Godiva Chocolatier’s 43,000 sf global headquarters relocation was a consolidation from several non-contiguous spaces at 355 Lexington Avenue onto the sixth and seventh floors at 333 West 34th Street in Manhattan. Newly acquired by a Turkish luxury goods holding company, Godiva was eager to plan their new offices from a strategic perspective in order to celebrate and promote their global brand.
The process started with an IDEA Session, led by Mancini•Duffy, which uncovered how Godiva worked, how their brand impacted their culture, and provided direction for planning a space that best supported both their work and their brand. It outlined necessary adjacencies for improved workflow; pinpointed what could be standardized; and generated ideas as to what sort of standards would suit Godiva, all of which Godiva found invaluable.
Working with Godiva’s store design team, Mancini•Duffy created an imaginative space that incorporates elements of refinement that reflect Godiva’s latest store design, with its emphasis on rich materials and high-finish detail. We broke up the floor plate of the office floor into three distinct “neighborhoods,” divided by internal offices; a balance of glass-fronted offices and open-plan workstations with low dividers, the space is light and open. Mancini•Duffy created a stair that links the reception and client-facing areas, among them the new 1,000-sf mock store. Connected to a 1,000-sf multi-purpose space that includes a café for events, the unique mock store allows Godiva’s creative teams to design and stage new displays and store products for the benefit of buyers. Designed to be a flexible space that can easily evolve to meet Godiva’s changing needs, the new offices have an overall palette marked by our client’s famous product: rich and luxurious chocolate.