Pricefx’s Prague Offices by CollColl Draws Inspo from Pixels

For the Prague office of Pricefx, the standard workplace cubicle just wouldn’t do. The MO of the global software company, its products helping businesses price goods and services, is predicated on flux: The number and type of clients, which range from newly hatched start-ups to long-established corporations, shifts by the day and even the hour, requiring different spatial configurations intended to stimulate creative dialogue. It wanted smart, performative flex space that acts as a physical corollary to the dynamic digital environment in which its clients work and think on-screen.

In 2016, Pricefx hired CollColl—the interdisciplinary firm, its name a portmanteau of “collaborative collective,” founded by partner Krištof Hanzlík—to design an easily adaptable workplace on a half-floor of an open-plan office building. Hanzlík and his team mixed hot desks, coworking spaces, lounges, and open areas with phone-booth enclosures, offices, and small and large meeting rooms. Two years later, the architects expanded the footprint to occupy the full 9,000-square-foot floor. Then in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when the very concept of office space was in free fall, in a leap of optimism the company re-engaged CollColl to expand to the floor below. But with COVID putting the fundamental viability of such facilities into question, the mandate for flexibility was greater than ever.

CollColl Designs Pricefx’s Prague Offices for Flexibility

CollColl is a small, avant-garde group with a portfolio of both experimental and commercial projects. The success of the two previous efforts in shaping a flexible office landscape suggested the firm’s approach to the new lower level. “We wanted to create a fluid space in which there would be some separation but without distinct rooms,” says Hanzlík, who lead the team along with partner Šimon Kos. “Pricefx throws events for 30, 40, 50 attendees, and there’s a constant flow of people.”

A stainless-steel tubular slide linking the two floors spills into the new main entry, setting a tone that signals the importance of play in a workplace intended to stimulate creative ideas. The playfulness is reinforced by the reception desk, which not only doubles as a coffee bar but, thanks to a grid of LEDs behind its translucent solid-surfacing face, also functions as an interactive billboard on which pixelated images, including the company logo, appear. Nearby, a “gym” area equipped with a billiard table and a punching bag offers actual fun and games, further encouragement for informality and interplay.

The Office Includes an Expansive, Multi-Purpose Conference Room  

Perhaps the most challenging request on the client’s wish list was for a conference table that could seat 50 people during workshops—about twice the number possible previously. Rather than designing a single-purpose room, however, CollColl used seven pairs of glass double doors to partition off one end of the roughly rectangular floor, creating a building-spanning flex space with windows at both ends. This large light-filled area easily accommodates a row of six separate desks—each seating six—that extension leaves quickly turn into a continuous 50-person table: Close the doors and, voilà, an instant conference room. Folding wall panels allow the long space to be divided in half for smaller meetings.

CollColl Takes Inspiration from Video Games

The architects repeat the blocky landscape trope on the other side of the floor, next to the 50-person conference room, where the floor-to-ceiling geometric pile offers a welcome perch during meeting breaks or to people just wandering around with their laptops. And that points to yet another of the unique structures’ multiple functions, as reassuringly fixed landmarks in the floating world that constitutes Pricefx’s mutable workspace.

Walk Through the Pricefx Offices in Prague 

collcoll: adam kössler; libor mládek; mark kelly

sysloop: lighting consultant

av24: audiovisual consultant

olbert tomáš: woodwork

bauhanz: general engineer

capexus: general contractor

alfeko: custom slide (entrance)

molteni&c: armchairs (café)

Dupont: bar solid-surfacing

studio vono: chairs, barstools

Bosch: oven

XAL: pendant fixtures (meeting room)

lintex: whiteboard

vitra: tables, chairs (meeting room, conference room, av studio)

3deco: wall finishes (meeting room, conference room)

verti: glass partitions (meeting room, conference room)

av24: av equipment (av studio)

barrisol: concealed lighting (grotto)

common seating: ottomans (conference room)

freifrau manufaktur: swing seat

Interface: hard flooring, carpet tile

farrow & ball: paint

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

Restaurant Born in Singapore Reflects The Philosophy of Its Chef

Restaurant Born, one of the starriest recent additions to Singapore’s already dazzling fine-dining firmament, is the first solo outing for chef Zor Tan, a young master of contemporary fusion cuisine that marries Chinese traditions to classic French techniques. Adding to Born’s allure is its historic location, the Jinrikisha Station, built in 1903 for the licensing and inspection of the city’s rickshaws, which numbered more than 20,000 at the time. After the iconic vehicles were banned for humanitarian reasons in 1947, the handsome, two-story brick edifice served other municipal functions until 1989 when, its envelope protected by conservation ordinances, it was sold to developers and has since housed a variety of businesses.

