20 by 80 feet, envisioning it as the “heart of the organization,” Caitlin Turner, HOK director of interiors in Canada and the project lead, notes. The atrium fills with light and opens up views of the city and Lake Ontario. Rooms situated off it are sided in glass so everyone shares in the sunshine.

A beckoning staircase steps up through the atrium to the top floor. It encourages employees to walk up and down—healthier for them than taking the elevators—and results in serendipitous encounters that add to the general esprit de corps. “There’s this buzz,” Turner enthuses. As for the seating areas in the base of the atrium, in the café, she adds: “At lunchtime, it’s like a high-school cafeteria.”

But serendipity also played a part: Turner tracked down a black-stained oak credenza she spotted on Instagram for use in a touch- down room, where it joins an oversize pendant fixture by Marcel Wanders and sinuous Italian armchairs. It’s just a sampling of the international, contemporary aesthetic permeating this buzzing workplace—one that is clearly not cookie-cutter but has helped become something of a model for other BCG offices in the throes of relocation and renovation.

Behind the Design of Boston Consulting Group’s Canadian Headquarters

HOK: PAUL GOGAN; BRITTANY TOD; KRISTINA KAMENAR; CALEB SOLOMONS; SALLY SHI; FARIBA SAJADI; ROWENA AUYEUNG; BETHANY FOSS; DANIEL MEEKER

RJC ENGINEERS: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

MITCHELL PARTNERSHIP: MECHANICAL ENGINEER

MULVEY & BANANI LIGHTING: LIGHTING DESIGNER

MCM: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP

Opus Art Projects: Art Consultant

VISO: CUSTOM SCONCES (ATRIUM), CUSTOM CEILING FIXTURES (BOARDROOM)

geiger: WOOD CHAIRS (CAFÉ)

PENGELLY IRON WORKS: CUSTOM SCREENS

KEIL­HAUER: BENCH

EUREKA LIGHTING: RING PENDANT FIX­TURES

STEELACASE: BOOTHS

gervasoni: BRASS PEN­DANT FIXTURES

BILLIANI: GRAY CHAIRS

TRIBU: BROWN/WHITE CHAIRS

CEMENT TILE SHOP: FLOOR TILE

muuto: PENDANT FIXTURES (OFFICE AREA)

STUDIO OTHER: WORK­ STATIONS

knoll: CHAIRS (OFFICE AREA, LIBRARY)

SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP: CARPET TILE (OFFICE AREA, NOOK)

herman miller: CHAIRS (DIGITAL ROOM)

HALCON FUR­NITURE: TABLES

flos: CEILING FIXTURES

Interface: CARPET TILE

nienkamper: TABLES (TOUCH­DOWN, COFFEE BAR)

GALLOTTI&RADICE: CHAIRS (TOUCH­DOWN)

POIAT: CREDENZA

AREA ENVIRONMENTS: WALLCOVERING

flos: PENDANT FIXTURE

CASALA: CHAIR (NOOK)

cappellini: CHAIRS (BOARDROOM)

PRISMATIQUE: CUSTOM TABLE

CREATIVE MATTERS: CUSTOM RUG

Davis Furniture: BENCH

filzfelt: PANELING (MEETING ROOM)

Haworth: DEMOUNTABLE WALLS

Allied Maker: PENDANT FIXTURES (COFFEE BAR)

ARRMET: CHAIRS

MOSAÏQUE SURFACE: WALL TILE

STONETILE: VINYL FLOOR TILE

BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.; SHERWIN­ WILLIAMS: PAINT

Sculptural Installations Enliven LSM’s Washington Office for Paul Hastings

Located on M Street NW, halfway between Dupont Circle and the White House in Washington, the office LSM recently designed for Paul Hastings is somewhat off the beaten tourist track. But it is not unusual for passersby to press their noses against the gleaming facade, perhaps wondering if they have stumbled upon some exclusive art gallery. In one corner of the dedicated lobby, a 20-foot-long leather sofa curves in a smile as four illuminated Doric-like columns, each 12 feet tall, extend from the ceiling and hover a few inches above the honed Lasa floor. In a seemingly random pattern, each barrel glows incandescent, fades, then pulses bright again as if an impish wizard somewhere is fiddling with a sticky rheostat.

The mixed-media sculpture, a quartet of cylinders in varying heights lit by LEDs, is by Cerith Wyn Evans. Activated by a musical score of sorts, each column lights up in a carefully orchestrated syncopation. That nobody can hear the music does not matter. Originally created for an exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, the sculptures, repositioned here by Evans, animate the sleek space, providing an active art experience for both pedestrians and vehicular traffic. They also complement a crystalline sculpture by Tara Donovan in a window vitrine nearby—the connecting main lobby of the 12-story building, a ground-up structure by New York architecture firm REX.

“We realized we had this opportunity to change the streetscape, to weave this wonderful thread of beautiful art through the city so that people can experience this incredible culture as they’re just making their way down the street,” LSM founding partner and Interior Design Hall of Fame member Debra Lehman Smith says. “This is art for all”—and a generous gesture by Paul Hastings, a global law firm with 21 offices throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Approximately 200 lawyers and support staff work out of the DC office.

