HOK Designs Boston Consulting Group’s Canadian Headquarters

Long before the pandemic, Boston Consulting Group had embraced hybrid work, giving employees the freedom to come to the office—which total more than 100 across the globe—meet with clients at their workplaces, or complete certain tasks from home. Whichever made the most sense for the business at hand. That said, collaboration is at the heart of how the management consultancy, often referred to as BCG, operates: Staffers form teams to tackle knotty problems clients are facing and puzzle through the issues to arrive at solutions. And this sort of teamwork, BCG felt, is best carried out face-to-face.

Back in 2017, when the company tapped HOK for its new Canadian headquarters on three floors—46, 47, and 48—of a tower rising in Toronto’s financial district, BCG sought an office that would be dazzling enough to draw employees to the workplace, that would provide a variety of bespoke settings so that teams could be as productive as possible while on-site. All of which is to say that when the pandemic hit in 2020—sending companies around the world scrambling to, first, figure out how to work remotely during lockdowns and, then, how to lure employees back to the office after they’d become accustomed to doing their jobs from home—BCG was way ahead of the game. Sure, there were tweaks to HOK’s concept for the 100,000- square-foot BCG project because of the pandemic—designers had to make sure work- stations were 6 feet apart, for example, and they loaded up meeting rooms with video- conferencing and audiovisual equipment for staffers participating remotely—but the changes amounted to fine-tuning a good plan that was already in place. And the result is this spectacular, ultra-sophisticated space that serves as a showplace for the company and a magnet for a workforce now numbering more than 400. “On the busiest days, we’re approaching pre-pandemic attendance levels,” Nina Abdelmessih, BCG’s chief of operations and external relations in Canada, says. “Everybody is coming in.”

HOK Designs a Hybrid Office for Boston Consulting Group

The plan’s success started with carving out an atrium near the window wall on the two lower floors—one advantage of coming to the project while the building was under construction was that this could be done before the floor plates were in place. Working with the developer, HOK specified an opening measuring a generous 20 by 80 feet, envisioning it as the “heart of the organization,” Caitlin Turner, HOK director of interiors in Canada and the project lead, notes. The atrium fills with light and opens up views of the city and Lake Ontario. Rooms situated off it are sided in glass so everyone shares in the sunshine.

A beckoning staircase steps up through the atrium to the top floor. It encourages employees to walk up and down—healthier for them than taking the elevators—and results in serendipitous encounters that add to the general esprit de corps. “There’s this buzz,” Turner enthuses. As for the seating areas in the base of the atrium, in the café, she adds: “At lunchtime, it’s like a high-school cafeteria.”

But serendipity also played a part: Turner tracked down a black-stained oak credenza she spotted on Instagram for use in a touch- down room, where it joins an oversize pendant fixture by Marcel Wanders and sinuous Italian armchairs. It’s just a sampling of the international, contemporary aesthetic permeating this buzzing workplace—one that is clearly not cookie-cutter but has helped become something of a model for other BCG offices in the throes of relocation and renovation.

Behind the Design of Boston Consulting Group’s Canadian Headquarters

HOK: PAUL GOGAN; BRITTANY TOD; KRISTINA KAMENAR; CALEB SOLOMONS; SALLY SHI; FARIBA SAJADI; ROWENA AUYEUNG; BETHANY FOSS; DANIEL MEEKER

RJC ENGINEERS: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER

MITCHELL PARTNERSHIP: MECHANICAL ENGINEER

MULVEY & BANANI LIGHTING: LIGHTING DESIGNER

MCM: CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP

Opus Art Projects: Art Consultant

VISO: CUSTOM SCONCES (ATRIUM), CUSTOM CEILING FIXTURES (BOARDROOM)

geiger: WOOD CHAIRS (CAFÉ)