Zor, who grew up in a fishing village in Malaysia, chose the venue for its architecture, location, and history. “Rickshaw operators worked hard,” he says. “For someone who also started from humble beginnings, I saw the building as a platform for hard work and dreams.” Since entering the restaurant business at 17, he has made his way up to become one of the most accomplished culinary talents in the region. Having spent more than a decade working for Taiwanese super chef André Chiang, Zor is known for plates that are as appealing to the eye as to the palate. To set an appropriate stage for his venture, he hired New York-born designer Alan Barr whose firm, Greymatters, specializes in hospitality, including a string of Michelin-starred eateries throughout Asia.

Graymatters Creates a Simple Yet Complex Design for Restaurant Born 

After college, Barr worked in residential and corporate projects in his hometown until, in 1999, he had the opportunity to tackle his first restaurant, the Red Cat, a come-as-you-are Manhattan boîte popular with the city’s creative class. It whet his appetite for the F&B sector and drew the attention of a recruiter for an Asian firm that was starting a hospitality division. “I wasn’t looking for a job,” Barr says, “but I flew to Singapore and a month later was living there.” Today, Greymatters has offices there and in Bangkok.

What Zor asked of the firm was simple and complex at the same time: a warm, sophisticated space that felt like home. “He sought a neutral color palette and natural materials, as well as accents of lush green” and subtle references to China, Barr recalls. The complexity lay in capturing the chef’s nature-based circle-of-life philosophy, which informs his cooking as well as his conduct and, as Zor point out, is reflected in the name of his restaurant: “‘Born’ encapsulates feelings of happiness, excitement, and great anticipation—the emotions of waiting for the arrival of a baby,” the father of two young children explains. “You can say it represents the birth of a brand-new me, the decision to leave my mentor chef, and the momentous step to start my own venture.”

No less complicated were the physical challenges presented by the site, a 4,300-square-foot triangle located at the prow of the wedge-shape building. By the time Barr began working on the project, the station’s interior details had long since disappeared, but the structural bones remained, including a double-height, glass-roofed atrium with galleries of handsome arches running along two sides. “We wanted to embrace the vaulted architecture but also create the cozy intimacy chef Zor requested,” says Barr, who covered “ugly” upper internal windows with more decorative arches. The glazed ceiling let in too much direct sunlight, so he installed another layer of frosted glass below it, which also helps mute the often-overwhelming sound of heavy tropical rain.

Art Meets Art Deco Influences at Restaurant Born

Light-filled and airy, the peaceful space, which has the ambiance of an open, arcaded courtyard, serves as the 27-seat main dining room, with banquettes and tables tucked into its arched niches. A couple of theatrical touches enliven the pervasive calm, however. The first, floating overhead, is an enormous paper sculpture by the Dutch artist Peter Gentenaar. Inspired by a dragon—the traditional Chinese symbol of strength, good luck, and hope—the roiling form also evokes clouds, swirling leaves, or sea creatures. “For me, it suggests that all things in nature connect to one another,” Zor says of the installation’s showstopping effect, which is amplified by a smoked gray mirror hanging above it. Theatrics of another kind are offered by the open kitchen, which occupies the room’s third wall, its lower ceramic tile–clad portion acting as a giant backsplash for the chefs’ hot line. The upper wall is covered with white-lacquered panels embossed with a large-scale bas-relief inspired by Chinese art deco design. Along with its decorative function, the paneling hides exhaust ducting.

