On the 2nd day of June of the 77th year since its founding, Davis Furniture Industries cut the ribbon to inaugurate it’s stunning, state-of-the-art hybrid headquarters in High Point, NC. For several years the company slogan has been “Design Matters” – the new building demonstrates that it isn’t merely a slogan.
The President and CEO of Davis Furniture, Danny Davis, represents the third generation of family ownership/leadership of the company. For this latest, future-looking endeavor, Mr. Davis worked alongside his son, Brian Davis, and daughter, Ashley Davis Williams, to bring the project to fruition.
“Our goal with this new facility was to prioritize a strong focus on a modern and evolved corporate headquarters,” stated Mr. Davis. “This new facility embodies the Davis brand and our values, bringing together our top-tier manufacturing and our unwavering focus on design.”
Mercer Architecture of High Point was selected to act as principal architecture firm and to realize its design goals for the new facility, Davis brought in designer and long-time collaborator Bob Bazemore to work with the Davis design team. Bazemore has had a lasting relationship with Davis. Familiar with the company’s approach to design from years of taking point on showroom design, through the years he has also collaborated on several renovation and reuse projects on the Davis nine-building campus.
Working closely with Mercer Architecture Inc., Bazemore and the Davis design team established a vocabulary that epitomizes the Davis brand through seamless integration of architecture and high design with a driving focus on the collaboration, comfort and overall functionality for the staff and visitors who will use the facility.
The new headquarters was designed from the get-go to be a hybrid facility, supporting onsite office work, remote work, sales reps, dealers and customers as well as some top-tier manufacturing. To set the program to meet these disparate requirements, Mr. Bazemore was joined by Rob Easton, VP of Development and Design to conduct interviews at the Davis campus, focusing on physical and virtual employee workplace experiences. These interviews explored what privacy and ownership of space meant for Davis, capitalizing on what would work best for the employees while also considering clients and other visitors.
“The workplace ecosystem is complex where most physical and service components are intricately intertwined,” stated Mr. Bazemore. “We believe that the workplace experience is shaped through the support of three distinct action clusters: Doing, Seeing and Feeling. An outstanding workplace experience delivers on all three, and failure on one will almost certainly limit or undermine overall sentiment. Therefore, we carefully considered each of these three key elements for every aspect of this building’s design.”
Maintaining a welcoming atmosphere was essential to the new headquarters while calibrating the design to represent the innovative and decidedly modern Davis brand. Starting with the striking façade, large twelve-foot-high windows allow natural light to stream deep into the workspace. Throughout the building, private offices feature glass walls and partial glass dividers, underscoring the espousal of natural light and visual access to the exterior. The facility embodies a passive solar design, with the façade featuring a distinct 4′ deep sunshade, keeping direct sunlight out of the spaces. This design, coupled with automatic shades, helps to promote climate control throughout the year.
Several design elements of the building improve its energy efficiency and sustainability. The concrete floors feature a thermal mass flooring system that enhances temperature stability and reduces energy strain. While many design features were integrated and concealed within the building, other industrial inner workings were intentionally embraced. For example, the structural steel framework was left exposed throughout.
Just inside the front door and running the length of the building, a twenty-foot-high entrance hall creates a gallery for featuring Davis products with a blend of glass curtain walls and clerestory windows that fill the space with natural light. This space anchors the public gathering areas of the building while providing a bridge between the corporate office and the manufacturing area. A grand stairway connects the public corridor with the manufacturing facility, while a glass wall dividing the two spaces further encourages engagement between office and manufacturing functions.
The lobby, as currently furnished, features several of Davis’ award-winning lounge designs. It serves as a welcoming area for guests and a place for guests and employees to relax and feel at home. Leading to an open-plan café, this main corridor serves as a focal point for the company’s international design heritage, featuring furnishings from its current catalog by prominent and long-time European collaborators.
The main lobby/gallery ends at a fully functioning café area with an adjacent outdoor terrace. These make a subtle visual statement about Davis’ southern heritage and hospitality. A gorgeous Tix table anchors the space. Sustainably sourced and constructed of a single oak tree, it is 24’ long and comfortably seats 20. It also graciously celebrates Davis’ solid-wood story while simultaneously highlighting Davis’s strong partnerships with European manufacturers and suppliers, having been built in Switzerland by Mobimex.
The adjacent patio lounge shows-off Davis’ indoor/outdoor collections and provides an outdoor area for people to gather, relax and enjoy the outdoors. It connects to a walking path surrounding the building’s perimeter for a bit of healthy exercise for those so inclined.
“While designing our new headquarters, we felt it was an opportunity for us to showcase not only our international design culture but also our southern hospitality. By creating a space that was welcoming and engaging for our employees, our clients and the High Point Community, our headquarters became something much more than an office space,” said Brian Davis, who headed up the management of the project.
In keeping with workplace planning trends, the new building offers several conference room and meeting spaces of various sizes. One of these conference rooms is large enough to accommodate the significant training needs of the company – another essential function of the headquarters.
The ribbon cutting ceremony took place on a weather-perfect day in earliest June. When I got a call from Ashley (Davis) Williams asking if I’d like to attend, I almost shouted, “I’d love to!” That whole Covid-19 thing was getting very tiresome; I was fully vaccinated and I hadn’t been on a bona fide business trip in well over a year, so I was really ready.
The third, fourth and fifth generations of the Davis family were perfect hosts. City and state dignitaries were in attendance to mark the importance of the occasion. Danny Davis’ remarks made a point of praising the design and construction teams and underscored the company’s steadfast belief in and support for its employees and the High Point community. The Lt. Governor of North Carolina and a former Davis employee, Mark Robinson, spoke movingly of his experiences at Davis and the company’s commitment to its people. Bob Bazemore explained the design rationale of the building and praised the project team. Jeffrey Rosner, Davis’ vice president of sales put the new headquarters in perspective, describing the many ways it will support the future growth of the company.
Congratulations to Davis on this major accomplishment – brought to fruition during the pandemic.
