A Touch Of Whimsy Reigns In This San Diego Tech Office

San Diego is synonymous with sandy beaches, year-round great weather, and stellar Mexican food. But for the regional studio of the nationwide multidisciplinary firm SmithGroup, its beloved locale offers much more. When developing ideas for the downtown offices of a global tech company, the project team drew on the fabric of the city to create two dual concepts that celebrate its lesser-known assets. The first is based on the surrounding natural landscape; the second, on its grittier urban energy. “It’s really easy to make the cliché references,” says corporate, commercial, and civic studio leader Megan Skaalen, who helmed the project, “but there’s also the secret side of San Diego.”

The client loved both concepts equally and requested they be integrated across the workspace, a single 50,000-square-foot floor plate spanning two buildings and connected by an internal bridge. While the obvious approach might have been to assign one idea to each half of the space, SmithGroup took a bolder route. The more vibrant, zanier scheme—dubbed Feel the Pulse—was applied to the central communal zones that link both buildings. Meanwhile, the softer, more contemplative direction—At Home in Nature—was woven into meeting rooms and workspaces deeper within the plan. This strategy not only enhances wayfinding, Skaalen acknowledges, but also establishes a clear visual distinction between areas for connection and those for focus.

SmithGroup Crafts A Vibrant Office For A Global Tech Company

The dynamic energy of the urban-influenced scheme hits immediately upon entry. The main elevator core is wrapped in matte-black steel panels, while matching forced-perspective diagonals slice across the ceiling and floor, making the lobby appear “like it’s ripped,” explains senior interior designer Alex Leadon. An adjacent wall is entirely clad in a relief collage of abstract shapes, vivid colors, and outdoorsy motifs—all nods to San Diego. “The client really puts an emphasis on the local identity of its offices,” Leadon reports, so this arrival moment delivers a bold “SD” signature right from the start.

Throughout the space, arches appear again and again—turning a long corridor into an arcade, for instance, or spanning a deep, banquette-lined wall booth in the coffee-bar area—gestures that reference the Spanish Revival architecture found across the city, particularly the museums, pavilions, and historic structures populating nearby Balboa Park. The color palette in the common zones similarly borrows from the surrounding context of ocean, beach, desert, and mountains. Seafoam green, terra-cotta, and coral are applied strategically “to get the creative juices flowing,” Leadon suggests. Texture is also introduced via materials such as artworks that incorporate sand, natural-wool acoustic panels in the open work areas, and metal mesh layered over glowing light boxes in a pre-function space.

Colorful Palettes Get The Creative Juices Flowing

Skaalen lists comfort and hominess as the workplace qualities most desired by today’s employees. Those admirable attributes are conjured here through soft furnishings and soothing colors, certainly, but primarily through art. Wherever you look, a wide array of custom artworks created by SPMDesign bursts from surfaces, envelops thresholds, and even drips off canvases onto the walls. They are joined by a curated selection of pieces by local artists, enlivening communal areas and meeting rooms.

With the art and other decorative elements, the hat tips to San Diego continue—sometimes overt, sometimes subtle, and occasionally hidden. Around a conference room themed after the SS Monte Carlo—a Prohibition-era gambling vessel now a wreck visible at low tide on the beach at Coronado—five coins are discreetly tucked away for staff and visitors to discover. And for those who look closely enough, a discreet peephole in the lobby-wall relief offers a glimpse of a vintage postcard. “There’s a sense of play,” Skaalen observes, “but it doesn’t feel elementary.”

Feel The Pulse Of San Diego In This Workplace Design

The open office areas and smaller meeting rooms are quieter in tone, so that users can “focus where focus is due,” says Leadon. A variety of breakout spaces, private booths, and even reclining massage chairs are included to accommodate different ways of working and the requirements of neurodiverse individuals. “No matter what personality, learning style, or work employees need to do, there is a place for them to do that,” Leadon explains. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all.” The multitude of settings in which people can meet, converse, ideate, and relax together is critical—particularly today when, as Skaalen points out, many are motivated to come into the office to socialize: “Human connection is needed, even within a global technology company.”

The overall impression created by the interiors is of a much more mature version of the “fun house” tech offices that dominated the 2010’s. Welcoming, adaptable spaces with artful touches of whimsy—rather than glorified amusement arcades or playgrounds—signal a new era for an industry that has outgrown its awkward adolescence. “Tech companies have grown up, and their spaces have as well,” Skaalen concludes. By creating a condensed, abstracted snapshot of San Diego within these walls, SmithGroup has provided an identity tailored for those who, like them, are proud to live and work in the city.

