Translating the Collegiate Campus Experience into a Corporate Workplace

 

A high tech informal presentation space at CA Ventures includes stadium seating and a touchscreen technology suite. Photography: courtesy of CannonDesign
A high tech informal presentation space at CA Ventures includes stadium seating and a touchscreen technology suite. Photography: courtesy of CannonDesign

Real estate investment firm CA Ventures built its initial success on student living environments. The Chicago-based firm now works across a broad spectrum of property types, but when it made the decision to create a new headquarters space, it sought to channel the energy of the collegiate campuses that its expert staff champions. In leveraging higher ed. design elements, CA Ventures hoped to strengthen its talent recruitment and retention.

A&D firm CannonDesign created a workplace centered on the “campus quad” experience – a space for student assembly functions, both formal and casual – for CA Ventures.

“The spirit of what they create is the spirit of their new space,” says Robert Benson, design principal at CannonDesign.

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Quad Bar

The design team tapped into extensive research on collegiate campus planning, and how that planning works to empower students. The research showed that college campuses are often planned around a “campus quad” concept, with diagonal walkways cutting across campus quadrangles. CannonDesign applied this concept to CA Ventures’ office layout to functionally connect each areas of the office for teaming and collaboration.

“At first, we were a little fearful of being too literal with the campus quad concept,” said Dan Hrankowsky, VP of design and development at CA Ventures. “But, we found the underlying theme really applied to us, and we warmed to it pretty quickly. The softness of the landscape and the circulation paths were very thoughtfully designed.”

CA Ventures’ new headquarters uses a “campus quad” layout to channel the energy of collegiate campuses for a modern office.
CA Ventures’ new headquarters uses a “campus quad” layout to channel the energy of collegiate campuses for a modern office.

At the end of each of the diagonals are private focus rooms or enclaves. And a thoughtful approach to circulation paths embraces the campus quad layout to connect offices and meeting areas from east to west.

CA Ventures requested a broad range of space options for its staff to work in. Employees can choose from many “quad living,” working and social spaces dotting the office, including a high tech informal presentation space with stadium seating and a touchscreen technology suite.

“We never really have to be in the same space twice in a day, and that was really exciting for us,” said Mr. Hrankowsky.

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2016.0905.CAVentures5.FloorPlan2The new headquarters space has quite a few private offices – around 20 – complemented by open workstations for 100 on the perimeter. But, the design team gave CA Ventures future proofing options in a clever way, a quality especially critical to higher ed. environments:

2016.0905.CAVentures7.CEOSpace“The ratio of private offices and enclaves is an ever-shifting thing; they’re the exact same size, so the client can change them to suit their needs,” noted Mr. Benson.

The CA Ventures CEO really wanted an open desk, but his team said he needed to have something more enclosed for privacy issues. To resolve this challenge, CannonDesign situated an open workstation next to a semi-private space that the CEO could close off for privacy with a custom designed sliding steel door.

 

Mr. Hrankowsky of CA Ventures also noted a peculiar experience that his team hadn’t accounted for before being in their new space: while they had envisioned what the new glass boardroom would look like from the outside, they were surprised to experience the views of the rest of the office from inside the conference room. This comment pinpoints the opportunities design firms have to show clients their space from all viewpoints; with the addition of virtual reality technology solutions, design teams can give clients a more complete impression of their new space before it exists.

A workspace for CA Ventures’ CEO includes a custom designed sliding steel door for privacy.

CannonDesign integrated the college campus experience in more subtle ways as well. To tap into the green space often found on university campuses, they installed a living wall anchoring both the reception and the main quad. The curved living wall’s planning pattern unfolds like a campus layout does, complete with strong diagonals cutting across the grid.

The living wall’s unique shape presented a special challenge for the design team. The wall’s health is managed digitally by a manufacturer that is not located in Chicago, and there was a ton of high tech metering equipment packed into it. The metering equipment was integrated into straight-shaped pre-manufactured pieces, and CannonDesign had to find a way to reconcile the straight grid pieces from the manufacturer with their curvilinear design.

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A workspace for CA Ventures’ CEO includes a custom designed sliding steel door for privacy.

The team worked closely with the manufacturer to develop wall pieces that worked with their design, and as the living wall’s vegetation grows in, it will serve as a meaningful link between the reception and the main staff quad.

Plans are underway for the design of a private outdoor deck for CA Ventures located on the same floor as its office. The new office also makes available many hospitality-oriented, work-life balance amenities too – just like in college – complete with beer on tap, coffee and snacks!

CannonDesign used two aesthetic influences to shape the new space: that of refined architectural shapes contrasted with a poppy, collaborative collegiate space. This blending of aesthetics translated into a softness of the office landscape.

A curved living wall unfolds like a college campus plan, with strong diagonals cutting across a quadrangle grid
A curved living wall unfolds like a college campus plan, with strong diagonals cutting across a quadrangle grid

“It allowed us to sympathize common themes between the corporate environment and the college campus,” said Mr. Benson.

 

The design team chose materials “more akin to a student union than a corporate office” – wood, exposed brick columns, and hot-pressed steel weave through the office, adding warmth and texture.

“We don’t think of brand as just color or a graphic,” noted Mr. Benson. “It’s everything from the programming down to the way the lighting level comes down to create a hospitality vibe. We’re making a brand part of the architecture. If the client connects with the design, they become a much better collaborator with us. It’s a more soulful connection with their space.”

In this new workplace, CannonDesign showed its client a mirror of itself, highlighting its best qualities and bringing those qualities to the forefront of its office design. What better way to achieve a soulful connection?