Vera Wang’s Sleek HQ Redefines Fashion With Minimalist Elegance

While other septuagenarians who have had long, successful careers are packing it in, Vera Wang, 75, is making a fresh start. The fashion designer recently sold her namesake company to brand management firm WHP Global in an arrangement that allows her to continue as chief creative officer while being a shareholder in her label as well as in the larger company. Additionally, she and her team have relocated to a polished New York headquarters from which she can oversee the company she founded 35 years ago. What began as bridal wear has grown into a lifestyle brand with licenses for jewelry, home goods, and more, along with designing annual ready-to-wear lines as well as red-carpet looks for the likes of Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. “It’s a new chapter,” Wang begins. 

Her previous office was on 26th Street, but changes planned for the building she was renting in prompted her to look elsewhere. It was time to move anyway. Her business had evolved from one devoted to producing clothes to one focused on licensing, so she no longer needed thousands of square feet for functions like shipping and receiving. What she needed, instead, was a flexible workplace where she could shoot content to support licensees with a voracious appetite for Instagram posts. An avowed minimalist, Wang was also ready to graduate from a space that was so stripped down as to be “severe” to “something more glamorous,” she continues. Interestingly, to help bring this evolution to fruition, Wang turned to BMA Architects, a firm more defined by luxury residential than workplace. 

Inside Vera Wang’s Luxe Manhattan HQ

The real estate search led Wang to a building that had its own whiff of glamour: the Mad Men–era Pepsi-Cola Building, an aluminum-and-glass landmark on 59th Street completed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1960. She took 17,000 square feet on the fifth and seventh floors, the former devoted to workplace, the latter for bridal sales, alterations, and VIP fittings. For Wang, a native New Yorker whose first bridal salon was in the Carlyle hotel, moving back uptown was “a full-circle moment,” she notes.

Concepting the interiors was a journey as well. Creating a new workplace “was as personal as building a home,” Wang recalls, so it was perhaps not surprising that she found herself drawn to photos of modernist houses—and their proportion, mix of materials, and warmth—by BMA founder Blaze Makoid. Even though he’d only designed a handful of commercial offices, she arranged to meet him, and they hit it off. Makoid immediately got Wang’s spare, black-and-white aesthetic. They talked about rooting the project in the four elements of Chinese philosophy: water, wood, steel, and fire (Wang’s parents had immigrated from China in the 1940’s). It also helped that a staff member pulled Makoid aside and gave him a tip: “Vera hates anything round.” 

A Black-And-White Palette For Vera Wang

That’s clear the moment visitors enter reception today and encounter a rectilinear jet black–stone fountain, its water generating a soft hush that makes the street traffic fade away. The design of the feature came easily to Makoid, who has done countless infinity pools for his residential clients, but there were plumbing challenges: “We knew the detailing required to make the water flow over the edge in a way that almost had no movement,” Makoid explains. “But what was complicated was to determine how to get the water there and out.” Behind the fountain is a video wall composed of dozens of screens: On a normal workday, the Vera Wang logo is lit up in a sea of black, but, during an event, the wall can project mood-setting imagery. A luminous desk of backlit Cristallo quartzite and frost-white large-format porcelain floor tile yield a sort of chiaroscuro effect to the entry space.

The center of the workplace is the design and photo studio, where there is a video wall even larger than the one in reception. Composed of more than 125 screens attached to 10 subframes, it can be programmed to function as a digital version of the mood boards designers have made for decades by pinning polaroids to bulletin boards, or project all the items in a collection, or provide a backdrop for a photo shoot. “That space was probably more important to Vera than her actual office,” Makoid says. 

It’s All About Fashion At This Minimalist Office

But her corner office is no slouch either, encompassing the clean-lined profiles and contrasting-color theme found throughout the project. A crisp white sofa by Vincent Van Duysen, a low coffee table in black-tinted glass, and ecru woven-leather chairs by Gordon Guillaumier that Wang had in her Los Angeles home all stand on ebony nylon broadloom. “The furniture kept getting boiled down to the most minimal geometric,” Makoid says with a laugh. Elsewhere, sleek task seating by Burkhard Vogtherr and Antonio Citterio in the studio and open office area are on castors for flexibility; chairs in the waiting area off reception “appear almost like stick drawings of furniture,” Makoid adds. 

They reappear in the café, its intimate size and sculptural backlit bar—“I’ve never built a bar in an office before,” Wang marvels—emitting both residential and hospitality notes. It’s also geared toward flexibility and multifunction: able to host a cocktail party, a one-on-one meeting, or just an employee wanting to take a pause. Instead of doors, the café is fitted with tall pivoting panels in black-stained white oak that can open “the whole reception area into one big show space for an event,” Makoid says.

The panels were too large to fit in the freight elevator and had to be carried up five flights. But the effort has paid off. The office “aesthetically speaks to what Vera values,” Makoid says. Wang concurs: “It reflects the mood we’re trying to iterate with the brand,” she concludes. “I feel an energy we didn’t have before,” sounding ready for years more of creative effort herself.

Vera Wang’s Office Makes A Bold Statement

An Office With A Style That Turns Heads

BMA ARCHITECTS: MATTHEW LABRAKE; CHARLOTTE KALARIS; ELIRA CONDE. SPECTORGROUP: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. ALLERTONFOX CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT MOLTENI&C: SOFA (WANG OFFICE). ACERBIS: TABLE. CAPPELLINI: CHAIRS (RECEPTION, CAFÉ). PEDRALI: TABLE (RECEPTION). DAVIS FURNITURE: CHAIRS (PHOTO STUDIO). HERMAN MILLER: TABLES. VITRA: CHAIRS (EXECUTIVE OFFICE, OPEN OFFICE). ROOM & BOARD: STOOLS (CAFÉ). ANDREU WORLD: TABLES. INNOVANT: WORKSTATIONS (OPEN OFFICE). THROUGHOUT COMMODITILE: FLOOR TILE. PATCRAFT: CARPET. BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT.