Explore Design Details Like Hand-Painted Murals

SMITHGROUP: ROB MOYLAN; LESLEY SCOTT; GABRIEL CERVANTES; DAVE WANG; PATRICK MACBRIDE; SHAWN NGUYEN; HAL SPIERS; NEHAL DESAI; ANDREA REYNOLDS; MIKE KATAN; JOSE ALICEA; CHRISTINA MOSS. SPMDESIGN: ART CONSULTANT. CREATIVE METAL INDUSTRIES: METALWORK. WB POWELL: MILLWORK. SKYLINE CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT EHMCKE SHEET METAL: STEEL PANELING (LOBBY). LED LINEAR: STRIP LIGHTING. TERRA NOVA DESIGNS: BENCHES. AXIS: PEN­DANT FIXTURES (LOBBY, CONFERENCE ROOM). LIVDEN: WALL TILE (COFFEE BAR). ASTEK: MURAL. MARTIN BRATTRUD: BANQUETTE. FLOS: SCONCES. ALLERMUIR: SIDE CHAIRS (COFFEE BAR, BREAKOUT AREA). HEARTWORK: CREDENZAS (BREAKOUT AREA). STUDIO TK: BENCHES. UNIKA VAEV: PENDANT FIXTURES (PRE-FUNCTION AREA). MOOOI: COFFEE TABLE. WEST ELM WORK: SOFA. ARCADIA: GLASS DOORS. ENCORE SEATING: LOUNGE CHAIRS (PRE-FUNCTION AREA), CHAIRS (CONFERENCE ROOM). INFINITY: MASSAGE CHAIRS (CORRIDOR). STYLEX: PRIVACY SCREENS. STEELCASE: DESKS, TASK CHAIRS (OFFICE AREA).

How Creative Visionaries Collide in This Dynamic Mixed-Use Hub

Houston is known for bulldozing its past. There’s no zoning and few landmark protections; it wasn’t until 1995 that the city adopted its first preservation ordinance. “Everything gets torn down, with no part of history left behind,” laments Kelie Mayfield, founder and CEO of local architecture and design firm MaRS Culture. Even old industrial buildings, commonplace elsewhere in the country, are rare here. Yet 2910 McKinney, a 65,000-square-foot former warehouse and showroom built in 1953, has survived—and been given new life as a mixed-use hub for all manner of creatives—from those working in food to furniture—courtesy of Mayfield.

Developer Shon Link, founder of Local Partners, recognized the site’s potential. Located in the gentrifying East Downtown neighborhood, 2910 McKinney was originally a showroom and distribution center for the Peaslee-Gaulbert Corporation, which sold paint and home goods. It later housed furniture, letterpress, and sandpaper companies. Link, who was previously an architect at Gensler, was impressed with the quality of the art-deco building, which had a solid brick structure, poured concrete flooring, and a 15-foot-high ceiling. Even the windows were intact, because they had been bricked up for safety years earlier.

MaRS Culture Transforms a Former Warehouse Into a Creative Hub

“The spaces are extremely interesting, and when you walk in, it feels timeless,” Link says. “We sought to preserve it and craft a special place.” He brought on Mayfield to help achieve this vision. The two have worked together for years on such area projects as the George hotel in College Station and become friends. Together, they saw an opportunity to build a home for creative types who were already working in the industrial neighborhood and craved connection after the pandemic. Plus, these designers and makers would be able to use the building largely as is, helping preserve its historic essence.

The wholesale (and aptly named for 2910 McKinney) Kraftsman Baking and Nickel City bar became the anchor tenants, with the rest of the interiors split between a design collaborative and maker spaces. MaRS restored and conceived the latter areas and curated the tenant mix. The firm has long commissioned art and sourced handmade furnishings for its projects, so Mayfield was plugged into the community Link hoped to attract. At the time, MaRS was also looking for new office space and ended up moving into the building as well.

Art Deco Style Reigns in This Creative Hub

Mayfield and her team opened up the interior and preserved its raw atmosphere. They unsealed the windows, strategically removed a few brick walls to improve circulation, and kept lighting minimal, using only exposed bulbs and industrial drum fixtures. To delineate tenant spaces from public, they installed steel-and-glass partitions that maintain a sense of openness: The dividers end a few feet below the ceiling, forming semiprivate zones like cubes in an office. This was partly a way to control costs, but it also promotes a communal vibe. “There’s a nice energy and vibrancy, because you can hear people talking and playing music,” Mayfield notes. “And we can see all the way through to each other’s studios.” Drywall dividers run between tenant spaces.

The architectural interventions largely ended there. Link calls the process an exercise in restraint: “It was about using a light touch and figuring out how to do less, not more.” That meant keeping quirky elements that lend character. MaRS pulled up vinyl flooring and found it had left an interesting pattern on the existing concrete. A central room had originally displayed paints, and blocks of color still coat the walls, resembling a Mark Rothko artwork. Outside, the front entrance retains its decorative art deco–style brickwork.

Creating a Community of Design

Anyone with a creative bent would find such environs appealing. But Mayfield says she and Link are selective about who they lease to, since they hope everyone will work together. “We’re designing a community of design,” Mayfield explains. “Even though we have separate businesses, we support each other. So we’re looking for people who are open, honest, and down to earth.”

So far the tenants include nonprofit fashion brand Magpies & Peacocks, which now produces and sells its upcycled clothing in the Rothkolike room (and runs a separate coffee bar in the building offering local treats, the revenue benefiting Makr Collective, a workforce development program for trauma survivors); Branch, a product design studio and flooring distributor; Plum Alley, a family-owned business specializing in historic window restoration; and El Dorado Woodworks hand-crafted furniture studio. There’s also Vesper Art Collective gallery and rentable space for pop-ups. MaRS occupies much of the ground floor with both its studio and new retail venture, MaRS Mercantile, which promotes emerging artists and makers and represents established brands like Stellar Works.