PENGELLY IRON WORKS: CUSTOM SCREENS

KEIL­HAUER: BENCH

EUREKA LIGHTING: RING PENDANT FIX­TURES

STEELACASE: BOOTHS

gervasoni: BRASS PEN­DANT FIXTURES

BILLIANI: GRAY CHAIRS

TRIBU: BROWN/WHITE CHAIRS

CEMENT TILE SHOP: FLOOR TILE

muuto: PENDANT FIXTURES (OFFICE AREA)

STUDIO OTHER: WORK­ STATIONS

knoll: CHAIRS (OFFICE AREA, LIBRARY)

SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP: CARPET TILE (OFFICE AREA, NOOK)

herman miller: CHAIRS (DIGITAL ROOM)

HALCON FUR­NITURE: TABLES

flos: CEILING FIXTURES

Interface: CARPET TILE

nienkamper: TABLES (TOUCH­DOWN, COFFEE BAR)

GALLOTTI&RADICE: CHAIRS (TOUCH­DOWN)

POIAT: CREDENZA

AREA ENVIRONMENTS: WALLCOVERING

flos: PENDANT FIXTURE

CASALA: CHAIR (NOOK)

cappellini: CHAIRS (BOARDROOM)

PRISMATIQUE: CUSTOM TABLE

CREATIVE MATTERS: CUSTOM RUG

Davis Furniture: BENCH

filzfelt: PANELING (MEETING ROOM)

Haworth: DEMOUNTABLE WALLS

Allied Maker: PENDANT FIXTURES (COFFEE BAR)

ARRMET: CHAIRS

MOSAÏQUE SURFACE: WALL TILE

STONETILE: VINYL FLOOR TILE

BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.; SHERWIN­ WILLIAMS: PAINT

5 Giants of Design Craft Artful Interiors

Whether an apartment building in Massachusetts, a Vermont music hall, or a law office in Washington, five top firms infuse their work with the beauty and stimulation of art—and nature.

Marlboro Music Reich Hall in Vermont by HGA

After completing a series of residential buildings for this nonprofit classical music retreat nestled amid 360 verdant acres, the firm returns for a multifaceted encore that is harmonious with the area’s vernacular and environmental stewardship. Presenting as a simple cedar-clad Cape Cod–style cottage, the 12,000-square-foot hall encompasses three rehearsal rooms and an archive library, all outfitted with large, operable windows affording woodsy vistas, ceilings and paneling of locally sourced, acoustically sound white pine, and a passive solar-gains strategy.

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See where HGA ranks on three of Interior Design‘s recent Giants of Design reports, including Top 100 Giants; Healthcare Giants; and Sustainability Giants.

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Williams & Connolly in Washington by HYL Architecture

The 290,000-square-foot headquarters of a leading litigation firm exemplifies the consideration of setting and sustainability. Poised on the Potomac River, the interiors incorporate sweeping curves and Jae Ko’s Riverine, a commissioned artwork of swirling paper, both reflecting the motion of the water, while the project’s LEED Gold certification resulted from employing such Living Building Challenge–supporting natural materials as limestone, marble, and quartered walnut; daylight harvesting; and lighting controllability, public-transportation access, and a café addition providing healthy snacks for all staff.

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See where HYL Architecture ranks on Interior Design’s Rising Giant report.

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7INK in Boston by Elkus Manfredi Architects

Somewhere between an upscale dorm room and a boutique hotel is this 14-story rental property that offers Gen Z tenants “inclusive living,” meaning cooking classes in the communal kitchen, lounges, coworking, fitness facilities, and housekeeping services for the 180 furnished apartments. Even though marketed as affordable, an offbeat luxury pervades via white oak millwork, sophisticated wallpapers and lighting, Modernist- inspired furniture, and commissioned contemporary art, while a 15-foot scoreboard salvaged from the former Boston Garden brings local spirit.

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See where Elkus Manfredi Architects ranks on three of Interior Design‘s recent Giants of Design reports, including Top 100 Giants; Hospitality Giants; and Sustainability Giants.