Modern Flair Meets Art Deco In This New York Office

2024 Best of Year Winner for Small Financial Office

For new digs at 45 Rockefeller Plaza, Confidential investment firm sought a workplace that would balance gravitas with employee comfort. In response, Gensler strategically excised portions of a floor slab to create grand double-height spaces. The intervention also accommodates a glass-box mezzanine library carpeted in plush rust-colored silk-wool broadloom. On the floor below is the reception lounge, where a Nakashima Edition rug pairs with nesting Guilherme Torres tables and Minotti sofas, a setting that’s residential in feel. Throughout, metal accents such as Stickbulb’s nickel chandeliers in the 20-foot boardroom honor the landmarked 1933 New York building’s art deco heritage. Elsewhere, pockets of greenery provide the benefits of biophilia.

PROJECT TEAM: LAURENT LISIMACHIO; JULIETTE POUSSOT; JOE HYNN YANG; ALESSANDRA SHORTEN; NAOMI NOTTINGHAM; FANCH TSENG; ASKLY CHIRAYIL; KATHRYN MORSE; AUDREY STROM; TYLER DENNISON.

Discover This Shanghai Office Enlivened By The Color Red

2024 Best of Year Winner for Large Financial Office

A massive, twist of spray-painted, 3-D printed acrylic weaves through the seven-story, 102,300-square-foot workplace for ChangJiang Securities Company in Shanghai, which was designed by M Moser Associates. It begins on the lowest level, where an atrium contains reception, and rises, entwined with a staircase that connects the upper floors. The ribbon continues even when the staircase is interrupted by the building’s structure; it simply takes a slenderer form and pirouettes in the middle of a circular seating area before traversing the slab and continuing upward, along a second staircase, to an atrium on the highest level. The installation’s color—vibrant red, which signifies happiness, prosperity, and celebration in Chinese culture—also appears elsewhere. The same hue enlivens an honor display wall where ChangJiang can show off industry awards, the seating and carpet in the aforementioned circular lounge, and even the lone desk chair appointing a meeting room equipped with modular furniture.

PROJECT TEAM: JOSEPH WANG; CAI JIA; JESSIE ZHENG; MICHAEL HSIAO; KEN ZENG; JOEY YU; CORA DENG; HELLEN GAO; ZOE WEI; KEVIN CHEN; LEO LEI.

12 Cutting-Edge Corporate Hubs Redefining The Workplace

From a New York office inspired by barbershops to a Seattle headquarters with cocoon-like nooks, explore these corporate spaces designed by Interior Design‘s 2025 Top 100 and Rising Giants firms.

Be Inspired By These Next-Level Corporate Workspaces

IMC Trading by Perkins&Will

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The three-phase expansion of the Dutch-owned multinational trading firm’s North American headquarters added 1 ½ floors, doubling its size to 150,000 square feet. The newly enlarged Chicago office now spans three stories in the city’s tallest building, connected by a series of open stairs that create a dynamic central hub. At the heart of the layout, Perkins&Will inserted a bustling zone with a café, two barista areas, a catering space, and an adjacent gaming room—spaces that foster spontaneous interactions and create a social core for the more than 700 employees to gather, relax, and connect. These amenities are more than just pleasant perks; they offer an ideal venue for staff meetings and philanthropic events, promoting a sense of community within IMC. Company branding is thoughtfully integrated throughout, highlighting its history, core business, and market capabilities while unfolding a cohesive narrative that emphasizes its identity and energized presence. Offering a purpose-driven environment that sets a benchmark in corporate workplace conceptualization, this project was an Interior Design Best of Year Awards honoree. —Peter Webster

Ad-tech Office by Vocon

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In the Gilded Age, furriers, milliners, and dressmakers occupied a stretch of Flatiron District blocks known as the Ladies’ Mile, showcasing wares to well-heeled shoppers through ornate window displays in cast-iron storefronts. One such landmarked 1899 building now houses an ad-tech firm’s five-story office. The 147,000-square-foot vertical campus is LEED Gold–certified and, according to Vocon design director Lauren Dennison, “inspired by the rhythm of the city grid and the warmth of New York’s diverse communities.”

A pixel-effect wall of white-oak blocks greets employees and visitors in reception, where flooring is polished concrete inlaid with meandering sections of carpet tile. Nearby is the “pocket park,” a seating nook beneath a garden by John Mini Distinctive Landscapes that cascades from an LED fixture resembling a sunlit oculus. On the top floor, a flex space with plush but streamlined seating is backdropped by a wall of deco-esque patterns created by accenting curved oak panels populated by RBW’s Dimple sconces. Throughout, environmental graphics by Archigrafika celebrate New York ephemera, like the iconic plastic deli bag, nodding to the site’s retail past. —Lisa Di Venuta

BMO Centre by Populous and Stantec

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With an occupancy of 33,000 visitors, this three-level convention center in Stampede Park is now the largest in Western Canada. The massive expansion project was a collaboration between Populous, Stantec, and design consultant S2 Architecture. Built in 1982, the Calgary, Canada, complex previously underwent enlargements in 2009 and 2020; this latest increase of 565,000 square feet brings the total to more than 1 million. The update included additional exhibition space, 38 more meeting rooms, two divisible ballrooms, a grand stair, and a skylit common area—called the Exchange—warmed by a triple-height faceted-metal fireplace (the largest in the country). The design teams effortlessly referenced the rugged surrounding foothills as well as the local culture. A curved, copper-colored composite-metal canopy embedded with thousands of programmable LEDs soars over the public plaza to draw visitors inside, where the handmade timber ceiling was inspired by patterned Indigenous blankets and gridded glazing creates the effect of sunlight streaming through the boards of a barn. —Stephen Treffinger

