Using interior design to convey corporate identity

Real Estate Weekly, March 16, 2005 by Al D'Elia

It takes less than three minutes for someone to form a first impression of your office space. Whether they are right or wrong, conclusions formed from that first look may be applied to everything from your style of business to your technological prowess to the way you treat employees, warn psychologists. In short, if your offices look messy, disorganized or just plain tired, that glimpse can turn into a lasting image of your company that is very hard to change.

Just like people make strong first impressions, so does office space. A well planned and designed layout can help you to win new business, recruit talented employees and establish relationships with suppliers. Unfortunately, many offices just say go away.

Wonderfully evocative, well designed spaces show us that it certainly doesn't have to be that way.

The New York headquarters for luxury goods conglomerate LVMH rises as a shimmering geometric tower above 57th Street. Inside are offices for executives at Guerlain, Louis Vuitton and Givenchy. Each of these products has its own identity and Hillier Architecture's interior designs ensure that offices are an extension of their individual brands.

Imagine the luxurious ocean liners of the past--the Mauretania, the Aquitania and other steamships that once sailed under the Cunard Line--and you're picturing the elegant look of the four floors devoted to Louis Vuitton. The floor-to-ceiling finely milled cabinets hold Louis Vuitton valises, clutches and bags, and just like an elegant closet in a first-class ocean-liner cabin, they neatly close creating clean wooden walls.

Creating office space that evokes a product or a corporate brand takes answers to challenging questions. What kind of a company are we? Do we want to come across as informal and hip or serious and experienced? Are we into European, Asian or Midwestern values? Do we favor collaboration or solitary work or some combination of the two?

For executives planning the Richmond, Virginia administrative headquarters for Capital One, a leading financial services firm, answering that question was easy. Collaboration is at the heart of the firm's culture. Its headquarters for almost 9,000 people conveys collaboration at every turn. An interior "main street" links the campus' ten major buildings. Collaborative spaces--cafes, huddle rooms, conference centers and cozy nooks--line the street. Large dining areas, which are often "dead ends" in corporate campuses are used like joints and connect one building to the next. In this way, these dining areas encourage chance meetings not only among people getting a bite to eat, but also among those walking between buildings.

An office of any size--a large corporate campus or the exclusive headquarters for a boutique service firm--can build a company's brand, provided it is well designed. When it is finished, the new office of Peconic Partners will overlook Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan and establish the hedge-fund as a modern purveyor of oldworld financial services. The 7,000square-foot space exudes elegance and timeless style.

An understated lobby, complete with two generous alcoves for art, greets visitors.

Large doors with opaque glass panes signal the entrance to the office. Inside, semi-private work stations with an anigre veneer and dark stain sit adjacent to large, glass-walled conference rooms for group work or confidential client meetings. The office will be furnished with 1920s and 30s vintage artwork from a private collection. A large, iron clock face, salvaged from a building marked for demolition, hangs prominently in the boardroom. The latest technological resources provide the finishing touches.

Corporate identity is much more than a name. It reflects the company's goals, strengths, personality and philosophy. Used wisely, interior design can convey all this in the first meeting.

BY AL D'ELIA, AIA, DIRECTOR OF INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE, HILLIER ARCHITECTURE NEW YORK