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550 Madison in New York by Rockwell Group

A repositioning of this landmarked office tower, completed in 1984 by Philip Johnson and John Burgee as the AT&T headquarters, entails a new lobby by Gensler, an enlarged public garden by Snøhetta, plus 35,000 square feet of fitness and amenities spaces by this firm. Joining the latter’s café and lounge is a library and a billiards room encased in bleached European walnut, which surround the grand hall, a sunlit gathering spot featuring the original rose-window oculus, a custom chandelier in bronze and opal glass, and a pair of Dorothea Rockburne murals that bring the project’s total number of artworks by women to 13.

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See where Rockwell Group ranks on Interior Design‘s Top 100 Giants and Hospitality Giants reports.

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Finance office in San Diego by IA Interior Architects

Archways of quarter-cut American walnut nod to the region’s architecture at this 15,400-square-foot executive center, concepted during the early phase of the pandemic to radically reimagine and anticipate the future of workplace. Free-address desking; flexible collaboration rooms able to accommodate intimate gatherings as well as larger TEDx talks; and lounge and pantry spaces appointed with artworks by local and national creatives, mohair-upholstered seating, and recycled-content watercolor carpets blur the lines between client-hosting and employee zones.

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See where IA Interior Architects ranks on three of Interior Design‘s recent Giants of Design reports, including Top 100 Giants; Healthcare Giants; and Sustainability Giants.

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Interior Design Spotlights 2023 Healthcare Giants

What’s most interesting about the Healthcare Giants isn’t the numbers so much as how the business has evolved during the pandemic—and in general. Consider colonoscopies, tonsillectomies, and other minor procedures that were always a little too major to happen outside a hospital setting. The rise of skilled-care facilities and those dedicated to a single function, such as outpatient procedures or diagnostic imaging, have resulted in lots of smaller design projects. In 2019 the Healthcare Giants worked on 3,200; in 2022 that number rose to 5,500—a 73 percent increase partially attributed to smaller COVID-related projects that may not have otherwise happened. But there’s no question that the design of the physical environment is changing.

And yet, hospital design work remains a stalwart: Acute-care hospitals accounted for half of 2022’s $698 million fees—a bit below the COVID-boosted $790 million in 2020, but handily beating the $607 million pre-pandemic dollars. (The most growth, however, is projected for behavioral health and walk-in/urgent-care clinics.) Furniture, fixtures, and construction products also now outstrip 2019 numbers—$17.8 billion versus $14.6 billion.

But there’s a catch: forecasts. The Healthcare Giants predict $562 million fee income and $14.9 billion FF&C income in 2023, both healthy drops. Whether this is something to fear or just the nature of a market over-boiled by a public health emergency and point-of-service changes remains to be seen. This odd combination of instability and prosperity might just stay with us a while longer.

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Project Categories

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Growth Potential Over Next Two Years

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Editor’s Note: Take a look at recent coverage of our Healthcare Giants most admired firms of 2023 below. CannonDesign tops the list followed by Perkins&Will, and ZGF.

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Methodology

The Interior Design Giants annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2022. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, or Hospitality Giant, you must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America, and generate at least 25% of your interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s in­terior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are “full-time staff equivalent.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not con­sid­ered full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and re­tain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all per­cent­ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number. 

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.

Loyola Marymount University Gets a Theatrical Addition

The word design may derive from the Italian verb segnare, meaning to sign, but Skidmore, Owings & Merrill senior associate principal Carlos Madrid III eschewed a splashy signature in favor of cultivating a sense of community in two recent projects at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The School of Film and Television Undergraduate Building, a four-story slab of teaching spaces with an attached theater—24,000-square-foot in all—and the Drollinger Family Stage, an outdoor performance pavilion, both serve as student magnets that foster and sustain campus life. “The main driver was creating and activating people-oriented buildings,” says Madrid, who led both projects.