Julius Baer by HLW

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The Zurich-based wealth-management group’s 30,000-square-foot London outpost occupies all seven stories of an updated 1960’s office building on a historic cobbled courtyard. Complementing the architectural envelope’s industrial materials—concrete, cinder block, brick, clay tile—the interior build-out by HLW is luxurious yet precise and efficient, reflecting the company’s Swiss identity. There’s an emphasis on hospitality, with a client-facing suite of spaces spanning the first two levels, connected by a custom steel-and-wood spiral stair. The flexible layout supports seamless transitions between formal meetings and hosted events, with integrated AV systems for presentations, while a Baer-branded electric racing car serves as a striking installation. The floors above provide a mix of indi­vidual and collaborative working areas with social spaces at their core. The timber-paneled top level takes advantage of the high ceiling and natural light, incorporating a mezzanine with a staff café above and an adaptable games room and terrace below. —Peter Webster

Whoop by Studios Architecture

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The wearable fit-tech company’s Boston HQ champions its hometown and athleticism in equal measure. To start, the 120,000-square-foot office occupies 4 ½ floors of a new building boasting panoramic views of Fenway Park—playground of the Boston Red Sox. The Studios Architecture team was tasked with creating a high-performance scheme that accommodates numerous functions: In addition to producing its signature wrist device, which monitors activities ranging from heart-pumping cardio to sleep and meditation, Whoop also manufactures compatible apparel and runs a sizeable R&D department.

Formulated to encourage casual interactions, an interconnecting stair with treads of ash, a wood often used for baseball bats, and a mesh guardrail inspired by batting cages is a centerpiece of the office proper, where workstations hug window walls and coworking booths are upholstered in leather mimicking the texture of baseball gloves. More enigmatic is the dark, tunnel-like flight of black-steel stairs that lead from floor six, housing reception, down to the top-secret hardware lab on five, where prototyping occurs. Another hardworking space is the technology testing lab on floor two (which doubles as a staff gym after hours), where recessed ceiling lights that spell out “always on”—a brand tagline—are visible from the plaza below. Throughout, buzzy black-and-white graphics by branding studio Aruliden add another layer: high contrast, high energy. —Edie Cohen

The Mill by CannonDesign

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This rejuvenated historic complex forges a new workplace paradigm by combining legacy elements with high-impact contemporary design. The site, along the Atlanta Beltline trail, was originally two separate but contiguous buildings: the DuPre Excelsior Mill, constructed in 1890, and a warehouse. The pair was converted into an entertainment venue in the 1970’s and later combined into one interconnected structure, the original dividing line still visible in the rustic stone walls. Today, The Mill serves as an office for a tech company, its industrial architecture an artful foil for modern details masterminded by CannonDesign in partnership with Magdalena Keck Interiors.

Various features throughout the 30,000-square-foot project draw inspiration from plantings and murals seen along the Beltline. Spaces such as the Playground solarium (a sort of hangout meets sculpture garden) and a chic flex lounge provide opportunities for gathering and collaboration. The open office, meanwhile, features clean lines and a communal library table anchoring a double-height volume—actually a cutaway providing an overlook from the floor above, a multifunctional zone flaunting the mill’s original 19th-century pulley system. —Stephen Treffinger

Fulwell Entertainment by Spectorgroup

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Pro baller LeBron James is known as one of the most influential athletes of his time. He’s also cofounder of The SpringHill Company, a media and production outfit that recently merged with the U.K.’s Fulwell 73 Productions to become Fulwell Entertainment. Inspired by the company’s many creative streams—spanning film, TV, and brand strategy—the design of its New York office by Spectorgroup captures the essence of switching TV channels. The 20,000-square-foot workplace unfolds as a story across different rooms, with each area embodying a different brand. On one side of the elevator lobby, with its glossy black ceiling, lies the Shop, a room that nods to the NBA superstar’s talk show, which pays tribute to community-centered barbershop culture. Its whitewashed-brick walls, fluted glass doors, and authentic barber chairs offer a place for employees to host calls (or fit-check in one of the mirrors). The New York office proper, meanwhile, traces the building perimeter, enjoying a continuous curtain wall overlooking the Hudson River that provides daylight and views to all. At the heart of the project is the Apollo, which serves as both a screening room and a town hall–style gathering spot. This space cleverly pairs rich wood finishes with rubber flooring: an homage to both Old Hollywood glamour and sports culture. —Georgina McWhirter

Financial office by Blitz

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The SoCal building a venture-capital firm selected for adaptive reuse as its new headquarters offered some obvious perks—and some clear challenges. But in the hands of Blitz, hired to oversee the 30,000-square-foot redesign, those obstacles became advantages, too. Completed in 1912, the now-landmarked structure in Santa Monica, California, had cachet; it also had narrow U-shape floor plates and low ceilings. Blitz opened things up, instating a vertical volume at the entrance, shaped to riff on the client’s logo. Original beams and brick walls were left partially exposed for character and to create a space-expanding sense of visual depth. The designers also relocated core utilities and carved out open “wings,” with views of historic balconies, that host work and collaboration spaces, a podcast studio, pitch room, and kitchen. Topping it all off was a roof deck boasting Pacific Ocean views and a protected but unusable greenhouse; it’s now the office’s penthouse bar. If you must play by the rules, you might as well play a little, too. —Jesse Dorris

Fenwick by Huntsman Architectural Group

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Having already created three offices for the global law firm, Huntsman Architectural Group was tapped to envision a fourth, a 32,000-square-foot Pacific Northwest headquarters occupying a floor in Rainier Tower. Coffee bars allude to Seattle’s beverage of choice. Cocoonlike nooks beckon for quiet work. Conference rooms are tech-heavy to abet physical and virtual participation. Wellness rooms dedicated to nursing mothers or therapy sessions support inclusion. Work itself, for a staff of nearly 100, relies upon hybrid scheduling: Lawyers frequenting the office have dedicated spaces, while remote staff and visitors get unassigned workstations or offices.

