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Building on our decade-long relationship with MathWorks, Gensler was engaged to reposition a 1990’s office building on their Apple Hill campus. The project focused on updating the design and programming of the entire 3-story building to embody the workplace strategy of the campus building and align with the organization’s workstyle. While the existing program of individual offices was effective for independent and focus work, the project team saw an opportunity to develop rich amenities and technology-supported team spaces to encourage collaboration and support MathWorks’ strong organizational culture. At the project’s outset and together with the client, we identified three key guiding principles to inform the design: the space must increase transparency, improve connectivity, and create purposeful pathways throughout the building. With these objectives in mind, we designed the central hub to engage upon arrival and to function as a connector of the building’s two wings. The hub design is vital to support collaboration and culture by encouraging teams to venture outside of their immediate workspace. A series of micro-environments are purposefully located adjacent to the central stair, providing spaces for informal meetings, collaboration sessions, and lunch and coffee breaks that bring together groups across and between floors. For each space type we sought to balance comfort, privacy and visual connectivity.
The centerpiece of the hub is a grand sculptural stair that is generously sized to allow for impromptu conversations as employees move through the building’s three floors. This dynamic vertical experience provides both visual and physical connectivity, serving as a catalyst for unplanned interactions. The open and elegant design of the stair was achieved by concealing the structure into the vertical brass rods and balancing the opening size and existing FAR to eliminate the need for any fire shutters.
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Photo Cred; © Garrett Rowland
