Remedy Partners is a young tech company that develops software solutions for healthcare finance management, building networks of providers and integrating them into management tools.
Having outgrown its previous 10,000 square foot offices, it tasked Amenta Emma Architects with developing a new, more progressive headquarters located in Darien, Connecticut, and spread across a much larger 33,000 square feet.
Remedy Partners’ president and CEO was emphatic in his vision for the company’s future offices – progress, flexible and diverse, and comfortable.
Providing employees with the flexibility to leave their workstation and move more freely around the office was a top priority. And while flexibility and connection was a driving force, a quiet library space was given significant consideration as well.
Enclosed “quiet zone” library spaces are indeed becoming welcomed and even requested by clients. And for some companies, this shift toward designated focus spaces – some even with no-phones-allowed policies – is accompanied by a move away from elementary perks such as foosball tables, beer on tap in the pantry, and fun onsite snack options.
The concept of a library, and the role it plays in our communities, is neither home nor office. It’s a space that has always existed in-between these things – encouraging connection between humans but also respite and solace and focus.
“The library was conceived as a quiet, heads-down working space,” said Michael Tyre, principal at Amenta Emma Architects, in an officeinsight interview. “Our client was influenced by a few specific spaces, most notably the New York Public Library. We took the idea of a breakout room and infused it with the warmth and comfort of that communal library space.”
The library at Remedy Partners is a no-phones zone and is separated visually and acoustically – no glass here – by wall paneling leading up to the entrance. The library includes a mix of long communal wood tables, cozy booths, work carrels for one, and lounge pieces for small groups of two or three. The room is expansive – at least the size of two large boardrooms – enveloped in wood paneling and set beneath classic chandelier designs.
“This library concept supports research that suggests millennials are comfortable working in libraries, a carryover from college,” notes the Remedy Partners project description. “These quiet spaces also can be multi-functional, serving as meeting or presentation space. The concept blurs the line between work and home, a great example of the ever-changing nature of the workplace.”
Remedy Partners’ previous offices employed a hierarchical structure with private offices lining the perimeter. The new offices scale back private offices with a 5½ : 1 ratio of open workstations to private offices. The small number of enclosed executive offices now occupies a very small portion of the perimeter floor plate, and much more space and natural light is now open to the full staff. At the request of Remedy Partners, workstations and benching systems were designed to be as open as possible.
“They wanted to encourage people to move, so we kept the benching free of dividers,” noted Mr. Tyre.
Amenta Emma took aesthetic inspiration from the hospitality world, using the influences of another space Remedy’s president was inspired by – the Soho House in New York.
“We built off of the idea that people are more engaged when they feel comfortable in a space,” said Mr. Tyre. “Hospitality design often brings together many different styles into one place, mixing refined and rougher aesthetics. We took that element of mixing – of the office and hospitality, and crafted an identity that did not read simply as an ‘office’.”
Located adjacent to the reception is a handsome pantry and open work café – the first thing staff and visitors encounter upon entering the office.
“The location of the pantry and the work café, and its open quality, was very important to us – it’s the heart of what people enter into past the reception,” said Mr. Tyre.
In addition to creating an open reception that unfolds directly into the office, Amenta Emma was challenged with a very low ceiling height and many HVAC issues; weaving together a baffle ceiling, lighting and HVAC was no small task.
The new Remedy Partner offices are smart, flexible and inviting – and present staff members with an uncommon opportunity to disconnect from our phones that have become a part of almost everything we do.