The art deco motif is echoed in reception’s fluted cast-stone desk and the custom artwork in the 10-seat private dining room. Other intimate areas include a small bar cocooned by a sculptural canopy, a six-seat lounge, and a pair of side-by-side cigar rooms that cleverly split a two-door archway between them, one half for each. All the restaurant’s quietly sumptuous furniture and fittings are Greymatter’s custom designs fabricated locally. Comfortable yet elegant, the chairs, sofas, tables, and cabinetry no less than the architecture, cuisine, and service embody chef Zor’s hope that, for his customers, Born is an acronym for “the best of right now.”

wookie park; sofia silva; ken chak: greymatters

yang ah kang and sons: custom furniture workshop

foundry k: general contractor

carlisle and co.: mural (cigar room)

florim: wall tile (main dining)

apaiser: custom desk (reception)

goodrich global: rug (private dining)

synergraphic design: custom sliding doors

caesarstone: solid surfacing

pierre frey: upholstery fabric, curtain fabric

Interface: floor tile

dulux: paint

Interface, Now a Carbon Neutral Enterprise, Achieves Major Milestone in Sustainability

Interface, a global commercial flooring enterprise and longtime leader in sustainability, now is a fully carbon neutral business, operating in a way that ensures its processes and products do right by the planet. To achieve this feat, the brand set rigorous goals to evaluate and reduce carbon emissions, purchasing verified carbon offsets to balance areas where carbon cannot yet be reduced, like business travel and employee commutes.

“Now everything we do, every aspect of our business, is carbon neutral,” said Laurel Hurd, CEO of Interface, in a statement. “We have worked tirelessly to radically decarbonize, tapping into our culture of innovation and design, resulting in what we believe are the lowest cradle-to-gate carbon footprint carpet tile products on the market, even before applying offsets.” 

To be recognized as a carbon neutral enterprise, a third-party verifier reviewed Interface’s carbon management plans, as well as emissions, against international recognized standards—PAS 2060—the leading carbon neutrality standard created by the British Standards Institution (BSI).

Goals for a Carbon Negative Future

But Interface isn’t stopping there. By 2040, the company aims to be a carbon negative enterprise, pulling more carbon out of the atmosphere than it creates—a step beyond neutralizing its carbon footprint. Already, the brand has unveiled some carbon negative products that achieve this on a smaller scale, such as the Embodied Beauty Collection, which features three cradle-to-gate carpet styles that reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

For decades, Interface has worked to create more sustainable operations, from manufacturing process to products. “We have a history of thinking about our goals and measuring gaps in a way that sets up our priorities for development,” shares Lisa King, VP and chief innovation officer at Interface. “When we looked at our carbon neutral products, we thought: We can we do the same thing for our enterprise.”

How to Become a Carbon Neutral Enterprise

In achieving its carbon neutral enterprise designation, Interface also offers a roadmap for how other companies can follow suit. Evaluating overall business operations is a start, paying attention to areas where carbon output cannot be immediately reduced, such as services for necessary operations like Internet connectivity, to begin evaluating carbon offset solutions. For Interface, verified carbon offsets are used to balance all remaining emissions of its operations.

Innovation also plays a major role. The Interface team continuously turns to science to develop new materials, always searching for ways to create more sustainable flooring, from the way products are tufted to carpet tile backings.

King also urges others to set “bold goals” and identify the steps needed to achieve them. “Bold goals allow you to stretch your thinking,” she says, stressing the importance of developing measurement systems to track progress. Soliciting sustainability input from all employees also offers opportunities to enhance collaboration and increase engagement, driving change.

The most important aspect of working toward a carbon neutral enterprise, though, is simply to start. “We did it and we know with humility and trial and error, big advances can be made,” adds King. As Interface works toward becoming carbon negative next, science-based goals will continue to guide the team on their path to bettering the planet.

Through Adaptive Reuse, Studio Alexander Fehre Turns Two Buildings into a New Facility in Germany

German corporations employ the highest number of engineers in all the European Union, which means they are constantly scouring the globe for qualified staff. So, how do they lure such specialized employees away from the competition? Perhaps by suggesting that, contrary to dour memes, the work life of an engineer in the Federal Republic is, quite possibly, fun.

“There’s a cliche of the German engineer toiling tirelessly away in a little chamber,” designer Alexander Fehre admits. Which is exactly the kind of work environment that the Studio Alexander Fehre principal and his team sought to avoid creating for Bosch Engineering GmbH, a developer of electronics systems for automotive and other applications, headquartered on a 108-acre campus in the southern German town of Abstatt.

Executives at BEG, a subsidiary of multinational technology giant Robert Bosch, asked Fehre to turn two of its buildings into a facility for special engineering projects that run for a few weeks or more. What they got was 48,000 square feet of flexible work space that combines the know-how of an established corporation with the dynamic vitality of a start-up, while infusing the whole with a spirit-lifting sense of play.

