Nokia’s New Dallas HQ Designed by CallisonRTKL

Faceted feature wall and reception, Nokia Dallas HQ. Photo: courtesy of CRTKL

Nokia Corporation is a 155-year-old Finnish multinational with 2019 revenues of around 23B Euros (~US$26B). This may come as a surprise to many who were more aware of Nokia in the pre-iPhone days when it was the biggest player in the mobile phone market. But Nokia’s Android phones are still a major player in the global mobile phone market and Nokia has always been much bigger than just mobile phones. Wikipedia defines Nokia as a “Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company.” Being a global leader in 5G tech, its Q1 2020 Financial Report makes it clear the company’s strategy going forward is concentrated on the hardware and software required for networking and for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Faceted feature wall and reception, Nokia Dallas HQ. Photo: courtesy of CRTKL

Almost from the start of its long history, Nokia has actively bought companies and integrated them into its corporate family. In 2015 it bought Alacatel-Lucent and that acquisition triggered the need to consolidate its Dallas and Plano locations into a single North American Headquarters. CallisonRTKL (CRTKL) was selected to design the project and a new “live, work, play” development near DFW Airport, Cypress Waters, was selected as the location.

Main entrance. Photo: courtesy of CRTKL

In a project write-up provided to officeinsight by CRTKL Senior Associate Vice President, Brian Fox, it says, “Focusing the design of the workplace to support a culture shift from a hierarchal workplace for process and individual work to an interactive, team-based collaborative workstyle concentrating on innovation, technology and problem-solving were key components in our approach to their design.   By creating a centralized campus location, Nokia HQ offers flexible space and encourages teamwork while unifying two corporate cultures and providing a variety of spaces that respects their employees and the knowledge and value they bring to the company.

“The issue of integration, especially in the technological and creative industries, has become a staple in today’s business climate – how to unify corporate cultures in a time when mergers and acquisitions are the norm. In 2015, Nokia acquired Alcatel-Lucent, a global telecommunications equipment company. Both the Alcatel-Lucent and the existing Nokia Dallas sites had extensive research & development laboratories which represented some duplication as well as inefficiency with staff commuting between locations. This consolidation helps Nokia optimize internal R&D, reduce their real estate footprint and create a central campus focused on their core ideals.

“The project consolidates some 2,100 employees in two buildings (for a total of 350,000 SF) in Cypress Waters, a mixed-use planned community outside Dallas. The site’s bucolic, lake-side setting and proximity to walking trails, shops and restaurants as well as residential, have proved to be an added enticement to Nokia’s professionals…and a source of inspiration to CRTKL’s design team.

Coffee stop amenity and team space. Photo: courtesy of CRTKL

“Our first step in deciding which elements to consider in our design emerged from our extensive engagement with Nokia. First and foremost, we discovered that ergonomics were essential. We knew that we wanted to include plenty of access to natural light and views, but also needed to consider the acoustics of this design element to mitigate noise. The employees also expressed interest in co-locating to encourage face-to-face interaction, while also providing quiet areas for phone calls, focused work, and confidential conversations, as well as a separate entrance for customer and employee zones. In shared spaces, we wanted to provide pin-up areas and white boards to encourage brainstorming as well as consistent and functional technology in the meeting spaces.

Informal collaborative areas (pre-covid). Photo: courtesy of CRTKL

“Besides client engagement, our team also had design considerations from our own perspective. We noticed a sort of siloed company culture in which the different areas of the business did not interact with one another much, so we looked to bring these together to create a cohesive culture and work area in order to enhance a sense of pride and belonging, which we hoped would both attract and retain talent. In addition to this, we knew that due to the nature of Nokia’s business, technological integration and functionality was key. To ensure that this remained a top priority, we wanted to build out the infrastructure and redundancies to accommodate power and data concerns. Additionally, we knew that the building structure had to fulfill the lab weight requirements, and security for business units dealing with R&D and other proprietary information became a top priority.”

Hush phone booths by Hush Office. Photo: courtesy of CRTKL

Wanting to design a focal centerpiece, the CRTKL team came up with a dramatic faceted feature wall for the entry lobby’s two-story open atrium. But as we all know, designing a mixed-material 3D centerpiece and realizing it in space-time are two distinctively different things. However, CRTKL knew of Toronto’s art and architectural fabricator, Eventscape and sent them a preliminary drawing of the design in an RFQ.

View of the feature wall from the mezzanine. Photo: courtesy of CRTKL

The “centerpiece” design is a 3,400 square-foot faceted feature wall, designed by CRTKL and engineered, fabricated and installed by Eventscape. The subtle angles of the wall, precise panel connections, lack of exposed hardware and fresh palette establish an elegant face for the new headquarters. A continuation of a design concept that extends throughout the Nokia corporate complex, the 75-foot-long feature wall is characterized by distinct faceted triangular sections projecting from the base wall as much as 36 inches. One third of the wall consists of solid maple wood ribs spaced 4 inches apart on a flat-sawn maple  veneer. That section was built and shipped in individual 5’ x 8’ panels. The rib ends were staggered to ensure the wall attachments were fully concealed by the ribs once the panels were installed, making the individual wood sections appear continuous. These wood rib panels are also used on the underside of the mezzanine-level bridge. The other two sections feature perforated aluminum panels and painted drywall cladding, each finished with a white custom trim. Here’s a cool video documenting the fabrication and installation processes.

Initial drawing sent to Eventscape by CRTKL. Image: Courtesy of Eventscape

In an officeinsight interview, Steve Haniewicz, Executive Project Director at Eventscape said, “We are very unique in that we are happy to take on big challenges. The bigger, the more complex the geometry, the more materials the better. There are a lot of great metal fabricators and a lot of great millworkers, solid surface fabricators, fiberglass fabricators out there and they all do a great job, but as far as I know we are unique in having all that under one roof and we can provide it all as a turnkey solution.”

Part of Eventscape’s turnkey process included a series of finish sample prototypes and 1:1 scale mockups. Both of these helped the CRTKL design team finalize the desired finishes and set expectations for the final fit-out.

“The collaboration between our design partners at CallisonRTKL and our team of designers and engineers at Eventscape resulted in a feature that is truly unique and adds life and interest to the lobby of Nokia’s new Dallas headquarters,” says Eventscape Founder and President Gareth Brennan. “We’re proud to have supported CallisonRTKL in this project. Our combined efforts are much greater than any one of us could have done alone.”

Fabrication of maple ribbed panels. Photo: courtesy of Eventscape

The new Nokia North American Headquarters is a stunning project, of which both CallisonRTKL and Eventscape can be very proud. But as we work from home in the midst of the Covid crisis, one wonders to what extent, exactly, the many communal  spaces will survive our eventual return to work. We do know one thing – the feature wall will be fine, and we hope the planning designed to facilitate the unifying of disparate corporate cultures will last as well – fingers crossed.

Perforated aluminum panels prepped for installation. Photo: courtesy Eventscape

Fabricating metal wall stand-off. Photo: courtesy of Eventscape
Base wall ready for installation of the panels; when complete, the largest projection from the base is 36 inches. Photo: Eventscape
Installing the ribbed maple ceiling panels. Photo: Eventscape