Smith and her team worked closely with CBRE to shape Paul Hastings’s 100,000-square-foot share of the building, which, developed by Tishman Speyer, includes not only the street-lobby exhibition space but also floors nine through 12 and two roof terraces. Visitors entering on the 11th-floor reception are greeted by another commissioned work of art, a mesmerizing 13-foot-tall sculpture by Conrad Shawcross. It comprises hundreds of azure shards of anodized aluminum that appear suspended in air as if after an explosion. It’s part of the artist’s exploration of the tetrahedron, which is “geometrically, a four-sided non-tessellating form and conceptually the symbol of an indivisible unit of matter,” he explains. “As a building block, the tetrahedron behaves as an irrational number, creating sequences that, in theory, extend into infinity without repetition.” Installing the piece was no less complicated, requiring 14 hours, a crane to hoist it over the terrace and through a sliding partition, and a crew of 12 to bolt the stainless-steel frame to the floor on an impossibly small plate.

The work’s delicacy is best appreciated as one ascends a sensuous staircase of Lasa, polished stainless steel, and glass, which curves along the far wall of the atrium to a mezzanine and the terrace. The 12th floor features a conference suite encompassing break-out space and a multipurpose room enclosed by glass walls; on one end, they slide open to connect to the interior and open accordion-style on the other to access the landscaped terrace, its views extending to the National Cathedral.

The building features what Smith calls “the most beautiful curtain wall in the world.” Manufactured using cold-bending technology, each panel of energy-efficient glass curves inward, creating a kaleidoscope effect from the outside while eliminating the need for vertical mullions. The elegance of the unique curtain wall informed many decisions about lighting, materials, and furniture. Taking a cue from the concave shape, LSM created barrel-vaulted ceilings throughout the interiors, which bring daylight deeper into the floor plates, and installed curved benches and planters on the terrace.

Crossing to a window, Smith points down to one of her favorite “bespoke touches”: a scalloped border along the perimeter of the stone floor, which mimics the curtain wall’s shape, in a gold-toned onyx reminiscent of the walls in the building’s main lobby and which LSM used to top several conference and coffee tables. “The contractors were like, ‘You’re serious? You really want to create this complicated inlaid border?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely!’” she laughs. “It was a lot of meticulous work, but it’s a nice surprise that doesn’t detract from the overall design, which is quiet, tonal, and textured.”

Returning to the street lobby, Smith is momentarily mesmerized by the Wyn Evans light show. “We spent hours and hours with corrugated cardboard cutouts to figure out exactly where each column would go,” she says. Suddenly she snaps her fingers. “Oh! We should put an interpretive sign in the window so people can understand what they’re looking at,” she says, surprised that she had not thought of it before. “That would make this gift to the city even better.”

LSM: james black mcleish; rick bilski; donnie morphy; rebecca montesi; marc pelletier; evie soileau

fisher marantz stone: lighting consultant

constructed ground landscape architecture: landscape consultant

thornton tomasetti: structural engineer

dewberry: mep

washington woodworking: woodwork

Hitt Contracting: general contractor

Fritz Hansen: benches (elevator lobby, hall), chair (meeting room)

vitra: chairs (conference room)

hanover architectural pavers: pavers (terrace)

gandia blasco: tables

Ore: planter-benches

Davis Furniture: chairs (multi­purpose room)

unifor: custom furniture, partitions

halcon: conference tables

lange production through furniture from scandinavia: lounge chairs

campolonghi: stone flooring

vorwerk flooring: carpet tile

big d metalworks: custom staircase

vode lighting: lighting

decoustics: ceilings

sherwin-williams company: paint

This Chair by Sebastian Herkner is Made to Move

German designer Sebastian Herkner ingeniously melded the mobility of a task chair with the comfort of a lounge chair. Light in scale and with an attached leather handle on the back—not to mention a glide or caster base—Tote by Davis Furniture practically begs to be moved around. Pull a pair over to the sofa for group conversation or into a corner to create a spontaneous tête-à-tête area. Although conceived for office lobbies, collaboration zones, and hangout spaces, it could work just as perfectly at home. The fully upholstered plywood frame, cushioned with multi-density foam, can be specified in any of the company’s fabrics or leathers (or custom).

Hickok Cole Creates an Eco-Sensitive Update for the American Geophysical Union’s Washington Headquarters

After nearly three decades, the mechanical systems in the American Geophysical Union’s once state-of-the-art headquarters in Washington were reaching the end of their useful life. For some people, the inevitable slide into obsolescence might trigger sledgehammer fantasies. But for the nonprofit AGU—a worldwide network of 130,000 professional experts and amateur enthusiasts in the Earth and space sciences that tracks the causes and effects of global warming—it was a moment of truth.

“Something major had to be done,” Hickok Cole senior principal and co-owner Yolanda Cole acknowledges. But rather than design a new structure from scratch, her firm was asked to modernize the 1993 Shalom Baranes Associates–designed building to meet net-zero energy goals and create a game-changing case study for the industry. “The AGU decided to walk the walk,” as Cole puts it.