The two glass-and-steel buildings, which are about 330 feet apart, are both two stories high. One, known by its number, 204, is a new structure by WMA Architekten; the other, 301, was designed by SFP Architekten in 2004. Having previously conceived headquarters for another Bosch subsidiary, Fehre was already attuned to the conglomerate’s corporate culture and thus able to give the separate interiors a satisfying physical and psychological unity.

Splashes of yellow, shimmering metallic surfaces, warm honey-hued wood, and an abundance of car motifs feature throughout, lending the workplace an upbeat yet focused energy appealing to BEG’s high-profile clients ,such as Pagani, an Italian maker of limited-edition supercars that cost $3 million and more.

The combined facility, which brims with flexible furnishings, dozens of meeting-room iterations (in 17 enclosed spaces), and hybrid lounges (in airy, light-filled open areas on all four floors), provides satisfying transitions between a range of spaces, from studious work zones to convivial gathering spots. “The goal was an open, international feeling that points to very different projects from very different clients in Europe, America, Asia, and beyond,” Fehre explains.

The 2,600-square-foot lobby of 301, where an existing ceiling and some glass partitions were removed but the terrazzo flooring retained, now doubles as a showroom for products developed by Bosch, with a mini race car and a small helicopter among the projects on exhibit. MDF display plinths in reflective teal PVC and oak veneer are surfaces for both meet-and-greet beverages and gleaming engine parts. The dynamic zigzag geometry of the existing stair gains new prominence after its concrete stringers received a coat of glimmering blue-green lacquer. “It’s called flip-flop paint and comes from the car-tuning industry,” Fehre notes. “The color changes depending on which angle you look at it.”

Of all the enclosed meeting and work spaces, perhaps the most intriguing—and fun—is the computer lab, a 500-square-foot room with walls paneled in perforated aluminum that is backlit with LEDs. As staffers create desktop simulations of how BEG products might affect vehicle performance, they are surrounded by a dazzlingly pixelated environment that feels like being inside a supercomputer of the future. Or inside an engineer’s dream playroom of today.

studio alexander fehre: per hohberg; johanna pander; josse freund; magdalena paprotna; inna strokous

Baierl + demmelhuber: custom furniture workshop

jab anstoetz: rugs (community hub, hall)

gervasoni: chairs (hall)

heinrich schmid: paint (301 stair)

delta light: pendant fixture (yellow alcove)

westag & getalit: island laminate (kitchenette)

Haworth: chairs (computer lab)

thyssenkrupp: paneling

ecoline: leds

blå station: modular seating system, barstools

kvadrat: upholstery fabric

strähle: partition system

Dupont: solid surfacing

schöpfer: custom foil

alfred kiess: custom plinths

Interface: carpet tile

CannonDesign Transforms the Interiors of a Former Newspaper Building into Modern Tech Offices

Back in 1878, when the West was still wild and the U.S. had only 38 states, Joseph Pulitzer, a self-made Hungarian immigrant, acquired two struggling Missouri newspapers and merged them into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which has been publishing ever since. In 1959, the paper moved its newsroom and printing plant into a 1930 art deco-style building by prominent local architects Mauran, Russell and Crowell for another, now-defunct news daily. The Post-Dispatch sold the building in 2018 and now occupies smaller facilities nearby.

Today, after a $70 million overall makeover, the building houses 850 employees of Square and Cash App, two divisions of Block, Inc., the high-tech financial services and digital payments company. The staff had previously been working in three different locations, and the corporation’s primary objective was to centralize this workforce in one user-friendly space.

Now based in San Francisco, Block was founded in St. Louis in 2009 by two natives of the Gateway City: Jack Dorsey (also a co-founder of Twitter) and Jim McKelvey, a tech-head, entrepreneur, and glass artist. To create its new Missouri digs, the company hired CannonDesign, one of the nation’s largest architectural firms.

Block was clear about its remit for the 225,000-square-foot building, which comprises six stories and two basement levels: “The client was looking to create a home for its employees,” reports project director Ken Crabiel, vice president and commercial and civic market leader at Cannon’s St. Louis office. “A place where they could be connected with one another in a variety of ways.” Like a home, the plan called for a series of connected spaces, both large and small, public and private, to accommodate multiple activities.

The large spaces include three multilevel atria that connect to the more intimate areas by a series of interior staircases. Employees can choose to work at a traditional desk or on a sofa or lounge chair, and meetings can range from intimate tête-à-têtes to company-wide confabs in the vast all-hands area. The building can accommodate up to 1,200 workers, so Block has room to grow in place. (Currently, most employees are free to work from home or in the office, as they choose.)

