Photography by Garrett Rowland
If popular culture is often the stage on which social change advances, it’s no surprise that our firm’s design for a confidential company’s new office in Southern California raises the bar on workplace inclusion. This client’s commitment to providing a platform for underrepresented voices is mirrored in its insistence that its work environment tell the same story.
Our design recognizes in the company’s embrace of diversity, equity, and inclusion a new goal for workplace design: cultural sustainability. These 10 floors are built to last by being built to welcome change. Like a story endlessly adaptable to new interpretations, they provide a framework for the cycles of creativity that flow through them and the surprises that new voices and perspectives inevitably bring.
The design team’s light bulb moment was the realization that every person entering the building was embarked on his or her own story. From there it was a short leap to making the journey through different levels of a narrative the design motif for moving through levels of the building. Every floor takes its design cues from the spirit of a character and opens interactions to the widest possible range of users.
Orchestrating a complex assembly of spaces, many with highly specialized functions, O+A used subtle design choices to weave a parallel harmony of inclusion throughout the workplace. Gender-neutral restrooms, lighting keyed to circadian rhythms, biophilic installations and outdoor access above ground level all rooted the project in down-to-earth values. To promote accessibility designers used colors and textures as wayfinding aids and made floor plans intuitive by placing elevators and ramps where users would expect them to be. A family room, meditation spaces, retreat areas with light and acoustic options for neurodiverse sensibilities—the depth of the client’s commitment to wellbeing on this project was in our firm’s experience unprecedented.
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