To serve a mobile workforce, the two-floor, 17,000-sq-ft space maximizes collaboration through casual spaces and 60 open workstations. The design allows agile teaming and individual, heads-down work using an open layout that also includes two lounges, 10 phone booths, seven huddle rooms and three small meeting rooms. The biggest challenge was creating a unified community on two floors accessed by a common staircase located inconveniently in a remote corner. To overcome this situation, the team carved out an opening between the floors for a new “communicating stair,” which also created outdoor views via the building’s large ribbon windows. 

Constructing the staircase required extensive coordination and planning to isolate peripheral building utilities before workers began removing an entire column bay worth of structure. Scaffolding and temporary railings were required to keep all workers safe for a period of several months while reworking the opening and awaiting steel and glass stair finishes.