In a project-defining move, the original newspaper printing press has been left in place—a steampunkish behemoth that stretches roughly 80 feet along the ground floor. Project designer and Cannon associate Olivia Gebben is especially enamored of the small basement-level lounge spaces tucked among the massive steel columns and beams that support the machinery above. “In these lounges, you can look up and literally touch the buttons and wheels that made the presses tick,” she enthuses.

“It’s hard to overestimate the role that press has in the collective memory of St. Louis,” Crabiel observes, noting that the machinery was clearly visible behind large street-level windows. “People used to come to watch the presses cranking out the paper. Nowadays the use of the building may be different, but you can still see activity in and around the press through those same windows, especially at night.”

The renovation also preserved a spiral staircase, much of Pulitzer’s office, and areas of decorative terrazzo flooring. Otherwise, floors throughout are the original concrete, with all their evolved patina showing. “We just refinished them with a low-grit polish,” Gebben notes. Adaptive reuse is nothing new to Cannon, which operates its St. Louis practice out of a similarly gutted and reinvented 1928 power station. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of that kind of building stock in our city,” Crabiel acknowledges. “And much of it is getting new life.”

The interior program was intentionally kept timeless, both natural and neutral. “We featured exposed concrete and natural oak against a lot of black and white,” Gebben says. “The bright blue printing press is a huge presence, so we didn’t add much color.” Most of the color, in fact, comes from numerous art installations.

“Art is in the DNA of our company,” says Jay Scheinman, Block’s global municipal affairs lead. “Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey came up with the idea of Square when Jim couldn’t complete the sale of one of his glass pieces because he didn’t have the ability to take a credit card.” In keeping with this strong connection to art, a contest was run for local artists to come up with pieces reflecting the company’s mission of economic empowerment. The 10 winning entries are now incorporated into the fabric of the building. Third Degree Glass Factory, founded by McKelvey in a reclaimed 1920’s service station, devised a striking ceiling installation—a constellation of suspended vitreous globes—for the third-to-fourth-floor atrium. “The blue color is as close a match to the press as possible,” Crabiel explains. “And the individual handblown ‘bubbles’ are meant to represent ink droplets.”

“So often in design, you look at the physical form and can see the connections between the original building and the renovation,” Crabiel continues. “But sometimes there’s an underlying philosophical connection, too.” Pulitzer believed that providing information enabled readers to make responsible choices. “Block is centered on the same principle,” the architect says, “and we wanted that notion to have a presence in the new iteration of the Post-Dispatch building.”

Cannon­Design: Ken Crabiel; Olivia Gebben, michael bonomo; nicole andreu; kevin zwick; elise novak; enge sun; melissa pirtle; stephen gantner; carmen ruiz cruz; kelsey mack; heather rosen; michelle rotherham; rita radley; brendan smith; jocelyn wildman; alex oliver; alyssa packard; barrett newell

trivers architecture: architect of record

mcclure engineering: MEP

KPFF Consulting Engineers: Structural Engineer

tarlton corp.: general contractor

Andreu World: café tables (all hands)

davis: chairs

ofs: high tables

coalesce: stools

flos: lighting system

plyboo: paneling (all hands, atrium 2)

knollstudio: chairs (game room)

gestalt: side tables (game room, lounge area 1)

kasthall: rugs (lounge areas)

Hay: sofa (lounge area 1), side chairs (terrace)

ecosense: pendant fixture (conference room)

tretford: carpet

herman miller: side chairs (con­ference room), task chairs (office area)

stylex: sofa (lounge area 2)

bernhardt: coffee table (lounge area 2), side tables (atrium 1), ottomans (atrium 2)

modloft: lounge chairs (atrium 1)

mafi: stairs, flooring (atria)

poe: storefront systems

Janus et Cie: tables (terrace)

Paola Lenti: lounge chairs

kettal: side tables, lounger

landscape forms: benches

pair: workstations (office area)

fine mod imports: lounge chairs

de padova: coffee tables

anthropologie: rug

focal point: pendant fixtures

Interface: carpet tile

woodtech: café tables (atrium 2)

Fredericia: side chairs

resident: sofa

vitra: lounge chairs

Ethnicraft: coffee table

vibia: floor lamp

growing green: planters

ppg industries: paint

Architecture Research Office Creates a Soothing Manhattan Headquarters for Mattress Maker Casper

Casper, the mattress maker that calls itself the Sleep Company, wouldn’t want to do anything jarring. “It was important to present a relaxing environment,” says Kim Yao, a principal of Architecture Research Office, which designed the company’s lower Manhattan headquarters. “Our use of curves and arches helps set the tone.” There is no showroom in the space, but as Yao’s co-principal Adam Yarinsky points out, “We’re presenting the brand through its workplace.”

