When software company, Expensify, needed a new office in Portland, Ore., it wanted to ensure the space reflected the culture of the company. It turned to ZGF Architects, Portland, to deliver on that promise.
A modern take on office space thrives within a landmark building
The space itself was unique. The First National Bank Building, built in 1916, sits on a corner in downtown Portland and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been dubbed the “marble temple.”
The result was a unique, modern, sculptural design nestled within a gilt-edged marble space that caught the attention of the Metal Architecture Design Award judges. “It’s a great example of the juxtaposition of new and old,” says Charles Bloszies, FAIA, SE, LEED AP, principal, Office of Charles F. Bloszies FAIA Ltd., San Francisco. Steven Ginn, founding principal of Steven Ginn Architects, Omaha, Neb., says, “It’s precisely done, and it celebrates the new construction without trying to intimidate the existing building.”
Photos: Garrett Rowland
Cultural Influence
To understand the design decisions, you have to understand the culture of Expensify, which leased the space and doesn’t own the building, itself a limiting factor in the design. Alan Gerencer, principal, ZGF Architects, says “[The CEO, David Barrett,] told me, ‘We have two lines in our policy. Number one, get s*** done. Number two, don’t ruin it for anybody else. That’s what you really want your employees to do. Do their work, and be kind to the people you work with.’ It works really well for them.”
Expensify takes its entire staff on a retreat for a month every year. It can be anywhere in the world, and the two requirements are that it has to have a beach and Wi-Fi. That’s when they do their strategic planning, brainstorming and team building. “This is important because a lot of the inspiration we got for some of the elements in their space because it’s such an integral part of their culture,” says Gerencer. One example is a hanging bed that was inspired by a wicker beach bed in Cambodia.
Spatial Influence
The bank is a three-story space with a mezzanine. Inside the front doors, stairs lead up to the lobby area, which is a large, white volume edged in gold filigree. “When we walked in it was just this beautiful blank slate, and I like to think of it as art with a beautiful frame and nothing is painted on the canvas yet. It was an opportunity to paint that canvas.”
Barrett told Gerencer, “Our people can work literally anywhere in the world. You need to design a space where they want to work. And, by the way, we don’t have workstations. No one owns anything. We don’t have reservable conference rooms. And we have all of these personalities that we want to make them as efficient and happy as possible.”
“We call it 100 percent agile seating,” says Gerencer. “You sit where you want to and what’s available. You make yourself comfortable. They very often move throughout the day. Some of them every 20 minutes. Some every three or four hours. Some don’t move all day. We needed a variety of spaces, including variations in size, the amount of ambient noise, the level of light, the amount of natural daylight. We have three, four or sometimes five generations sometimes working in the exact same place, so we have to give them variety.”
The space contains small sitting areas; a huge, long table; pods for sales people to make phone calls; a kitchen area; the hanging bed; the bank vault; an executive washroom behind a hidden door in the president’s office; and the very prominent small offices rising along the stairs at the end of the lobby area that serve as the focal point of the interior.
The Sculpture
To capture the drama of the existing space, Gerencer and his team identified the area at the top of the stairs as the spot for something special. “Wouldn’t it be cool if there were something here at the top of the stairs,” he says, “that not only was welcoming, but used the otherwise unusable space in this beautiful building. We had this huge volume and it’s a great opportunity to connect all of these floors with a stair.”
The result is a sculpture of stairs and work areas, clad in brass-colored aluminum that rises off the main floor and ascends to the upper reaches. Each work area is transparent, revealing the staff and welcoming others. The solid wall along the stairs provides some privacy, but the whole of the sculpture is a defined workspace that also provides a transit to other parts of the building. “The idea behind all of those interventions was to highlight the existing architecture and to detract from it,” says Gerencer. “That whole sculpture is completely removable.”
The judges noted the thinness of the floors in the workspace and lightness of the overall sculpture. This was accounted for in the selection of the material wrapping it.
“They considered natural brass,” says Geoffrey Hahn, creative director, Pure+Freeform, St. Paul, Minn. His company did the coating on the 3-mm aluminum sheets that fasten to the sides of the work areas. The inspiration for the color came from the brass that was being used for a lot of the hardware. “That provided the manuscript to do a match,” says Hahn.
The brightness of the space meant the installation of the large sheets needed to be clean and without dimples. A fastening system using countersunk screws that were coated to match the sheet allowed the team to place large sheets and not working about warping or dimples.