Reflecting the Emerald City’s Puget Sound location is a water/wave theme, evident in the palette, linear rope LEDs, and the elevator lobby’s shapely ceiling baffles that extend into reception to form a wall accented by greenery. Art also ties to the locale and forges a strong sense of place. The monumental focal bronze, for example, is by Gerard Tsutakawa, raised in the Pacific Northwest, where his work graces a multitude of public and private venues. Similarly, David Franklin, creator of the steel piece in the elevator lobby, is an area denizen. As for that recurrent cobalt blue? Not necessarily an antidote to typically gray skies, but definitely Fenwick’s brand color. —Edie Cohen

BRP by Ædifica

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In 1937, in the rural Québec town of Valcourt, Joseph-Armand Bombardier was granted a novel patent: the first vehicle capable of traveling on snow. He soon parlayed that invention into a business, L’Auto-Neige Bombardier Limitée, today named BRP, a Canadian manufacturer of snowmobiles, ATVs, and the like. It was the company founder’s outdoorsy spirit—and the same active, adventure-seeking lifestyle enjoyed by its current-day staffers—that sparked Montreal firm Ædifica’s 33,000-square-foot office for the brand, located in a building sited between two of its factories. The angular plan centers around a circular breakout zone the designers term the agora, a gathering point surrounded by greenery. Here, plants trail from ceiling-hung shelves and over the backs of banquette seating-in-the-round, mimicking wild undergrowth, and contrast with the surrounding architectural canvas of black and white, concrete and timber. Glass-enclosed rooms skim the periphery of circulation areas, a buffer between collaborative zones at the core and individual workstations near the windows. Nearby, deep green–painted booths are backdropped by a mural wallcovering depicting a misty, mountainous forest—the same sort of terrain BRP’s snowmobiles traverse daily. —Georgina McWhirter

Optiver by Gary Lee Partners

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Occupying 110,000 square feet of One Prudential Plaza, a 41-story tower built in 1955, the global market–making firm’s U.S. headquarters operates 24/7, supporting constant real-time collaboration with offices and teams worldwide. Retrofitting the Chicago high-rise with dedicated backup generators and implementing rigorous, yet seemingly transparent, security protocols were critical to creating the “always open” facility, which accommodates nearly 600 employees. Round-the-clock work schedules mean lighting programs based on circadian rhythm–friendly sequences are crucial in promoting staff health and well-being. Quality of life is further enhanced by bright, open spaces featuring comfortable café and lounge amenities just steps from the trading floor, reflecting Optiver’s hardworking yet casual culture. A grand atrium—a bleacherlike central stair at one end, a double-height media wall at the other—not only connects the two floors but also serves as a community space for interoffice town hall events. It’s no surprise that the project by Gary Lee Partners was an Interior Design Best of Year honoree. —Peter Webster

Benchling by Revel Architecture & Design

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This scheme for the San Francisco biotech company’s 105,000-square-foot headquarters speaks volumes without saying a word. “Revel didn’t rely on oversize graphics or catchphrases to convey our brand,” marvels Benchling’s head of workplace and real estate, TJ Cornell. Instead, the design team established a strong sense of identify through subtler means. Take the abstracted riffs on the company mascot, Jeffrey the Jellyfish: the break room’s tentacle-esque rope lighting and reception’s seascape installation by local artist Claudia Bueno, its molded-mesh forms appearing to contract and expand in the glow of ocean-blue light.

Such details—impactful but nonstructural—helped accommodate the tight project timeframe and circumvent the need to go through permitting. So did Revel’s efforts to reuse as much of the existing infrastructure as possible, including converting private offices into huddle rooms, now outfitted with midcentury modern furnishings. Primary interventions entailed new finishes and instating a series of welcoming arched elements throughout, from doorways and niches to mirrors. Pulsing with energy, the redesign fosters connection among nearly 500 hybrid workers, who, according to Cornell, “have embraced the space with pride.” —Lisa Di Venuta

Inside Julie Hillman Design’s Refreshed Madison Avenue Office

2024 Best of Year Winner for Firm’s Own Office

Rather than relocate from the Madison Avenue address it has inhabited for 12 years, Julie Hillman Design opted for renovation and reconfiguration to accommodate growth. Prioritizing enhanced functionality, light, and flow, the 2,500-square-foot space was opened up by razing the wall separating an accounting office and the sample room, creating a front-to-back railroad effect. At rear is the design studio, daylit by windows on three sides, with additional illumination coming from a giant Isamu Noguchi lantern; it’s installed above timber work tables and Jean Prouvé chairs. The sample room, now at center, doubles as conference and breakout space. Reception was reinvented as a sitting room with Verner Panton chairs, a cowhide rug, and a vintage sofa. For her own office, Hillman installed a 1950’s glass-and-brass Georges Addor desk she’d long coveted, along with Swedish monk chairs. Equally as curated as the furnishings is pervasive art—French, Italian, American—in various mediums. It’s no accident the New York atelier resembles the firm’s tony residential projects.

PROJECT TEAM: JULIE HILLMAN.

HOK Crafts A Breathtaking Nature-Inspired Headquarters In Ontario

Eighty years ago, Albert Savage, a cofounder of Co-operators—a Canadian insurance and financial-services cooperative—described the endeavor as “an acorn that will grow into one of the greatest oak trees of the cooperative movement.” This idea stuck with the HOK team responsible for the interiors at the company’s new headquarters, a state-of-the-art facility in Guelph, Ontario, which brings together all its operations and over 1,200 employees under one roof. The quote influenced many of the visual cues and material selections for the project, which aimed to reflect the principles of the cooperative movement in the workspaces. The words are even inscribed on a prominent wall as a literal reminder.

“Co-operators’s values, culture, and mission are different from those of traditional organizations, and that really inspired us,” says Caitlin Turner, senior principal and director of design, interiors, at the Toronto studio of HOK, which, with its 26 offices across three continents and expertise in workplace and sustainability, ranks sixth among the Interior Design Top 100 Giants, up from seven last year. HOK has been carbon neutral since 2022, a distinction it shares with Co-operators, which achieved that status in 2020 and saw this move as an opportunity to embrace even more ambitious environmental goals. By pursuing zero-carbon, WELL Platinum, and LEED Gold certifications, the headquarters would become “the first of its kind in Canada,” says Shawn Fitzgerald, vice president of real estate and workplace at Co-operators. “The vision was to be a catalyst for sustainable construction and design.”