Luckily ARO had already designed a product for FilzFelt called Plank, a pillowlike acoustical panel covered in felt. An oversize version of it now surrounds Casper’s reception desk. Beyond reception, ARO had to provide space for 300 or so workers—who are there on a hybrid basis—while maintaining the quality of softness associated with the brand.
There are few private offices, in part because the views from the headquarters, which occupies 37,500 square feet on the 39th and 40th floors of 3 World Trade Center by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, are as spectacular as the sunlight pouring in. With the floor-to-ceiling glass entirely exposed, everyone at Casper gets to enjoy those amenities. Away from the windows, personal workstations alternate with pods, or collaboration booths, that are about 5 feet high. “When you’re in one, you feel very sheltered,” Yao notes.

Conference rooms and telephone booths hug the building’s core. Upper and lower common areas include a café big enough for all-company meetings. The new stairway connecting them, sheathed in solid white oak planks, contains a circular felt-lined cutout for somebody to lounge in.

Casper wants its workers to be aware of how it presents products to consumers, so retail vignettes pepper the space, including one near reception. Other furniture, which ARO chose in conjunction with Casper’s in-house design team, is a mix of pieces from Muuto and Herman Miller.

“Our goal was a very direct connection to the architecture,” Yarinsky says, explaining the decision to expose the concrete floor slabs throughout and leave mechanical equipment visible overhead. Also hanging from the ceiling are boat-shape acoustical panels, covered in felt and targeted by LED uplights. The panels bring noise down to a soothing level, which is exactly what a sleep company deserves.

geiger: armchairs (lounge)

carvart: workstations (of­fice area)

vode: custom linear fixtures

softline: armchairs

Interface: carpet tile

c.r. laurence: doors (entry)

rockwood: door pulls

muuto: dining chairs, dining tables, sofas, ot­to­mans, rugs

kvadrat: sofa fabric, ottoman fabric

filzfelt: felt, acoustical panels

herman miller: high tables, task chairs, desks

Shinnoki: paneling

amerlux; flos: recessed ceiling fixtures

hdlc: lighting consultant

longman lindsey: acoustical consultant

tmt: audiovisual consul­tant

benhar office interiors: furniture sup­plier

wsp: structural engineer

ama: mep

metropolitan architec­tural woodwork: wood­work

clune construction: general contractor

GroupGSA Draws on the Local Landscape to Create a Headquarters for Microsoft Australia

Employees at Microsoft Australia’s new flagship in north Sydney are in for an adventure. Within some 100,000 square feet across seven levels of a tower at 1 Denison Street, the office designed by GroupGSA trades standard expanses of workstations and breakout areas for tributes to the country’s iconic landscapes. 

“The concept for each floor reflects Australian landmarks that imbue awe and wonder,” says lead designer Jessica Margiotta. “As people walk in, we want them to be fully immersed in the brand and in the environment. There is a pleasant surprise every time you turn a corner.” 

A monolithic, curved staircase connects floors devoted to Western Australia’s famed Wave Rock (Level 24) up to Victoria’s 12 Apostles limestone stacks on (Level 29). “The stair’s built-in LEDs can be programed to change color for themed events,” notes project manager and principal Pablo Albani. “It can also react to weather conditions, so if there’s a thunderstorm it can reflect what’s happening in the environment.”

Level 26 includes wayfinding cues inspired by the Blue Mountains, while timber floor linings and feature ceilings pay tribute to the traditional verandahs common in Australian architecture. Level 28’s parametrically-designed timber wall—“a nod to the nearby Royal National Park,” says Margiotta—organizes a variety of amenities including live streaming and gaming rooms, meditation and yoga spaces, parents and prayer rooms, and two nap suites.

“Unlike conventional workplaces where areas of work are automatically given away,” says Albani, “you have to traverse different elements, like enclosed and semi-enclosed spaces, cave-like environments, and tunnels of greenery.” Beats the average commute, any day.