Fresh Ideas Bloom Thanks to a Mix of Creative Thinkers

Working beside a mix of creative thinkers can spur fresh ideas. “Design these days is not so insular,” Mayfield observes. “Different disciplines cross over. We thought How can we all work together and make something unexpected?” She’s already begun to answer that question. For the Houston Rockets’ PNC Lounge, MaRS commissioned Magpies & Peacocks for a fabric wall graphic sewn from players’ old basketball jerseys. The two have also joined forces with Branch on projects in Marfa, including a runway show of garments made of salvaged architectural materials. This is just the beginning: Expect more collabs as new tenants move in. 

Step Inside This Creative Hub by MaRS Culture

Taking Cues From Mark Rothko + Other Artists

MARS CULTURE: KIM LE; JENNIFER HENDERSON; DANIELA GONZALEZ; ELYSE REUTER; TEHYA LEIGH; ASHLEY BESHARA; KALI STEELE; SARAH WALLACE; TUAN NGUYEN; THANH VIET; HIEN TRAN; VI NGUYEN; NGAN BUI; DINH TRUONG; TRIET NGUYEN; THIEN NGUYEN; DUNG HO; HOANG NGUYEN; NAM NGUYEN; TRI NGUYEN. BASIC BUILDERS: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT 
STELLAR WORKS: LOVESEAT, TABLES (MARS MERCANTILE). EGE CARPETS: RUGS. BRANCH: RUGS (POP-UP). HENZEL STUDIO: RUG (RAW SPACE). BASIC BUILDERS: CUSTOM SHELF SYSTEM (OFFICE). IKEA: SHELF BINS. PUTNAM ROLLING LADDERS: LADDER. ULINE: ISLAND STORAGE. ALLSTEEL: DESKS. WEBSTAURANT STORE: WORK TABLE. WAYFAIR: STOOL (OFFICE), CHAIRS (CONFERENCE ROOM). THROUGH ROUND TOP RANCH ANTIQUES: TABLE, SHELF UNIT (MARS MERCANTILE). ANTIQUE FARM HOUSE: TABLE (CONFERENCE ROOM). CURRAN: RUG. RH: CABINET (BRANCH). THROUGH LIVING CENTURY: WINE VESSEL. THROUGHOUT SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY: PAINT.

Patricia Urquiola Puts Her Stamp On Milan’s Casa Brera Hotel

Indisputably, Milan is a crossroads of all things cultural: architecture and design, music and art, fashion and food—a storied past and a pulsating present. Add the ubiquitous presence of la Milano bene—the city’s stylish upper crust—and you get a snapshot of a place that may at first seem formal and formidable but quickly turns warm and welcoming once you breach its polished surface.

That’s much like one of its newest hotels: Casa Brera, a Marriott Luxury Collection property in a former office building transformed by Interior Design Hall of Fame member Patricia Urquiola, who describes herself as “100 percent architect or 100 percent designer, depending on the moment and time of day.” Both areas of her professional expertise came into play on the project, which challenged the Spanish-born Urquiola to “rebuild and rethink everything, focusing on what we had,” because of the original structure’s significance to her adopted city, where roots run deep. “Milan obliges you to put these thoughts together,” adds the designer, whose installation “The Other Side of the Hill” is currently on view at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia.

Experience Luxury At The Casa Brera Designed By Patricia Urquiola

Located in the hotel’s namesake artsy district and just a short walk from the fabled Teatro alla Scala opera house, the building was completed by notable architect Pietro Lingeri in 1958. Named La Centrale for the financial company it first housed, the structure comprises an eight-story block flanked by a pair of four-story wings. Its pink-granite facade—a strictly rectilinear composition of aluminum-framed windows—exemplifies the severe geometry characteristic of the Italian rationalist movement. Vacant since 2016, when its last occupant was Boston Consulting Group, the mid-century workplace had no connection to the hospitality realm. The founder and creative director of Studio Urquiola not only had to respectfully execute its transformation into a five-star hotel but also, as she notes, “research and open a new narrative about contemporary luxury. It’s all about creating a sensation.”

A sense of welcome begins on the street, where Urquiola and her team have used the building’s setback to insert a two-level café terrace, festooned with umbrellas and greenery. To one side, the main entry leads to the ground-floor lobby, public spaces, and amenities, all of which consistently reference the envelope’s architecture, particularly its rectangular geometries. These are expressed through a materials palette that favors stone and marble, and a recurrent grid motif— together forming a kind of narrative thread, or what Urquiola, following her teacher and mentor Achille Castiglioni, calls “the fundamental element”: the foundation upon which she based her design process.

A Warm Welcome Into Casa Brera

Reception introduces the scheme with gutsy blocks of Rosso Levanto and Verde Alpi marble forming the sculptural check-in desk, surrounded by walls paneled in walnut ribbing and slabs of Verde Antigua. The same stones—joined by Breccia Damascata and Grigio Trambiserra—compose the floor’s grandly scaled matrix pattern, which extends into the lobby lounge, a magnetic space outfitted with a massive Verde Alpi bar, its front punctuated with rows of circular indentations. For those in the know—or cinephiles—it’s a nod to another Italian rationalist and green-marble enthusiast, Piero Portaluppi, whose nearby Villa Necchi Campiglio memorably appeared in the movie I Am Love. Since Urquiola couldn’t raise the lounge ceiling, she created the illusion of height with a reflective overhead expanse of mirror-chrome panels edged in black, while furnishing the room with low-slung pieces she’s authored for various blue-chip brands. Presiding over it all is Le Ballerine, a commissioned photograph by Tim Walker that evokes the dynamism of dance performances at the neighboring opera house.

