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    Gensler redesigns its own LA office to have “warmth and comfort” of home

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    The team at global architecture firm Gensler’s Los Angeles office has redesigned a floor of its workspace with a hospitality approach, as a pilot for the remaining spaces.

    The Gensler LA team’s renovated its space to give it more of the “warmth and comfort” that its staff became used to during its time working from home.
    The team at Gensler LA redesigned the third floor of their offices to better suit their current workplace needsThe studio’s return to the office post-pandemic came seven years into a 15-year lease of its spaces in Downtown Los Angeles, the firm had converted from an empty bank building in 2011 then expanded to two floors in an adjacent, connected structure.
    With a growing workforce and a desire to rethink the layout, functionality and appearance of the office, a group of the studio’s “next generation” of designers and strategists led an effort to redesign the interiors of the third floor.
    The pilot project incorporates several products from Gensler collaborations, including open shelving and communal tables”The look and feel of our space, though contemporary, lacked the warmth and comfort of the hospitality touches we integrate for our clients’ workspaces and that we had become accustomed to while working from home,” Gensler senior strategist Sarah Koos told Dezeen.

    “Coupled with the changing nature of hybrid work, the space necessitated a transformation that would support a renewed sense of a work-lifestyle.”
    A warm aesthetic that captures the essence of Los Angeles was chosen for the interiorsThe group spent a year listening and learning from surveys, workshops and feedback sessions in which each of the 500-plus employees was able to have a say about their future work environment.
    Many team members had been highly mobile even before hybrid working became popular, so the previous dedicated desk system seemed redundant.
    “Working from home for two years effectively rewired peoples’ expectations of their work environments, a sterile, single-use corporate office no longer spoke to the warmth, variety, and comfort they were afforded in their own homes,” said Koos.
    Plenty of lounge areas with comfy seating were created for employees to useThey therefore set about redesigning the offices with a focus on flexibility, communal work areas and presentation spaces.
    “Rather than confine our designers to a desk or a conference room, we developed a kit-of-parts inclusive of typical sit-stand workstations, communal tables, focus pods, booths, material layout islands, and more,” said Gensler senior designer Kirk Bairian.
    “Gensler is built on a studio system which is critical to our design culture, and each studio was able to use this kit-of-parts to customise their space to reflect the specific ways in which they work.”
    The team devised a “kit of parts” for the different studios to customise their own workspacesA warm, hospitality-forward aesthetic that mirrors the “informal but elevated, casual but curated” essence of Los Angeles was chosen.
    Materials including maple plywood, blackened metal and subtle textiles provide a backdrop for more colourful additions in the form of ever-changing pin-up display boards, styled shelving, artwork by local students and books from local creative businesses.

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    Lounge-style furniture and jewel-toned textiles are placed in the co-working areas to evoke a hotel lobby or coffee shop vibe.
    Several of Gensler’s furniture and fixture collaborations were also introduced, among them the communal tables and open shelcves from a product line created with Fantoni and custom focus pods from a partnership with Tangram’s Studio Other.
    Traditional conference rooms are available alongside more flexible spaces for group workSince the project completed in 2023, the data from badges suggest that employee office attendance has increased by 35 per cent for the studios located in the renovated pilot space, according to the firm.
    “Studios in the new space shared that they felt that working in the renovated space made them more productive, enabled more effective collaboration, and overall, greatly improved their in-office experience,” the team added.
    Maple plywood and blackened metal were among the materials chosen to give the space more of a hospitality feelGensler is the world’s largest architecture firm and has locations 53 locations globally. Its European head offices in Wapping, London, was longlisted in the business building category of Dezeen Awards 2020.
    In 2022, co-CEO Andy Cohen told Dezeen in an exclusive interview that architecture should abandon “top-down” management to improve working conditions.

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      Gensler and Sterling Bay design Chicago laboratory to resemble a hotel

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      Light-filled spaces, neutral-toned furniture and a sculptural spiral staircase bring a hospitality feeling to this life sciences building in Chicago, designed by architecture studio Gensler and developer Sterling Bay.

      The eight-storey 1229 W Concord Place building is located at the Lincoln Yards development, northwest of Downtown Chicago and beside the north branch of the Chicago River.
      The building’s double-height lobby features comfy lounge areasIntended to bring much-needed lab spaces to this part of the city, which has a growing scientific community, the building’s developer Sterling Bay hopes it will foster collaborative research and new medical breakthroughs.
      “The new lab space will house world-class innovators and industry-leading companies that seek to develop groundbreaking medical solutions in Chicago and create a sense of community within their workplace,” said the project team.
      A spiral staircase connects the lobby with the floor aboveGensler’s Chicago office worked with Sterling Bay’s in-house design studio on both the architecture and interiors, with a focus on natural light and “bright, airy, open spaces”.