Nearly 20 white papers later, client and firm had mapped out a comprehensive plan of energy reduction, reclamation, absorption, and generation for the 84,000-square-foot project, which includes two underground levels (the lowest a parking garage), five above-grade floors, and a rooftop penthouse and terrace. Two new open stairways connect and reorient different areas: One links ground and lower-level meeting and exhibit spaces; the other forms a central core between the top three floors, where workstations and an open-plan café accommodate 130 staff members. (The building’s second floor is tenant space.) Custom graphics incorporating photographs of the AGU’s main areas of research, both terrestrial and interplanetary, are printed on film applied to interior glass walls to serve identity and wayfinding functions.

“The organization was very attached to this building because of all the symbolism built into it, starting with its iconic ‘prow’ on the northeast corner,” Hickok Cole senior associate and lead project designer Guilherme Almeida says, referring to the shiplike steel-and-glass form that projected from the structure’s narrowest facade. Since this prominent exterior element only started on the second floor, however, its effect was mostly lost inside. Hickok Cole “democratized” it by opening up the corner and extending the glazing down to near street level; now every floor can experience the prow factor.

In all, the design team replaced more than 900 windows with dynamic, triple-pane, electrochromic glass, which uses sensors to measure sun levels and automatically tints to reduce glare and heat transmission. The fenestration is connected to the building’s interior lighting, so as the glass grows darker, the lights glow brighter. The windows also enable the AGU to limit its use of HVAC systems.

The site’s tight urban footprint did not allow for a geothermal plant, so Hickok Cole tapped another resource 30 feet below ground–the municipal sewers–using a technology developed in Europe to leverage the natural thermal energy flowing through the subterranean network. Screened wastewater is pumped into a heat exchanger with a separate closed-loop system that circulates clean water through coils embedded in drywall and metal ceiling panels to warm or cool the building efficiently.

The other major change is much more visible. To meet energy goals, the building required a larger photovoltaic array than would fit on the existing roof, so the eaves were extended by 4 feet all around—a strategy that neighborhood groups worried would look awkward and cast bigger shadows. Hickok Cole won them over with a dramatic silhouette that accentuates the prow, making the irregular pentagon–shape volume look more triangular.

The solar panels, which utilize every square inch of the rooftop, are supported on a steel lattice frame that allows daylight to penetrate into the penthouse, casts lovely dappled light on the terrace, and minimizes long shadows on the surrounding cityscape. “Now if you look at before shots, the building looks like it forgot its hat,” Almeida jokes.

Not everything is new. The client was adamant that, where possible, every material and fixture be recycled or repurposed, which meant that a beloved inlaid-marble compass on the lobby floor was left intact, and even exit signs were saved and reinstalled. With great care, builders salvaged and cleaned about 5,000 bricks for reuse in the facade. A local construction-aggregate company crushed up old windows, sinks, and toilets to be transformed into sparkly salt-and-pepper terrazzo flooring. Some existing furniture was reupholstered, cherry-veneer paneling was sanded down and lightened, and a polished slab of petrified wood from the AGU’s specimen collection tops the new reception desk as it had the original one.

Such measures did not always save money, but that was not the point. “For the organization, it was a mission that would add to the integrity of their purpose,” Cole explains. “Over time, if industries set up to do these things, it won’t be any more expensive than buying new.”

Perhaps the most consequential space Hickok Cole created, however, is a bare-bones command center on the lower level. It’s where engineers continually monitor the building’s energy consumption and generation, collecting thousands of data points every day in an ongoing net-zero architectural experiment that may lead to further innovations. “If nothing else, this project may convince people that all-glass buildings are not always the answer,” Almeida says. “The surprise takeaway is that you can have a class-A space in a 1990’s building.”

Hickok Cole: Emily Rickman; Johanna Lofstrom

Lee and Associates Inc: Landscape Consultant

C&G Partners: Custom Graphics

Tadjer-Cohen-Edelson Associates: Structural Engineer

Interface Engineering: Mep.

Vika: Civil Engineer

Architectural Wood: Woodwork

Hitt Contracting: General Contractor

MGAC: Construction Manager

Clipso: ceiling panels (top floor)

watson: table (conference room)

herman miller: chairs

Marmi Faedo: limestone (reception)

vibia: pendant fixtures (lounge)

bernhardt design: sofa

First Office: high table

Davis Furniture: coffee table (lounge), armchairs (lounge, pre-function area)

keilhauer: café table, chairs (lounge), ottoman (huddle room)

Emeco: barstools (lounge), side chairs (terrace)

Bison: wood pavers (terrace)

landscape forms: seating

Andreu World: table, side table (terrace), bench (huddle room)

Nedlaw Living Walls: green wall (huddle room)

Dupont: countertop (breakout hall)

carnegie: paneling

Interface; Shaw Contract: carpet

Capri Collections: cork flooring

Messana Radiant Cooling; Zehnder Rittling: ceiling panels

armstrong: ceiling tile

Shinnoki: wood-veneer paneling

Erco: track lighting

JLC-Tech: linear lighting

Safti First: interior glass wall system

Sageglass: exterior glass

Wausau: exterior curtain wall

Arconic: exterior metal panels

Sherwin-Williams: paint