In outfitting Odachi, the reception-adjacent restaurant serving Japanese-inspired cuisine, Urquiola eschewed overt visual connections to the country. “It’s personal, my ideas of Japan,” she acknowledges. That translates to simple, clean-lined tables with marble or back-painted glass tops accompanied by her Oru chairs in graphic black; paper-lanternlike custom ceiling fixtures; and custom fabric with an abstract floral pattern covering some walls. Fine Milanese fare awaits at the 70-seat Scena, tucked behind the lounge and accessed via a broad corridor and an impressively appointed entry vestibule—walnut-paneled walls and ceiling, pale marble flooring and host stand, and the occasional piece of gallery-worthy art.

Custom Fixtures + Floral Fabric Ooze Warmth

But nothing matches the panoramic vista—everything from the Duomo and Castello Sforzesco to Zaha Hadid’s Generali Tower—enjoyed from the rooftop Etereo, which includes both indoor and outdoor dining spaces. Inside, a dramatically gridded backlit-fabric ceiling presides over a commanding pink-marble bar and Pierre Jeanneret’s oak-and-cane Capitol Complex chairs set around custom tables. Outside, the pavilionlike terrace—newly built out atop the roof—is a particular point of pride for Urquiola. “It gives a vertical dimension to the project,” she observes, “and another way to see the city.”

The 116-room property offers 11 guest-room typologies, including 15 suites. “They’re not large,” notes Urquiola, whose interpretation of luxury isn’t based on size but on material richness and spatial character. She brings the quietly sumptuous palette of the public zones into the private ones: Walnut paneling clads many walls, marble is used lavishly in the bathrooms, checkerboard wool rugs soften floors, fine artworks abound, and custom furnishings by top-tier Italian manufacturers—like the brass-and-leather headboards—appear throughout. This last was particularly vital. “Through craftsmanship and industrialization, these companies represent the culture of Milan,” Urquiola concludes. “They represent the culture I come from.”

Walk Through The Casa Brera Hotel

It’s All About Creating A Relaxing Sensation

POLIFORM: CUSTOM FF&E, CUSTOM ARCHITECTURAL FINISHES.

FROM FRONT ALI YIKIN GLASS ART STUDIO: CONCAVE MIRROR (SUITE). TATO: PENDANT FIXTURES. PAOLA PARONETTO: CERAMICFRAME MIRRORS. MODULARTE: CUSTOM PLANTER. CASSINA: CHAIRS, TABLE (SUITE), BLACK ARMCHAIRS, SOFA, LOW TABLE (LOUNGE), PARASOLS (PATIO), CHAIRS (ETEREO), CHAISE LOUNGES, LANTERNS (POOL). MOROSO: GREEN ARMCHAIRS, ORANGE ARMCHAIRS (LOUNGE). LUXURY CARPET STUDIO: RUGS (LOUNGE), CARPET TILE (HALL). ANDREU WORLD: BARSTOOLS (LOUNGE), CHAIRS (ODACHI). OFFICINA CIANI: CUSTOM CHAIRS (PATIO). DEDAR: UPHOLSTERY FABRIC. GLAS ITALIA: CONSOLE (VESTIBULE), MIRROR (DARK BATHROOM). SANTA & COLE: FLOOR LAMP (GUEST ROOM 1), PAPER PENDANT FIXTURE (ODACHI). CAPORALI GROUP: FABRIC LOUVRES (ODACHI). FLOS: TABLE LAMPS (ODACHI, ETEREO). ALLIED MAKER: PENDANT FIXTURE (DARK BATHROOM). AGAPE: SINK (DARK BATHROOM), TUB (SUITE BATHROOM). VERY WOOD: ARMCHAIR (GUEST ROOM 1 & 3). BERSAGLIO: CUSTOM UMBRELLAS (POOL). MARAZZI: WALL TILE, POOL TILE. THROUGHOUT STEPEVI: CUSTOM GUEST-ROOM RUGS. VIAMANCINELLI: CUSTOM TABLE LAMPS, CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURES. KVADRAT; VESCOM: CURTAIN FABRIC.

How French Heritage Defines AXA Group’s New HQ

The 1,300 employees at the head office of the French insurer AXA Group used to be spread across a quartet of Paris sites. Today, however, they are grouped together at one site, but it consists of four structures that are drastically different in size, style, and era. To connect them in a more rational fashion as well as modernize the 200,000 square feet of interiors, AXA called upon Saguez & Partners, the French design and branding firm specializing in large-scale, transformative projects that respect historical context while introducing contemporary and sustainable elements.