      The building is clad almost entirely in glass, which wraps around its curved corners, while terraces are cut into the side facing the river and the skyline.
      Neutral-toned wood panelling and furniture create a hospitality-style aestheticIn the double-height lobby, the stark white interiors are warmed by brass accents and soft, neutral-toned furniture.
      Several seating areas comprising comfy sofas and accent chairs are arranged on large textured rugs, and dotted with planting.
      The warm material palette continues in the elevator bankPanels of vertical wooden louvres and shelving provide a backdrop to these lounges, creating a scene that looks more like a hotel lobby than a science centre.
      A sculptural spiral staircase connecting the ground and first floors is loosely based on a DNA helix.
      Open floor plans and dedicated conference rooms are filled with natural lightThis feature provides another focal point in the lobby, which also doubles as a large meeting space and a reception area for events.
      “With warm hospitality-inspired interiors, sophisticated communal spaces, and a robust amenity selection centred around wellness, the design provides future tenants the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research in a space that prioritises the wellbeing of scientists,” Steph Geronimo Smothers, vice president of design at Sterling Bay, told Dezeen.

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      The amenities offered to tenants include a fitness centre, a cafe and conference spaces, while flexible floor plans allow tenants to customise their workspaces to suit their needs.
      The building also features Circadian rhythm lighting, which mimics changing daylight conditions to improve mood and sleep cycles.
      Staff can utilise the expansive terraces accessible from each of the building’s eight storeysStaff are encouraged to spill out onto the large outdoor terraces, accessible from every floor, and make the most of the fresh air.
      “1229 West Concord’s panoramic city views and expansive riverside terraces create a deep connection to nature, bringing in natural light and fresh air and pushing the boundaries of modern lab space to encourage blue-sky thinking and collaboration,” said Geronimo Smothers.
      The glass-wrapped building overlooks the Chicago River and the city skyline beyondOther laboratory buildings with unconventional architecture and interiors include the Walton Center of Planetary Health at Arizona State University, which Grimshaw and Architekton based on natural elements such as rocks and saguaro cacti.
      Gensler’s Chicago office also recently completed a series of renovations to the city’s sprawling 1930s The Merchandise Mart.
      The photography is by Hal + Merick + McCaugherty.

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      Concrete creates art-oriented space for CitizenM's first Miami hotel

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      Dutch hotel group CitizenM has opened a hotel in Downtown Miami in a high-rise building with multiple terraces that was designed to be a “3D art piece”.

      For the 277-foot-tall (84-metre-tall) building in Downtown Miami, Amsterdam-based architecture studio Concrete worked with Gensler as the local architect to carry out the design of the tower.
      Concrete worked with Gensler to create a CitizenM hotel in MiamiThe envelope features large swathes of concrete and glass organised in a series of discreet boxes that break up the massing of the facade.
      Since construction, much of the facade has been dedicated to a massive mural by American artist Jen Stark.
      The hotel was designed to showcase local artists”The architecture is considered as a 3D art piece with large colorful murals by Jenny Stark on every side of the building; by this the building is recognizable among all the other buildings,” said Concrete.

      “By using twisted boxes, you can experience the art from all sides.”
      Vitra supplied most of the hotel’s furnitureInside, a glass-lined entryway is meant to act as an “art gallery” as visitors access the set of elevators that go up to the lobby level on the second floor.
      The lobby space features a number of modular couches, workstations and plenty of light, with exposed concrete beams supporting a ceiling with wood accents.

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      Also on the second floor is the canteen area, which features a black-and-white checkered floor and a wraparound bar with a black marble countertop and wood panelling topped with a hanging bar cage that holds a number of plants.
      The 20-storey building has 252 rooms, as well as a series of meeting rooms on the third floor. The rooms are mostly micro-suites, with some of the smallest clocking in at less than 200 square feet (60 metres).
      The second storey includes workspaces and terracesDespite the small size, most of the rooms have an extra large bed that sits under the window with storage space underneath.
      The bathrooms are tucked across from a compact sink and wrapped in polycarbonate that has been outfitted with LED lights. These can be controlled through a tablet that manages most of the room’s functions, including the blinds, television and room services.
      Throughout the property, most of the furniture was sourced from Swiss furniture company Vitra, with whom the hotel chain has a long-standing relationship.
      The hotel features a series of micro-suitesFor decoration, the hotel held a competition that selected local artists. CitizenM Miami Brickell is also the first location to have a rooftop pool for the brand.
      Since its inception in 2008, the hotel chain has expanded internationally with 27 hotels, and the hotel plans to open two more in Miami.
      Earlier this year, CitizenM announced a project that aimed to make it the first hospitality company to have a hotel in the digital space known as the Metaverse.

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