Architect: TPG Architecture
Location of Project: Winston Salem, NC
Project Completion Date: December, 2015
Short Description: MullenLowe engaged TPG to design its new campus in Winston-Salem, NC: a 37,500 square foot space in the city’s newly developed Innovation Quarter. The office design was an opportunity to create a strong communications touchpoint expressing MullenLowe’s identity as “challenger” in the advertising industry, a scrappy do-everything ad firm with a global reach. MullenLowe’s staff work in multiple disciplines for diverse clientele, so their space had to be flexible and inspirational. The program required an assortment of collaborative spaces including conference rooms, huddle booths, photo and recording studios, and a media screening room with stadium seating.
Architect’s Statement: MullenLowe engaged the Architect to design its new office in Winston-Salem, NC: a 37,500 square foot space in the city’s newly developed Innovation Quarter. The space itself was breathtaking when the design team first walked through; built in the 1930’s, the building was originally a tobacco factory and is a landmark under the protection of the National Park Service. A large, deep floorplate, 14’ ceilings and metal-frame windows were the raw materials that provided the framework for MullenLowe’s new offices. The design concept was to respect and celebrate the existing structure, leaving the walls and ceiling untouched by using floating free forms – rectangular boxes built between the columns – to create space within the space. These intersecting boxes bring focus and continuity to the plan, dividing the raw space into functional neighborhoods and providing myriad open and inspiring creative environments. Structural columns and beams were left exposed, still coated with nearly a century of layered paint, which was minimally sandblasted to prevent peeling. Finishes and furniture were inspired by the raw space; the free form boxes are clad in plywood and dark-gray painted sheetrock, while the chair colors were sampled from the peeling paint on the concrete walls. A system of perforated metal screens was devised to allow for magnetic pin-up space throughout the office without interrupting the openness and fluidity of the floor. Reception was organized at an existing open atrium with stairs to the lobby, and a large, open café/town hall space is directly behind that in the southeast corner of the floor. The program required an assortment of collaborative spaces including conference rooms, huddle booths, photo and recording studios, and a media screening room with stadium seating. Client Objectives: MullenLowe’s staff work in multiple disciplines for diverse clientele, so their space had to be flexible and inspirational. The program required an assortment of collaborative spaces including conference rooms, huddle booths, photo and recording studios, and a media screening room with stadium seating. The client wanted the design to celebrate the existing structure, a repurposed century-old tobacco processing plant, wanting it to look like they had moved in without altering the existing space at all. By using floating free form boxes to create a space within the space, the walls and ceiling were left untouched. These intersecting boxes provide myriad open and inspiring creative environments. Structural concrete walls, columns, and beams were left exposed, still coated with nearly a century of layered paint, which was minimally sandblasted to prevent peeling. Finishes and furniture were inspired by the raw space; the free form boxes were clad in plywood and dark-gray painted sheetrock, while the chair colors were sampled from the peeling paint on the concrete walls.