HOK Infuses Nature Into Co-Operators’s HQ

Set within a campus of meadow gardens, walking trails, and outdoor exercise stations, the three-story, 225,000-square-foot building features an atrium  around which the spaces are organized—many embodying the “acorn-to-oak” metaphor. On the ground floor, curved, walnut-paneled walls physically represent the tree’s roots. Nearby, a hallway displays a series of framed historical advertisements as a timeline symbolizing the company’s organic growth. And on the top floor, the ceiling of a collaborative area, clad in rippling stainless-steel panels and dotted with circular recessed downlights, recreates the dappled effect of a leafy canopy.

A key client directive was to celebrate Co-operators’s six decades in the city of Guelph, which is located in south­western Ontario. “We really wanted to maintain our presence within this community that we absolutely love and ensure that we continue this long history,” Fitzgerald notes. Thus, the context informs several elements, such as a pitched steel-and-wood frame—modeled after one of Canada’s oldest surviving covered bridges—that shelters a focused-work area beneath a skylight on the third floor, as well as a vibrant custom rug in the lobby, its swirling multicolor pattern based on an aerial topographic view of the city.

Vibrant Patterns Help Create An Engaging Workplace

Several pieces of lore from the company’s past were also translated into visual form. For instance, felt panels emblazoned with tractor-tire tracks across some meeting-room walls nod to the founding meeting with farmers, while recurring imagery of apples and wheat serves as a reminder that co-op members once used those crops as payment. “These are moments in the rich history of the cooperative movement, which is really about supporting the people who are part of the organization,” Turner observes. Co-operators’s distinctive chevron logo, applied throughout as a wayfinding tool, reaches its apotheosis in the library, where it is replicated using 3,000 plants in a green wall measuring more than 34 feet wide and 17 tall.

As a social and cultural hub for the company, the layout of the headquarters encourages what Turner describes as “serendipitous collisions” between employees from different departments. On the ground floor, the coffee shop features soft banquette seating and an adjacent nook with a suspended fireplace, creating a cozy setting for conversations over lattes. In the balcony library immediately above, long custom walnut tables—lit by the atrium skylight during the day and by integrated desk lamps at night—serve as magnets for collaborative work. Connecting the library to the top level, a cantilevered steel staircase with warm wood treads provides another site for chance encounters while also serving as a striking sculptural focal point in the atrium. “It’s a path of travel,” Turner continues, “but also a beacon of place where people come to congregate and socialize.” 

Lush Greenery Sparks Collaboration in This Dynamic Office

Employee health and wellness, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, was another primary driver. Circulation through the building is intentionally conceived to promote activity, ensuring that, along with the outdoor trails and an on-site gym, staffers can easily meet their daily exercise goals. Workspaces designed for neurodiverse individuals feature specially tailored flexible lighting, quiet areas, muted colors, and sensory-friendly textures—just some of the many accessibility and inclusion elements that go beyond standard code requirements.

Co-operators aims to achieve full net-zero status by 2040, and this building represents a significant milestone on that path. It prioritizes environmental targets by specifying Canadian-made, low-carbon materials, intelligent LED lighting, automatic-tinting windows, and furniture made of sustainable materials. Any successful headquarters reflects the company it houses in multiple ways—showcasing its past achievements, present values and culture, and future vision to both employees and visitors. This one fondly looks back and boldly dreams forward, as the growth of the Co-operators “oak tree” continues, benefitting both people and planet. 

See How This Office By HOK Embraces Sustainability

Explore An Office With A Focus On Health + Wellness

HOK: KRISTINA KAMENAR; HAYLEY LAVIGNE; PIA GREEN; KIMIA MOSTAFAEI; CRYSTAL VONG. NEO ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. SHOUFANY CUSTOM WOODWORKING: MILLWORK. HH ANGUS & ASSOCIATES: LIGHTING CONSULTANT; MEP. DORLAN ENGINEERING: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. COOPER CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT JUNIPER DESIGN GROUP: DESK LAMPS (LIBRARY), PICTURE LIGHTS (GALLERY). SVEND NIELSEN: CUSTOM TABLES (LIBRARY), CUSTOM SHELVING (CAFETERIA), CUSTOM PERGOLA (BRIDGE). HAY: SECTIONALS (LIBRARY), SIDE CHAIRS (ATRIUM), SOFA (OPEN OFFICE). HERMAN MILLER: SIDE CHAIRS, LOUNGE CHAIRS (LIBRARY), TABLES, CIRCULAR SOFAS (ATRIUM), LOUNGE CHAIR (LOUNGE), SIDE TABLE (OPEN OFFICE), MODULAR SEATING (BRIDGE), BARSTOOLS, TABLE LAMPS (CANOPY). MUUTO: SIDE TABLES (LIBRARY), COFFEE TABLES (LOUNGE, OPEN OFFICE). CREATIVE MATTERS: CUSTOM RUG (RECEPTION). ELLISON STUDIOS: COFFEE TABLES. KEILHAUER: SOFAS (RECEPTION), BENCH (FITNESS CENTER). GLOBAL FURNITURE GROUP: BANQUETTE (COFFEE SHOP). PUNT MOBLES: WOOD CHAIRS. ARMSTRONG: WOOD CEILING. JUNO: TRACK LIGHTING. TEKNION: TABLE (COFFEE SHOP), MODULAR FRAMEWORK (OPEN OFFICE), GLASS PARTITIONING (CANOPY). MAXXIT: PANELING (COFFEE SHOP), CEILING PANELS (CANOPY). CF + D: FIREPLACE (FIRE NOOK). GUS MODERN: SIDE TABLE. RH CONTRACT: PICTURE LIGHTS. RUGGABLE: RUGS (FIRE NOOK, LOUNGE). GEIGER: WINGBACK CHAIR (FIRE NOOK), CANE CHAIRS (ATRIUM), LOUNGE CHAIRS (BRIDGE). MOMENTUM TEXTILES & WALLCOVERING: ACOUSTIC FELT (ATRIUM). KIMBALL INTERNATIONAL: BANQUETTE (ATRIUM), BOOTH SEATING (CAFETERIA). KOROSEAL: WOOD-VENEER WALLCOVERING (GALLERY, LOUNGE). STUFF BY ANDREW NEYER: SCONCES (CAFETERIA). DECO TILE: TERRAZZO FLOORING. AREA ENVIRONMENTS: BOOTH WALLCOVERING. STUDIO TK: LOUNGE CHAIRS, SIDE TABLES (CAFETERIA), SOFAS (LOUNGE), BARSTOOLS (OPEN OFFICE). SPEC FURN­ITURE: BOOTH TABLES (CAFETERIA), COUNTER TABLES (CANOPY). PABLO DESIGN: PENDANT FIXTURE (LOUNGE). EUROPTIMUM: CUSTOM LOGO (LOUNGE), CUSTOM SIGNAGE (FITNESS CENTER), CUSTOM WALL­COVERING (CAFETERIA). HOLLIS+MORRIS: LINEAR PENDANT FIXTURES (ATRIUM). LOLL DESIGNS: ROCKING CHAIRS (OPEN OFFICE). NANIMARQUINA: RUG. BUZZISPACE: LARGE PENDANT FIXTURES (BRIDGE). THROUGHOUT NYDREE FLOORING: WOOD FLOORING. SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY: PAINT.