Set on a 1 ½-acre plot near the Champs-Elysées in the city’s eighth arrondissement, three of the four entities were built between the mid 20th and 21st centuries: the eight-story 6 Rabelais, renamed Le Switch, built in 1952 by Pierre Dufau, which today features an executive penthouse lounge and several planted balconies; the six-level 21 Matignon, 1957 by Jean-Claude Daufresne, where the reception lobby is; and a five-story contemporary glass wing Ricardo Bofill completed in 2000 that houses a stunning skylit atrium.

Explore French History At The AXQ HQ By Saguez & Partners

That wing is connected to and an extension of the fourth building, a grandly classical, 18th-century town mansion called Hôtel de la Vaupalière, named for its original owner, the Marquis de la Vaupalière, who was a lieutenant in the Royal French Army under King Louis XV and an incorrigible gambler. French writer Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais gave a reading of his play, Le Mariage de Figaro, there in 1783. Home now to AXA’s boardroom, three executive offices, and reception rooms, its highly decorated, four-story interiors were restored some 20 years ago by Parisian designer François-Joseph Graf and filled with objects of museum quality, including furniture by André-Charles Boulle and Adam Weisweiler, and a chandelier and silverware that once belonged to King George I of England. “It’s an honor to be received there,” Olivier Riquard, AXA’s director of corporate services and procurement, notes.

Prestige aside, the site lacked architectural coherence. The buildings are at different heights, which meant there were ramps and flights of stairs all over the place. It was also tricky to pass from one to the other; they were linked via the basement, but it was so mazelike that employees only used it when it rained. Otherwise, they would step outside and cross the intermediary courtyards.

Facilitating A Collaborative Hub For Everyone

Working with architect of record PCA-Stream and project-management firm Hauteur Libre, the heart of the project for Saguez & Partners was the creation of a “hub,” executive creative director and partner Jean-Philippe Cordina says, at the basement level of the three modern buildings, which incorporates business and fitness centers, meeting rooms, and an auditorium. Its main focus is a vast, airy café and coffee bar that was also conceived as a multifunctional workspace, with a multitude of lockers, seating arrangements, and tables fitted with charging sockets. “The question was how to attract people to go down there and create ways to facilitate that,” Cordina recalls. The solution was to limit the size of the coffee areas on the office floors above (and offer a more appetizing range of snacks and beverages in the café).

Much of the office floors follow a similar model. Although equipped with meetings rooms and video booths, they are mostly open plan. Each workstation consists of a 55-inch-wide desk with a large relay screen, and different zones are defined by custom wooden bookcases and changes in flooring. Quiet areas have been placed along perimeters, and modular desk systems, also custom and consisting of four distinctly shaped, solid-oak elements, have been installed at the center of several rooms. They can be arranged in different forms to create rectangular, boomerang-, or S-shape tables. “The various configurations forge a different rapport and way of working,” Cordina explains. To create a link with the exterior, walkways inside run along the facades of buildings and upholstered benches have been positioned opposite the new balconies.

Calming Colors Make For A Great Workplace Atmosphere At AXA Group

The overall atmosphere is remarkably reposeful, thanks to a palette of warm colors and the omnipresence of wood. The effect is further heightened by an adaptable, museum-quality lighting system, whereby fixtures can be attached to a ceiling rail using magnets. “We didn’t want to have traditional blanket lighting,” Cordina continues. “We needed something more scenographic.” Ecological concerns were also addressed. Carpeting is made of recycled plastic bottles and fishing nets; tabletops are faced in a material produced from salvaged textiles.

The only intervention inside the Hôtel de la Vaupalière by Saguez & Partners, which has expanded its international presence by recently acquiring New York–based interior architecture and branding firm Dash Design, is a custom donut-shape Corian table for the boardroom, its black interior giving it a craterlike look. Cordina was, however, inspired by the painted ceiling in the CEO’s dining room, which depicts a sky. He took a photo of it and had it pixelated to produce a motif that was used not only for the glass partitions of meeting rooms and signage but also for the carpet in a space on the top floor of Le Switch called the creative studio. “It’s a way of linking the heritage of the Hôtel de la Vaupalière with the different generations of the other buildings,” he says.

The new-found harmony certainly seems appreciated by AXA’s employees. “There’s an overall coherence, which means nobody gets the short end of the stick,” Riquard says. “Whatever building they may be in, now everybody is happy.”

Inside AXA Group’s Charming New HQ

Organic Furnishings Give This Workplace A Natural Glow

SAGUEZ & PARTNERS: MARINE KEMPF; OUMAIMA ELMERNISSI; GAUTHIER LARAT; MAUD LAVIT; SARAH HAMDI; LOUISE MACÉ; SUZANNE BULAT; ANTOINE RIVIÈRE. PCA-STREAM: ARCHITECT AND INTERIOR ARCHITECT. HAUTEUR LIBRE: PROJECT MANAGER. DURIEZ: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP.