The main SFTV building is straightforward, a no-nonsense block of concrete finished in troweled stucco. Its upper levels host flexible multipurpose classrooms while staff offices, post-production classrooms, and a camera directing studio occupy the ground floor, which is pierced by a wide breezeway leading to a landscaped courtyard and the existing SFTV graduate building in back. The 86-seat theater, housed in a separate yet adjoining volume clad in matte silver aluminum panels, sits in front.

SOM Designs The School of Film and Television Undergraduate Building

For Madrid, form did not mean shape—or at least, not unusual shape. Rather, the architect used it to organize patterns of movement and rest around the simple slab, to create an armature for all the in-between moments of student life: getting to and leaving from class; hanging out; sitting down to chat, read, check phone messages. Some interiors have windows but most do not, so Madrid extroverted the introverted program. “We started thinking about how to activate the building’s exterior, putting all the circulation outside,” he says, “so we would see people moving up and down the stairs, like an ant farm.” L.A.’s mild climate allowed him and his team to service the classrooms with outdoor corridors—a stack of cantilevered aerial sidewalks, wide enough to accommodate tables, chairs, and casual encounters alongside bustling foot traffic—with staircases at each end. The whole east facade is populated and alive, a human terrarium, not simply a designed composition.

Madrid veiled the vertical streetscape with a gauzy brise-soleil. Made from pleated sheets of perforated powder-coated aluminum, the semitransparent screen lets breezes flow through the corridors while shielding them from the direct morning sun. The space between the veil and the facade acts as a passive buffer, a naturally regulated microclimate that augments building energy efficiency, exemplifying why SOM is ranked not only 19th among our Sustainability Giants but also 49th amid the 100 Giants.

The firm put additional outdoor square footage to use by turning the adjoining theater rooftop into a planted terrace, which Madrid calls a “meditative space,” while the plaza next to the theater, outfitted with bright yellow umbrellas and café furniture, serves as a shaded patio. All the outdoor zones overlook a wide, landscaped pedestrian mall—the spine of the university complex—which has a pleasingly symbiotic relationship with the SFTV building. “The patio has become one of the most popular places on campus,” Madrid reports. “It’s always active, with people hanging out and classes being taught there.”

Building Interiors Feature Mobile Furnishings

In what was a soup-to-nuts project, Madrid and the SOM team designed and furnished the school’s interiors, addressing requirements for a high-tech electronic infrastructure and highly mobile furniture that’s easily moved or stored for multipurpose classroom flexibility.

Loyola Marymount is a repeat client for which SOM has helmed eight projects over the last decade. The architects have taken contextual clues from the existing modernist buildings, conceiving structures with a simplicity and clarity that fit into the larger ensemble, seeking agreement rather than disruption—a strategy Madrid continued with the Drollinger Family Stage. Asked to design an outdoor theater to support film, dance, and drama, he was able to take the program further, in part because the pandemic proved the relative safety of gathering outside. “The building could be more,” he explains, “a classroom for everyday use, plus a facility for health, wellness, movement, and meditation—not just a place for a performance several nights a week.”

An Innovative Outdoor Theater Designed by SOM 

In devising the 3,200-square-foot open pavilion, Madrid took the formal restraint of the SFTV building to the point of minimalism. Located on a central grassy plaza, the stage comprises a low concrete podium with a row of eight slender columns on each side supporting a canted roof that seems to hover weightlessly 24 feet above the ground. In fact, the canopy incorporates a hefty grid of 2-foot-deep perforated steel beams, its coffered underside packed with lighting and audiovisual systems. Thanks to its anodized aluminum–clad perimeter soffit, which extends some 10 feet beyond the columns while tapering to a razor-thin edge, the roof appears to have no mass. Slimmer than the trunks of the surrounding palm trees, the steel pillars have no visible lateral bracing to break the structure’s floating spell or block audience sightlines and yet are sturdy enough to accom­modate conduits running up to the ceiling apparatus.

