Juno Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Seattle, sought to unite smaller offices spread across the city into one location. Armed with a mission to “radically change the course of medicine by aligning investments in scientific research, manufacturing and people to change the way cancer and other serious diseases are treated,” the company needed a workplace equipped with cutting edge technology and spaces built for intense teamwork. All of this needed to be underscored by a strong note of authenticity
The nine floors of Juno’s new 195,000 square foot headquarters, designed by Flad Architects, features superb custom workspaces and complete technology integration by Tangram Studio. We spoke with Charlotte Wiederholt, creative director at Tangram Studio, to gain more insight into the project and some of its nuances.
“In their previous spaces Juno had experience with a hodge podge of product,”said Ms. Wiederholt. “Authenticity is a core part of their company ethos, and so a big question they were asking was, ‘How do we strip it back? We want metal to be metal and wood to be wood.’ They wanted to simplify, and they were really open to exploring.”
In an immersive co-designing process with Juno and Flad Architects, Tangram Studio developed custom solutions for 657 workstations, 8 vice president stations, 5 private offices, 28 A/V-configured conference rooms, 50 conference tables and credenzas, 22 kanban meeting tables, and additional storage.
Housing an open office, lab space and collaborative meeting rooms, the new headquarters feature custom solutions that speak directly to Juno’s company ethos, providing a place where employees and visitors alike would, in particular, feel a sense of authenticity. They wanted employees to feel at home in a space where they could collaborate, both spontaneously and planned.
“Since their previous collaboration was usually over a Skype call, they wanted to create a space that would allow employees to meet spontaneously throughout the office at any time and support them with current technology,” notes the project description. “A community staircase running through the space was included as a place where employees could easily encounter each other to encourage an open, collaborative culture. Another feature intended to encourage collaboration is expanded hallway zones outside the meeting areas for which customized furnishing were developed.”
As many in the industry know, “custom” does not always mean “expensive.”
“It’s a misnomer in the industry that custom is more expensive,” said Ms. Wiederholt. “When you’re working with a top brand, you’re essentially paying for all of the flexibility that they build into their standard product. That often means that clients are paying for things they don’t really need. We design for just what they need – we think about what we need to build, what materials we’re using. We simplify; instead of layering materials on top of each other, we build with just the right one material.”
Tangram designed custom workstations that give Juno employees only what they need while not falling short on support of productivity and wellbeing.
“Each employee received a height-adjustable workstation,” notes the project description. “In addition, to support an open and collaborative culture, all workstations have low end panels. The end panels are hot-rolled steel with Zintra bolted into them, a choice reflecting Juno’s drive for authenticity as one of its core values. Surfaces are 1” thick, multi-ply, wood-grain laminate. Each desk also includes a powdered-coated, magnetic white board as well as a personal pedestal.”
In every aspect of the project, from the custom workstations down to storage units, Juno preferred not to use glue or paints on the furniture for a raw and exposed look.
Tangram devoted considerable attention to conference table design.
“They came to us and said, ‘We do not want that big box in the middle of the room with tech falling out of it – that looks terrible, and we’ve got to do something better,’” said Ms. Wiederholt.
“Because employees at Juno often spend long hours in meetings, the surface was an important consideration,” explained the project notes. “The solution was a multi-ply surface with Fenix soft-touch laminate. The contemporary, triangular base of the tables is raw, hot-rolled steel. In addition to aesthetics, the approach of bending a single, flat piece of steel creates a strong base for the table. The concept is also a nod to the strength of the DNA helix. The tables also include an elegant, single slot running down the length of the surface for cable access, with the main cable hidden in a box underneath the tabletop.”
“It’s a very simple solution – a groove cut into the table with an HDMI cable – but it took a long time and a lot of back and forth for us to get there,” noted Ms. Wiederholt. “When disconnected, the HDMI cable just falls back into the slot/groove, cleaning up for itself. In furniture design technology is often the last piece to be considered. But that’s not how we work, and it shows in this project especially.”
“Collaborative Kanban meeting tables were designed and produced in a variety of sizes, drawer configurations and angles based on the space in which they would reside” continued the project notes. And in the executive conference room, “An elegant 20-ft.-long table was designed with an arched base. A highlight of the design is an impressive top made of back-painted glass that displays a layered-effect graphic showing T-cells (ghosted-looking under glass) that also matched other graphics throughout the building.”
Tangram’s Tech Integration Process:
“Juno was “obsessed” with the idea of making technology not necessarily seem like technology by not having it dominate the space.
‘We want technology to disappear. We don’t want the users to be thinking about technology and how to use technology,’ said Eric Lockwood, Business Development Executive for Tangram Interiors. ‘We want it to just be there as a resource to help them do what they do. It has to be intuitive and blend into the space and the environment. And it needs to be reliable, flexible, expandable and secure.’
The large-scale technology integration for the Juno project included more than 120 displays, multiple conference rooms on nine levels, remote room scheduling devices, a conference center, a video wall and additional signage displays. Behind the scenes is a sophisticated, networked system of 18 equipment racks that were built and thoroughly tested at Tangram’s facilities prior to on-site deployment.
As with the custom furniture design, working very closely from the start of the project helped ensure the harmonizing of technology in terms of a consistent approach to the user experience as well as integrating the technology into furniture and the architecture of the building. An important part of this process was including technology in the furniture mockups for testing.
This carefully orchestrated process is intended to ensure a seamless flow from design and construction through commissioning, handover and operation. Key aspects of the project included integration of Juno’s videoconferencing platform with the Tangram-designed control system; design and user testing of graphical interfaces, down to details of screen layouts and color coding of icons; and integration of wireless and wired systems. Ultimately, the system was vetted and tested for some three months prior to actual implementation.”
The Juno Therapeutics project is an example of dynamic teamwork among multiple design teams and their client, and the results were fruitful.
“Juno was an ideal customer because they wanted to engage to design something,” said Ms. Wiederholt, in the project notes. “They really wanted to be part of the process. And what made it a unique experience for us and I think for Juno is that we got to co-create something together. We got to create something that was specific to them and their users.”