Mancini Duffy Elevates Waterfront Workspaces At Hudson Collaborative

Jersey City’s spectacular view of Manhattan is a nice perk for employees in its waterfront office buildings. Yet on the 13,450-square-foot amenity floor at 3 Second Street—smack on the Hudson River—Mancini Duffy had to balance the scenery with a need for privacy for the Hudson Collaborative. The firm aimed to preserve natural light and a sense of openness while delineating separate spaces like a lounge, conference center, office suites, and a grab-and-go food shop. The team conceived a dark blue and gray palette that contrasts with the bright exterior, drawing attention to the vistas. Semitransparent partitions include an operable oak-slat wall, open-sided bookshelves, and seating niches carved into public corridors. “The space feels both expansive and intimate,” Mancini Duffy senior associate and project lead Anthony Deen says. Tenants can use it for coworking, meetings, or large events. Such hospitality-inspired details as a woven-metal chandelier, sculptural ceiling baffles, and custom millwork in rift white oak contribute to a cohesive aesthetic throughout.

Rapt Studio Crafts A Bold Modernist Office With Artistic Flair

Many architects and designers involve first-time clients in projects to educate them about the process and other basics. But when multidisciplinary practice Rapt Studio was hired by Macquarie Group—a global financial services firm with substantial investments in real estate development—to renovate its new office in a landmarked 1964 Philadelphia building by the distinguished Italian-American architect Pietro Belluschi, designer and client were already on the same page.

Both Rapt and Macquarie have a portfolio of office projects in which design informality and can-do spirit relax traditional workplace protocol to trigger “spatial connectivity,” as Macquarie global design director Andrew Burdick puts it. “The client already wanted to take advantage of the building to create face-to-face collisions between people,” notes Kumar Atre, head of design research at Rapt. “We did too.” Indeed, the studio’s CEO and chief creative officer David Gallulo could be quoting the client when he says, “We wanted to respect the existing space and also really connect people,” summarizing their shared intentions. Recently inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame, Gallulo is well-versed in connecting and connections, with Rapt, ranking 98th on our top 100 Giants list, having completed projects for such high-profile clients as Tinder, Dropbox, and VF Corporation. 

Rapt Studio Breathes New Life Into Macquarie Group’s Office

This project entailed renovating the ground-floor lobby, top three floors, and roof terrace of the nine-story structure—145,000 square feet in all. Both parties agreed that achieving the interactive office landscape they envisioned required a kind of collaboration with Belluschi across architectural generations, drawing from the character of his building: an International Style slab with a sculpted concrete frame and sleek glass-and-aluminum facades sheathed in sunscreens made of Plexiglas, a material invented by the Rohm and Haas Company, whose headquarters it originally was.

Belluschi, one of the country’s foremost mid-century modernists, had designed a beautiful shell: 39,000-square-foot, open-plan floor plates beneath coffered concrete ceilings. But before the recent renovation, the existing interior build-out imposed a hierarchical office layout, isolating executive staff in perimeter offices around a central secretarial pool. Floors were stratified in a pancaked stack, and dropped ceilings further generalized the already bland universal space. Respecting Belluschi’s shell, Rapt aimed at creating a more contiguous, collaborative environment with specific programs and zones mapped horizontally and vertically throughout the three floors—essentially socializing the interior in a transformed office paradigm. 

Tour Around This Sleek Glass-And-Aluminum Office In Philadelphia

“We had to translate the language of the historic building into a series of spaces that were never there, while making them feel original,” Arte explains. The Rapt team was, in a sense, “restoring” the building to what it might have been had Belluschi designed it today, extending his architectural vocabulary into an office vernacular that is less hierarchical but more civic and egalitarian—an appropriate goal for a building in the heart of historic Philadelphia.

Right from the lobby, Rapt introduces these themes and intensions, riffing off the bones and wit of Belluschi’s envelope. He had established a strict grid of chamfered concrete columns, their capitals flaring into wide angular canopies that turn the ceiling into a field of dramatically folded plates. Several large cruciform chandeliers—composed of countless Plexiglas icicles and, like the building, listed—extend along the length of the volume. Mirroring the spatial theatrics, Rapt has inserted a series of custom wall installations between the columns—vertical rows of leather-and-felt straps, twisted to echo the angled concrete around them. Also custom, generously scaled furnishings, including a concierge desk, benches, banquettes, and planters, anchor the space, while commissioned video art playing on large screens adds color and energy.