This futuristic bandshell is more than a feat of sophisticated engineering, however. In its purity and symmetry, the pavilion is like a modern take on a garden folly or a cyber-age version of a classical tempietto. Full-length curtains hang ready to encircle the performance area if required. Stirred by breezes from the nearby ocean, the billowing drapes turn the stage into a sailing vessel—a poetic moment singular on campus.

Inside Loyola Marymount University’s New Film and Television Building

skidmore, owings & merrill: paul danna; tannar whitney; karl gleason; brandon horn; wooil kim; abel diaz; john gordon; yanhong liu; lonny israel; kacey bills; nour mourad

mig: landscape consultant

hlb lighting design: lighting consultant

ama group: mep

KPFF: civil engineer

w.e. o’neil: general contractor

fermob: tables, chairs (hall, patio)

ki: tables (classroom), seating (theater)

luum textiles: acoustic panels (classroom, theater), curtains (theater)

Tuuci: umbrellas (patio)

sunbrella: curtains (stage)

alphabet: handrail lighting

chauvet: theater lighting

valmont structure: custom brise-soleil

axis lighting; targetti: light fixtures

alucobond: exterior cladding

automatic devices company: curtain tracks

Inside Cincinnati’s New Major League Soccer Stadium

Cincinnati is betting big on soccer. After winning a bid for a Major League Soccer expansion team, the city invested $250 million in TQL Stadium, an over 500,00-square-foot venue for FC Cincinnati, soon to play its fifth professional season. Populous, the Kansas City, Missouri, firm that ranks 29th among Interior Design’s top 100 Giants, charged the field to deliver soup-to-nuts services for the massive project, including architecture, interior design, and wayfinding.

The sporty experience begins with a facade wrapped in some 500 energetic vertical aluminum fins, which are connected by an LED system that creates a dazzling display at night. Inside, FC’s colors—fire and navy—team up to cover the stadium’s 26,000 seats. Elsewhere, versions of the orange shade are interpolated into more organic coppers and bronzes, which nod to the city’s industrial history. Find them in the First Financial Club, a beer hall inspired by the region’s rich brewing tradition, and the Tunnel Club, a high-end field-side dining zone where teak accents are reminiscent of the stacks at the Old Cincinnati Library.

A Closer Look at the Design of TQL Stadium in Cincinnati 

Johns Hopkins University Unveils an Innovative Laboratory

Healthcare’s number-one Giant put its thinking cap on in designing a facility for a renowned research center that employs 6,000 of the nation’s top scientists and engineers for work in homeland security, biomedicine, air and missile defense, and other hush-hush but very important endeavors. An interdisciplinary team from CannonDesign—drawing staffers from six offices across three time zones—oversaw the creation of the Applied Physics Laboratory’s new Building 201. The fourth floor of the 263,000-square-foot, five-story structure cantilevers on an asymmetrical forest of mirror-finished stainless-steel columns that imbue the edifice with surprising airiness. Inside, the team combined labs and workspace for the 650-person Research and Exploratory Development Department (APL’s cutting-edge research engine) into a genuinely collaborative network of spaces. “The building fosters an environment where employees can truly flourish,” CannonDesign’s science and technology practice director Stephen Blair explains. To wit: the skylit atrium crisscrossed by seven bridges and five stairs that encourages intermingling between scientists from different teams—proof that architecture can quite literally bridge gaps dividing disciplines.

A Closer Look at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

A Community Clinic Raises the Bar for Trauma-Informed Design

A community clinic offering sliding-scale reproductive healthcare to Twin Cities students since 1971, Family Tree is a haven for marginalized folk. Comprehensive services include STI testing and treatment, birth control, gender-affirming care, and even legal aid for queer and trans people. In 2022, the growing clinic relocated to a 17,000-square-foot new building in south Minneapolis by Perkins&Will.

