Office, Sweet Office

Three new office spaces that operate on the pleasure principle.

by Judith Norkin



Working creatively: Peter Miller’s office at architecture, interiors and restoration firm Towers + Miller.

If you’ve paid attention to the fancy shelter mags or saw the Workspheres exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, you know that the office is interior design’s new frontier. Gray cubicles with squeaky chairs and harsh lighting are out. Comfort — workspaces so cozy that you won’t ever want to leave — is in.

Is this just a new wrinkle on "Learning from Las Vegas"? Just as casinos know people gamble more in rooms without windows or clocks and use that to their advantage, are companies learning that people will work longer in spaces which aggressively blur the line between office and home?

Perhaps. But workaholics are born, not made. And for three Philadelphia businesses, each of whom has christened new office space this spring, creating a comfortable space was not just a matter of increasing productivity — it was a kind of mission statement.

Take Accenture, for example. Formerly Andersen Consulting, the company recently opened new offices on the fourth and fifth floors of the Wanamaker Building. Patrick McGranaghan, senior project designer at The Hillier Group, the company that did the rehab, says Accenture’s previous office was "typical gray." But the new space, which consists of 75,000 square feet of new-economy luxury, is a balanced combination of hi-tech and hi-touch that, though understated and refined, still manages to say "huge capital outlay." Accenture declined to reveal exactly how huge.

When Accenture acquired the space, it was raw and unrenovated, says McGranaghan. "There were little vignettes and signs left from the department store. None of the finishes were uniform and there were different kinds of flooring and wall materials." Two years later, that’s hard to imagine. Now the main entry area is paneled with yards of eucalyptus and macoré woods (both from renewable sources). A bank of flat-screen monitors runs corporate marketing videos (and sometimes CNN or the latest Hollywood release).

All around are plush sofas and cozy chairs meant to invite intimate conversation. And talk about homey — one seating area where the ceiling drops to a standard eight feet is even called "the living room." Dropped lights brighten and breakup the massive overhead volume created by 16-foot ceilings elsewhere. Museum-quality paintings and color-shifting light sculptures bring energy and motion to the monumental spaces. The work areas, which are loaded with the audio, video and IT capabilities befitting a technology consulting behemoth, also feature the fine materials and workmanship visible in public areas.

Other amenities? How about an Internet café with a newsstand, and a concierge area where you can arrange for someone else to handle those pesky errands? And here’s a new one: rest rooms. Not the kind you’re thinking of — these are small private rooms where weary or jetlagged consultants can sneak power naps.

"Comfort was one of this client’s priorities," says Hillier’s Jim Carter, AIA, principal-in-charge. "Consultants travel a lot and the company wanted to make coming to the office feel like coming home." He says varying the types of spaces and furniture styles keeps things intimate. "Sometimes you’re comfortable working in bed, sometimes at the kitchen table. Here too you can take your laptop to lots of different environments. There are spaces with no defined professional use. This isn’t Dilbert-ville."

The nomadic consultants really like it. "It was important to us to create a sense of community," said David P. Hollander, Accenture's lead partner in Philadelphia, "while providing our employees a workplace that inspires innovation and creativity. Our current space achieves all of these things."

For Alison Towers and Peter Miller of Towers + Miller, an architecture, interiors and restoration firm on Sansom Street, comfort isn’t mega-spaces or luxury materials — it’s a stripped-down loft space carved from the second floor of a century-old manufacturing building.

"The space was a wreck," says Miller, explaining that it had been completely abandoned for 15 years. "The ceilings were falling down, the skylights were a mess and the mechanical systems were inadequate. We had to do a total gut rehab."

And they had to do it on a budget. Hearing about Accenture, Miller jokes that the cost of his entire project — $110,000 — probably equals what Accenture spent on one coffeetable.

The office shows what’s possible with more dash than cash. It’s 1,600 square feet of clean, bright studio space. There’s still ample evidence of its industrial past; honey-colored hardwood floors are stained with shadowy spots presumably left by old machinery. And the walls, which have only a rough base-coat of plaster, are still bumpy and coarse. "We decided to leave those things the way we found them. It’s a little industrial, a little gritty, but it works well for us," says Miller, who says the pared-down surroundings helps the designers concentrate on their work.