FROM FRONT SANCAL: ARMCHAIRS (ATRIUM). TON: HIGH TABLES (ATRIUM, COFFEE BAR). AUDO: STOOLS (ATRIUM, COFFEE BAR), SOFAS (CAFÉ), ORANGE SOFA (LOUNGE). LAPALMA: CHAIRS (BOARDROOM). SANTA & COLE: TABLE LAMP (RECEPTION). BLÅ STATION: SOFA. CARL HANSEN & SØN: ARMCHAIRS. HAY: CHAIRS (MEETING ROOM), ROUND SIDE TABLES (RECEPTION). ARPER: TABLE (CAFÉ). MATIAS MØLLENBACH: STRIPED RUG (RECEPTION). THE SOCIALITE FAMILY: ROUND TABLES, CHAIRS (COFFEE BAR, CAFÉ), STOOLS (LOUNGE) MUUTO: SQUARE TABLES (COFFEE BAR). FREDERICIA: SQUARE TABLE CHAIRS. AYTM: RUGS (CAFÉ). MANGANÈSE ÉDITIONS: PICNIC TABLES. VITRA: CHAIRS (OPEN OFFICE), ARMCHAIRS (LOUNGE). ZERO: PENDANT FIXTURES (OPEN OFFICE). UNIFOR: CUSTOM DESKING. PEDRALI: HIGHBACK SOFA (LOUNGE). MINIFORMS: COFFEE TABLE. MARTEX: HIGH TABLE.
THROUGHOUT EGE: CARPET. KVADRAT: CHAIR UPHOLSTERY. UNIKALO: PAINT.

Inside A Workplace That Embodies The Spirit Of NYC

For a financial services firm, Macquarie Group is unusually invested in design. Glass pods project into an atrium at the Australian company’s futuristic headquarters in Sydney, while a slinky red staircase unifies its London office. It even has an in-house global design director, Andrew Burdick, a licensed architect who previously specialized in civic work. “Design is part of Macquarie’s business strategy,” he explains. The firm aims to be open, innovative, and human-centered—and believes its workplaces should be too.

So when Macquarie issued an RFP for its new Americas headquarters in New York, it wasn’t a typical problem statement, but a design document. “It was about the human experience the office should deliver,” remembers Kate Thatcher, principal and CEO of Architecture Plus Information, which won the bid in 2022. Macquarie envisioned a flexible, sustainable workspace to promote collaboration and informal interactions, bringing together groups that were siloed in its old location. It needed to function, Burdick says, as “a machine for business,” where 1,100 employees come together to create—that is, like a small city.

Architecture Plus Information Crafts A Human-Centered Hub

Working closely with Burdick, A+I conceived elevated, welcoming interiors that draw on urban design. “The narrative arc is that you are occupying a microcosm of New York City,” says A+I principal and chief strategy officer Peter Knutson. Macquarie’s 260,000-square-foot office occupies nine floors, seven of which, 10 through 16, are contiguous; it has an additional 25,000 square feet of outdoor space on multiple terraces. The plan and palette quietly reinforce the urban narrative at every turn.

The site, 660 Fifth Avenue, had some distinct advantages. Constructed in 1957, it was renovated in 2022 by Kohn Pederson Fox, which replaced the existing aluminum cladding with a curtain wall made of 11-by-19-foot glass panels to maximize natural light. Low ceiling heights, though, were a downside.

NYC Views + Welcoming Interiors Bring This Workplace To Life

“The first thing that stood out was how amazing the views were—and how challenging it was when you stepped back from the windows,” Knutson recalls. The question was how to open up the space without creating a multistory atrium, which would trigger burdensome mechanical requirements. A+I needed to cut holes in the floors so the workplace felt lofty and impressive, yet could still be segmented with fire shutters. “Job one was to figure out where the holes would be and how to make them as small but impactful as possible,” Knutson adds.

The solution was a communicating stair that A+I dubbed the “Avenue,” its location shifting across the floor plates. It effectively runs on a diagonal, like Broadway, from the west side of the 16th floor down to the east side of the 10th, ending at a town square that faces the office’s largest terrace overlooking Fifth Avenue. “The stair is a sort of drifting atrium,” Thatcher explains. A visitor can stand at the bottom and see almost all the way up. “There’s a sense of grandeur without being overwhelming,” Burdick notes, because the low ceilings, cafés, and lounges around it give it a human scale. “They allow you to be a protected individual connected to this larger entity.”

Pops Of Color Enliven This Manhattan HQ

Perforated-steel panels painted a warm brass make the stair pop. Macquarie has colorful staircases in other offices and sought to continue the tradition here. A+I chose a hue that evokes the city’s sunsets and ubiquitous brass detailing: “It’s subtle but feels familiar and germane to the location,” Thatcher says. An LED strip under the handrail enhances the glow.

The site had one other hitch: The curtain wall’s large glass panels have no mullions. “Essentially, it meant that closed rooms on the perimeter had to be the minimum of the structural grid,” Thatcher says, or about 20 feet wide. The constraint forced A+I to use the perimeter for open workstations and large meeting rooms, but not private offices. “It democratized access to light and air,” Thatcher says. And it led the team to embrace the grid throughout.

Embracing The NYC Grid Through Design

“Rooms that front the Avenue borrow language from the exterior windows,” Knutson says. “They tend to be column bay to column bay with a similar surround as the windows on the facade.” Black panels made partly of recycled paper mimic steel frames around glass-walled meeting rooms. Planters along the windows further blur the boundary between inside and out. “One of the most successful things the team did was really value the asset itself,” Burdick says. “The 1957 structural grid becomes the character-defining aspect of the Avenue space, and that is both purposeful and required.” The floor plan also alludes to Manhattan’s grid, helping employees instinctively navigate the space.