A trauma-informed approach to design begins with space planning. Corridors draw sight lines to the exterior courtyard, rooted with native butterfly and pollinator-friendly plants, and translucent windows in exam rooms invite daylight while maintaining privacy. “All the entry and circulation paths are clear, simple, and inclusive,” Perkins&Will operations director Cara Prosser notes. The main waiting room showcases vivid murals by a local artist and offers varied seating options to suit patients’ diverse needs. Throughout, the team chose patterns and colors that would reduce visual distraction. Ultimately, Family Tree is a model for the future of healthcare, raising the bar to ensure patients are physically, mentally, and emotionally well.

Family Tree Clinic by Perkins&Will Features Pops of Color 

Behind the Design of LaGuardia Airport’s Delta Airlines Terminal C

New York’s LaGuardia Airport has long held a reputation for being, frankly, the worst. But a six-year overhaul has shot it straight to the top of “best of” lists: Terminal B won UNESCO’s 2021 Prix Versailles and now Delta Air Lines Terminal C is gunning for accolades with soaring interior spaces and abundant natural light courtesy of Corgan. Grounded by warm wood and commanding marble, the three-story central headhouse—with baggage claim, check-in, security, and a Delta Sky Club lounge—and two-story concourses are woven together with site-specific art commissioned in partnership with the local Queens Museum. Sculptor Virginia Overton, influenced by her father’s memories of flying into LaGuardia, suspended an assemblage of salvaged skylights from the atrium ceiling to create Skylight Gems, an installation that encourages visitors to look up and celebrate the sen­sation and spectacle of flight.

Sustainability was also a guiding principle: “We considered big and small gestures that move the needle,” Corgan’s COO and aviation studio leader Jay Liese explains. Think a vast thermal storage system, harvesting to reduce artificial lighting use, and electrochromic smart glass to control glare and heat gain.

This Healthcare Center Immerses Patients in Storybook Narratives

In the name of transforming children’s healthcare for the better, ZGF eschewed scary sterility in favor of storybook immersion at this new eight-story diagnostic and treatment facility, part of a 1-million-square-foot campus expansion at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Kids are deeply absorbed in storytelling in a way grown-ups can no longer access; playing pretend is how they learn about the world. The firm’s narrative-based wayfinding tunes into this, plotting a whimsical journey through the project that immerses visitors and patients in an enchanted natural environment. A trail map in the main lobby illustrates how the hospital’s four wayfinding zones—forest, river, mountain, ocean—connect and identifies the easiest path to each destination. Since this department is located in the forest, wood and organic patterns and textures predominate, while murals by local artists depict comforting animals. Charming details unfold chapter by chapter, so to speak, from backlit 3D dioramas tucked into wall niches to tiny paw prints embedded in the terrazzo floor.

The Seattle Children’s Hospital Features Whimsical Wayfinding Cues 

FXCollaborative Designs a Cultural Hub in Tarrytown, New York

Built in 1908 as a citrus greenhouse on the former Rockefeller family estate in Tarrytown, New York, the orangerie recently received a stunning face-lift courtesy of FXCollaborative’s adaptive reuse and redesign. The firm salvaged as much of the existing structure as possible to create the new 15,700-square-foot David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center, complete with theatrical lighting, retractable indoor seating, a terrace, and advanced MEP systems enabling the building to achieve net-zero annual energy consumption.

The facility is intended as an artists’ studio, performance space, and rotating gallery; its inaugural exhibit celebrated Women’s History Month with a slate of modern works by female talents. “Every detail is rooted in supporting the creative process across disci­plines,” FXCollaborative senior associate Brandon Massey explains. The project’s forward-thinking scheme extends beyond sustainability, with gender-inclusive restrooms and accessible indoor/outdoor spaces allowing unfettered access to artists and guests of all abilities—a remarkable feat for such a historic institution.

Inside the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center