Furnishings are simple, too. Clever furniture placement prevents the space, 100 feet long and 16 feet wide with windows at either end, from feeling like a bowling alley. The long wall is lined with a continuous desktop, then more desktops are set perpendicularly to form a series of "U"-shaped work stations.

"The desks are solid core doors in lengths as much as 10 feet," says Miller. "We fastened them to the wall and used standard stanchion shelving to support the open ends."

Miller insists it’s the same shelving sold at Home Depot, but why then does it look so good? "We added perforated aluminum inserts around the rear and side edges. That, plus the extra shelves and bolts, give the impression of greater stability."

The lighting is equally simple — a cable system runs the space’s entire length, supporting small halogen fixtures over each desktop. Nearly identical in size, the desk/shelf combo and lighting fixtures create a repetitive pattern that effectively divides but does not block the space.

But it’s not all assembly-line austerity. Pieces of Depression-era pottery in muted colors are displayed proudly. The piano that Miller’s grandparents brought by ship when they fled Germany in the late 1930s sits in a corner. "I can’t seem to part with it," he says. On the floor is a handmade Turkish rug, carried in by a colleague who didn’t have room for it at home. And Towers, who refers to herself as "an infamous trash picker," got her husband to help save the corroded metal food prep table that now serves as an entry console from a dumpster outside of Old Swedes Church.

This space nourishes and supports them, says Miller, whose dog Magnolia is frequently on-site. It’s kid-friendly, too.

"Blending personal and professional lives was a goal of ours. We set out to create a home away from home," says Miller. "Plus, so much of our work involves creating homes for others, we wanted our office to offer some of the same warmth that we design into our projects."

And clients like it. "A lot of clients say ‘Wow, this is exactly how an architect’s office should feel.’"

Nearby on South 22nd Street, Running Press Books occupies offices likely to elicit a similar reaction — this is how a publishing company should feel. The company operates from a brownstone built by John Christian Bullitt, a city father. Inside, it’s dark and cozy and cluttered with artwork and books. But the house not only shelters the company, it also provides an identity — the corporate logo is a sketch of the front façade. This makes perfect sense, says Publisher Buz Teacher. "It’s no accident that they’re called publishing houses."

The structure is a five-story toast to Victorian style. It’s clubby and rich-looking and furnished traditionally, with Chippendale and Queen Anne and plenty of bric-a-brac. Many of the walls are paneled, and there are massive moldings, high ceilings and glowing hardwood floors, too. There’s a fireplace in almost every room, some featuring muted tiles and some with carved surrounds. "I forget how many there are exactly," says Teacher.

After purchasing, restoring and landmarking the house, Teacher was required to maintain its residential layout. "You won’t see any cubicles here," he says. "People work in what were once bedrooms or living rooms or studies." His own cherry-paneled (and fireplaced) office, originally the dining room, is a masterpiece of high baronial style.

This passion for history does create curious juxtapositions, though. Like a copy machine in the bathroom, only slightly more than arm’s length from the toilet.

What’s so special about working in a historic house? Well, there are the ghosts. Sam Caggiula, director of publicity, says a literary-minded spirit has been known to make mysterious copy-edits. But Caggiula, a lover of old houses (his own is a castle-like structure in Villanova), says working in a creative space makes him feel more creative. "Being at Running Press Books is like entering the world of Henry James. You feel linked to the tradition of publishing."

Barbara Balongue of Balongue Design designed Running Press’ new space, an art studio in the brownstone next store. Its non-landmark status allowed her to deviate from Victoriana, so she let an aluminum air duct run exposed through the studio and used contemporary colors, like hot pink, to make the space pop. The artists, who handle book design, layout and catalog production, have comfortable drafting tables with tall stools and plenty of pin-up room to review works in progress. The total construction budget for the 1,500-square-foot space was about $65,000. Providing a pleasant and efficient space was one of Balongue’s goals. "People work such long hours. They’re practically living in their offices," she says, "and comfortable workspace is a requirement."

And with all this new emphasis on comfort, you can bet the furniture marketplace is waiting to cash in. Office furniture and residential furniture manufacturers — two categories that have traditionally occupied completely separate markets — now collaborate to make commercial office furniture with a softer touch.

The end result is nice enough for a living room, which is good. Because it seems only a matter of time before the inevitable reversal takes place in home design: living rooms that look like cubicles!