Along the Avenue, each floor is segmented into neighborhoods, or sections of the business. Some are behind information barriers to comply with regulations, so A+I thought of them like the city’s stoops; they’re semiprivate but linked via the stair. Color palettes subtly demarcate these spaces. Terra-cotta tones, referring to brownstones, signal work zones, while live plants and shades of green fill common areas along the Avenue. Every inch is conceived for productivity: Employees can plug in on the terraces, in high-backed lounge chairs, or at café tables. People from different business units inevitably meet.

Since the HQ opened in October, hybrid workers are coming in more often. Employees are bumping into new colleagues, taking calls outside, and hosting impromptu happy hours. “It looks and feels better as architecture with people in it,” Knutson says. Buzzing with activity, it’s practically a sidewalk ballet.

Tour Macquarie Group’s HQ By Architecture Plus Information

Taking Steps In The Right Direction

ARCHITECTURE PLUS INFORMATION: ELIANE MAILLOT; CHRIS SHELLEY; JENNIFER WICHTOWSKI; JESS WANG; ANDREW MCBRIDE; CHERYL BAXTER; VICTOR GALLOWAY; BRENTON SMITH; VANÉ BROUSSARD; RINA SEBASTIAN; NICO MARTIN; MING BAI. BLONDIE’S TREEHOUSE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. LIGHTING WORKSHOP: LIGHTING DESIGN. TYLIN: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. AMA: MEP. MILLERBLAKER: MILLWORK. M COHEN AND SONS: STAIR FABRICATOR. DRIVE 21: CUSTOM WAYFINDING SIGNAGE. JT MAGEN & CO.: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT MOROSO: SEATING (RECEPTION). MOHAWK: CUSTOM RUGS (RECEPTIONS, TOWN SQUARE). NAUGHTONE: CHAIR PODS (12TH FLOOR). DIVISON TWELVE: BLUE CHAIRS. COALESSE: TABLES. DESIGNTEX: GRAY SOFA FABRIC. CRÉATION BAUMANN: CURTAINS (MEETING ROOM). WATSON FURNITURE: COMMUNAL TABLE (LIBRARY). HOLLIS+MORRIS: PENDANT FIXTURES. BLU DOT: SOFA, SIDE TABLES (LOUNGE). WEST ELM: COFFEE TABLE. LAPALMA THROUGH M2L: SOFAS (GUEST RECEPTION). VICCARBE: TABLES. ANDREU WORLD: SOFA (TOWN SQUARE). AXOLIGHT: PENDANT FIXTURES. ARPER: SIDE TABLES. PEDRALI: TABLES (TERRACE). UHURU DESIGN: CUSTOM TABLETOPS. ISIMAR: CHAIRS. STYLEX: CHAIRS (LIBRARY, TOWN SQUARE). MILLERKNOLL: TABLE (TOWN SQUARE). THROUGHOUT RICHLITE: BLACK PANELING. BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT.

Step Into The Dreamy W Prague Embodying Art Nouveau Charm

In picturesque Prague, with its centuries-spanning medley of architectural styles, there’s no shortage of distinctive hotels for the 8 million or so visitors who descend upon the Czech capital every year. But it’s fair to say that there is nothing like the W Prague, which celebrated its official unveiling in March, following a near decade-long refurbishment and restoration of its protected heritage building, a swaggering art nouveau gem on Wenceslas Square, in the heart of the city.

The richly ornamented facade, dating to 1905, the height of art-nouveau fever in Eastern Europe, has been spruced up—verdigris and gold on swirling ironwork balconies, candy-red on window mullions, fresh gilding on the sculpture that crowns the confectionlike pediment at the top. Grand Hotel Europa, the name the property was given in the ’50’s, remains. But just above, a modest but unmistakable golden W has been added, heralding a new era.

A Whimsical Welcome Into The W Prague

W Hotels and its parent company, Marriott International, were brought in to redevelop and manage the 19,380-square-foot property, which had changed hands a few times since the late ’80’s and been shuttered since 2013. The updates, including an elliptical, nine-story extension behind the seven-story hotel, involved multiple firms. London-headquartered firm Benoy oversaw the architecture for the new wing, based on concepts by Czech studio DAM.architekti. International outfit Chapman Taylor, which has an office in Prague, headed up restoration of the historical spaces, worked with Czech heritage authorities, oversaw the design rollout of the spa and standard guest rooms, and served as the project’s architect of record. While AvroKO, the U.S. firm with two international studios that has already put its mark on nearly a dozen Marriott properties, with more in the works, was enlisted to tie it all together, masterminding key public areas and the hotel’s premium suites, while collaborating with Chapman Taylor on light fixtures, tilework, and dining and bar spaces that combine old and new.

“When we were approached about this project and first saw pictures of the building, the noise heard throughout our studio was of jaws hitting the floor—it’s just so incredible,” AvroKO cofounding partner Adam Farmerie recalls. The creative challenge, he explains, was to layer in original contemporary elements that would speak to the historical parts in ways that feel authentic, steering clear of pastiche. “We knew trying to replicate actual art nouveau details would be a disaster,” he continues. “Instead, we had to find solutions that created a bridge to the past.”