Cruciform Chandeliers Brighten This Workplace Design 

More Plexiglas diffuses ceiling light in the elevators leading to reception on the ninth floor, where a sequence of spaces unfolds—Guggenheim Museum–style, from the top down—via a rectangular atrium stairwell breaking through the three-story pancake to connect all levels. Each landing opens onto a large public area that acts like the anchor tenant in a shopping mall, a magnet that draws people in a progression of vertical connectivity. The company canteen is located on the eighth floor, beneath the reception and guest relations concourse on the ninth, with a training hub on the seventh. Theses public zones are balanced by office space—mostly open, but some private—and meeting rooms of various sizes. 

But the atrium is the heart of the project, one that beats with excitement because of the energetic irregularity with which the stair angles its way through the otherwise staidly orthogonal architecture. Belluschi’s grid is disciplined and his geometry Euclidean, but Rapt’s meandering stair walks on the wild side, bringing the ’60’s building into the 21st century. Each landing meets the floor plate at a slightly different level and angle, so walking up and down  the stairs, Burdick notes, “isn’t a chore” but a discovery. The angularity surprises the space with an informality that encourages social encounter, introducing people to one another. It helps that the staircase is tall, dark, and handsome. Deep-bronze, coated-steel balustrades give it a graphic profile, which is complemented by a backdrop wall of vertical wood slats, echoing the warmth and dynamism of the installations in the lobby far below.

Belluschi’s beautifully finished coffered concrete ceilings, with their sense of rhythm and substance, inspire lighting as striking as the lobby’s glamorous chandeliers. A regimented array of dronelike custom fixtures beams light into each recess with an intensity that seems to dematerialize the concrete while casting a soft glow back into the transformed interiors below—perfectly encapsulating the project’s spirit of collaboration across time and space. 

Step Inside This Modernist Office by Rapt Studio

This Striking Sculptural Staircase Takes The Stage

RAPT STUDIO: SAM FARHANG; CAITLIN SWAIM; ESIN EKINCIOGLU; SCOTT MCMANUS; LAURA PACHECO PEÑA. L2PARTRIDGE: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. TILLOTSON DESIGN ASSOCIATES: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. FUTURE GREEN STUDIO: LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT. ARCHITECTURAL CASEWORK: MILLWORK. CENTRAL METALS: CUSTOM STAIRS. PMDI SIGNS: CUSTOM SIGNAGE. BALA CONSULTING ENGINEERS: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER, MEP. STRUCTURE TONE: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT ERIK BRUCE: CUSTOM INSTALLATION (LOBBY). BRICK IT: FLOOR TILE. CAESARSTONE: QUARTZ SURFACE. BERNHARDT DESIGN: LOUNGE CHAIRS. WALTER KNOLL: STOOLS. GLOBAL LEATHER: INSTALLATION LEATHER. MAHARAM: INSTALLATION FABRIC, UPHOLSTERY FABRIC, UPHOLSTERY LEATHER (LOBBY), CURTAIN FABRIC (WORKPLACE). LAPALMA: WINDOW COUNTER SYSTEM (TRAINING). GRAND RAPIDS CHAIR: SIDE CHAIRS. AUDO COPENHAGEN: PEDESTAL TABLES. JAMIE STERN FURNITURE, CARPET, LEATHER & FABRIC: CUSTOM BENCHES (TRAINING), CUSTOM BANQUETTES (CANTEEN). DESIGNTEX: WALLCOVERING (TRAINING, CANTEEN). HAY: BARSTOOLS (TRAINING), LOW COFFEE TABLES, STOOLS (WORKPLACE). ANDREU WORLD: ROUND TABLES (CANTEEN). EQUITONE: RIDGED WALL PANELS. EGE CARPETS: CARPETING. MUUTO: LARGE TABLE, SIDE CHAIRS (CANTEEN), MODULAR SOFA (WORKPLACE). ARPER: ARMCHAIR (RECEPTION). ARNOLD CONTRACT: CUSTOM RECEPTION COUNTER. KNOLL: WIRE SIDE TABLE (RECEPTION), LARGE TABLE, OTTOMANS (WORKPLACE). ENCORE SEATING: LOUNGE CHAIRS (WORKPLACE). AXIS LIGHTING: LINEAR PENDANT FIXTURES. MURAFLEX: GLASS PARTITIONING. INTERFACE: CARPET TILES. TEXAA: MESH CEILING (ROOF-DECK STAIR). TECHNICAL GLASS PRODUCTS: CHANNEL GLASS. THROUGHOUT LUKAS LIGHTING: CUSTOM COFFER FIXTURES. DINOFLEX: STAIR RUBBER FLOORING. MCNICHOLS: PERFORATED METAL PANELS. BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT.

Gensler Lights Up An Investment Firm’s Park Avenue Workplace

Postpandemic workplace challenges presented rich opportunities for the redesign of a global investment firm’s Park Avenue workplace. Stefanie Shunk, principal of the perennially top-ranking Giants firm Gensler—and a recent Interior Design HiP Leader Award winner—led the transformation, which expanded the client’s existing office onto contiguous floors. The primary goals were to better connect teams, present layers of visual intrigue, and add top-tier hospitality touches and overall warmth. Also vital was offsetting the site’s low ceiling heights, which Shunk and her team achieved via clever overhead elements designed to emulate skylights. One of them illuminates the central staircase, with weighty Minerva Gray marble treads, that unifies five levels of the 180,000-square-foot space. Its bronze railings complement the suspended three-story, bronzed-aluminum screen by Giles Miller Studio that extends up one side. A collection of blue-chip artworks, 22 in all, plays a central role throughout, including another architectonic screen element, this one commissioned from Mark Hagen to back the reception desk. And in a nearby corridor is Casablanca #1, a monumental Richard Serra piece in oil stick, etching ink, and silica on paper, its straightforward appearance belying that it was masterfully crafted in intricate layers—much like this project itself.

Inside A Playful Coworking Space In Germany

We all know by now that the world of work has undergone a seismic shift. However, there is still much debate about how future workplaces will look and how they’ll accommodate the evolving habits and needs of new generations of users. Architects and designers are currently in a significant phase of experimentation, striving to determine the next iteration of the “office”—if it can even still be called that—and how these spaces might entice workers away from their homes.