How W Prague Mixes Czech History With Modernity

The AvroKO team, led by its London office and the design director there, senior associate and architect Alex Reed, came up with three main pillars of inspiration to build a visual narrative, beginning with the organic foliate and floral forms associated with art nouveau, notably the work of Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. Expanding upon that movement’s connections not only to nature but also to symbolism and mysticism, they developed a concept they referred to as “the fantastical garden,” Reed says, “very whimsical, sort of magical, a place of escapism.”

A third pillar was elixirs and alchemy, which enjoyed a heyday in 16th-century Prague. “Tying in these ideas about substances that could transform base metals into gold or were medicinal potions believed to cure all ills and give eternal life felt very apt,” Reed explains. Manifestations of these visual influences are woven throughout the 161-room hotel, not least in the atmospheric lobby, where the sumptuous art-nouveau lighting, plasterwork, and mosaic flooring have been meticulously restored. For guest check-in, AvroKO conceived shimmering brass desks that stand before an arched niche inset with colorful square tiles made by Preciosa, the venerable Czech glass company. Their radiant gold and jewellike tones establish the palette that is carried throughout.

Radiant Tones Establish The Palette Inside This Hotel

The same Czech company also crafted the majestic pendant fixtures that hang in the atrium and the grand staircase. The latter is a shower of variously shaped crystals that cascade down in between the graceful ironwork balustrades in a “modern meets heritage moment,” as Reed puts it, “where you feel the exciting vibe of the hotel but cut with Czech history.”

More such moments can be found across the project, whether in the Bisou lounge, a lavishly paneled belle epoque room where guests can enjoy a glass of champagne seated on shapely custom sofas, while perching their flutes on faceted mirror cocktail tables that nod to Czech Cubism. Or downstairs on the clubby Minus One level, Occulto, a former beer hall with exquisite art-nouveau paneling, tilework, stained-glass, and hand-painted murals, has been updated with a bar in polished stainless steel inspired by a vintage cigar box. “With such a robust heritage backdrop, bringing in this kind of modernity just punches away from it as a contrast,” Reed says.

AvroKO Injects Garden Flourishes Into The W Prague

For the transition from the historic building to the new one, AvroKO leaned into the fantastical garden theme, concocting a dramatic emerald and gold corridor draped in velvet curtains embroidered with grasses, flowers, hummingbirds, and butterflies. Floral pendants add to the effect, one that Farmerie describes as “feeling like you are walking through a dream.”

Emerging into the new building, the vibe shifts in the W lounge, an all-day space featuring different types of seating in a variety of configurations for everything from brunch to business meetings to cocktails with live DJs. While there are allusions to art nouveau, the aesthetic also flashes mid-century chic—poured terrazzo flooring, groovy fireplaces, curvy Vladimir Kagan–like sofas, columns that disappear into circular lighting coves à la Morris Lapidus. Anchoring it all is a showstopping 30-foot-long serpentine bar, behind which a sculptural bottle display playfully evokes the top of an eye. “There are unexpected moments as you walk through,” says Reed, who notes that in warmer weather, the fun spills outside into the garden, where a live green wall is inset with a cozy seating nook.

W Prague Amps Up The Glamour

When it came to designing the guest rooms, AvroKO focused exclusively on 14 suites, most of which are in the new extension, highlighted by the E-Wow suite. Described as W’s “modern interpretation of a presidential suite,” the 1,000-square-foot, eighth-floor room amps up the glamour with richly veined stone countertops and expansive rooftop views. As with all the suites in the addition, the rounded form made for “an interesting variety of room shapes,” Reed notes. AvroKO embraced the quirkiness with lots of mirror, gleaming metallics, and sculptural furnishings that add to the visual dynamism.

At the top of the original building, two loftlike Wow Bohemia duplexes take a similar approach, only here the palette is deep reds and golds, while sumptuous furnishings compellingly contrast with exposed timber beams, a reminder of the hotel’s distinguished history. Says Farmerie, “We were chuffed to have the opportunity to breathe new life into it.”

Stay A Night At The W Prague By AvroKO

Art Nouveau Touches Elevate The W Prague To The Next Level

AVROKO: KRISTINA O’NEAL; GREG BRADSHAW; WILLIAM HARRIS; ED ROJAS; ZHENG XU. CHAPMAN TAYLOR: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. RTLD: LIGHTING DESIGNER. ATELIÉR; DMM; STILLES: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOPS. EXX: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT
ADAM ELLIS STUDIO: CUSTOM CURTAINS (HALL). MAORA CERAMICS: TILE. POLSTRIN DESIGN: CUSTOM SEATING (ATRIUM LOUNGE). POTS: PLANTERS. PORCELANOSA: CUSTOM BAR FACE (W LOUNGE). D3LAB: CUSTOM BARBACK. EXX: CUSTOM COLUMN HEADS. WOKA LAMPS VIENNA: BAR LAMPS (POPPY). GREEN4LIFE: GREEN WALL (GARDEN). APPIANI; BALINEUM; SENIO: MOTTLED TILE (MINUS ONE). THROUGHOUT PRECIOSA: CUSTOM LIGHT FIXTURES, CUSTOM TILEWORK. AXPRO CONCEPT: CUSTOM CARPET, CUSTOM RUGS. CHELSEA TEXTILES: SEATING FABRIC.