In Laatzen, an industrial area on the outskirts of Hanover, Germany, Ippolito Fleitz Group has taken the experimental approach to an extreme in an effort to redefine this spatial category. The firm’s interiors for Brainhouse247, a coworking brand, have transformed a five-level 1970’s building—formerly a nondescript administrative center for Siemens—into 215,000 square feet of lively, playful environments that provide facilities, flexibility, and fun as compelling incentives for members to show up. “Why are people coming back to the office?” asks Peter Ippolito, an Interior Design Hall of Fame member along with comanaging partner, Gunther Fleitz. “The simple answer is because they want to, not because they have to.”

Ippolito Fleitz Group Builds A Creative Coworking Wonderland

Available to both individuals and corporate employees, Brainhouse247 membership offers round-the-clock access to a diverse range of meeting rooms, lounge and relaxation zones, communal breakout spaces, and food and beverage areas—all designed with an unconventional approach. The concept goes well beyond the beer taps and phone booths of 2010’s coworking startups, one that’s much more refined than the foosball tables and slides of the same decade’s tech-campus wonderland.

Along with more traditional open desk setups, there are specialized facilities for podcasting, photography, 3-D printing, and more, plus a mix of unorthodox places for quiet contemplation or letting off steam, depending on one’s mood.  “We have a room where you don’t see anything because it’s all foggy, offering a moment of quiet,” Ippolito reports. “We even have a room where you can go in and just scream.”

How This Coworking Space Invites Play

In essence, Brainhouse247 is conceived as a landscape of discovery. Each level (four aboveground and one below) features a distinct visual identity but is intentionally left unnamed to encourage users to assign their own monikers, aiding memory and orientation—or so the hope goes. While the top three floors all include a central “marketplace” as a nexus where members can grab coffee, socialize, and relax, each floor has a unique layout and scenario created for it.

On level two, for instance, the “playground” is where collaborative work can take place around circular picnic tables or in pink-upholstered diner-style booths, while on the floor above, presentations can be viewed from brightly hued, stadium-style bleachers mounted on wheels for flexibility. “Everything is agile and mobile,” Fleitz explains. For focused tasks, there are custom cylindrical oak pods, which he refers to as “bird’s nests,” raised a couple of feet off the ground and accessed via short orange ladders. Another option for private calls or concentrated work is a series of color-saturated nooks, created by opening up former exhaust shafts and outfitting them with comfortable sofas and intimate pendant lighting.

Bold Colors + Comfortable Seating Enhance Productivity

Members wishing to stay active while they work can utilize dedicated “walk ’n’ talk” areas or organize powwows with colleagues that incorporate sessions on monkey bars, gymnastic rings, and other exercise equipment. “What we’ve learned from completing a lot of projects in the corporate world is that you can’t ever be innovative enough,” Ippolito observes. “Let’s put it this way, the most unconventional formats we offer are typically used the most.”

The raw bones of the original concrete structure and service ductwork, along with existing features like drywall and tiling, have been left exposed in many instances, creating an intentionally unfinished appearance that alludes to the constant flux of work habits. Colorful heating/cooling ceiling panels were installed in several work areas to improve the building’s energy efficiency, while also helping with acoustics. Bold color is applied fervently throughout, imbuing joy and lightheartedness. From forests of vertical textile ribbons suspended above pillowy lounge chairs and soft ottomans to an area dedicated to playing board games in niches between arched spruce partitions, there’s a palpable emphasis on buoyancy and pleasure around every corner.

To further enliven the interiors, street art–style graphics featuring a cast of deftly sketched characters festoon many walls, enhancing the patchwork effect created by the many layered elements. “We love collage because it allows the user to develop their own story,” Ippolito notes. “They see what they want to see, and they connect it with their own memories.” The facility will eventually include restaurants, a fitness center, and maker workshops, among other ame­nities on the ground floor, offering members everything they might need under one roof, if they choose. Choice is a fundamental principle of the project, emphasizing IFG’s contention that the future of work ultimately revolves around freedom—however that may manifest aesthetically.

Swing Through Brainhouse247’s Transformation By Ippolito Fleitz Group

IPPOLITO FLEITZ GROUP: LENA GRZIB; NADINE BATZ; ERKIN SAGIR; MANU DANKHED; KERRY PLIENINGER; NEELE KELINGARN; KATJA HEINEMANN; ARSEN ALIVERDIIEV; JUAN MANUEL DE AYARRA DEL OLMO; TIM LESSMANN; TIMO FLOTT; ROGER GASPERLIN; CHRISTIAN KIRSCHENMANN; JOHANNES HANEBUTH. AG LICHT: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. SUPER 8 STUDIO: GRAPHICS CONSULTANT. LINDNER: CUSTOM FURNITURE, INSTALLATIONS.

OBJECT CARPET: CARPET (TRANSITION SPACE, PRIVATE DESKS). PEDRALI: SOFA, ARMCHAIRS (PRIVATE DESKS). KÖNIG + NEURATH: DESKS. ARPER: ACOUSTIC DESK PANELS. NAIN TRADING: RUG. WÄSTBERG: DESK LAMPS (PRIVATE DESKS), LARGE PENDANT FIXTURE (PLAYGROUND). MARAZZI: PORCE­LAIN FLOOR TILE (PRIVATE DESKS, URBAN SQUARE). VITRA: MESH TASK CHAIRS (PRIVATE DESKS, CONFERENCE ROOM). BLÅ STATION: OTTOMANS (BLEACHERS, URBAN SQUARE). FATBOY: LOUNGE CHAIRS (URBAN SQUARE). NEMO LIGHTING: VERTICAL PENDANT FIXTURES. BRUNNER: STEEL CHAIRS (URBAN SQUARE), TABLE (CON­FERENCE ROOM). FLURSTÜCK: CARPET (PLAYGROUND). EQUIPE CERÁMICAS: WALL TILES. MUUTO: SOFA (NOOK). &TRADITION: PENDANT FIXTURE.