Innovation Thrives in This Postpandemic Workplace

Clive Wilkinson towers at the pinnacle of workplace stars. Landmark offices for the likes of TBWA\Chiat\Day, Macquarie Group, and Microsoft cap the Interior Design Hall of Famer’s voluminous portfolio. A master of the genre, he also counts residential and institutional among his other specialties. But hospitality? Not so much. That may change with a recent project that brings a hospitality influence to bear on the workplace: interiors for Intuit’s new headquarters. 

Located on the financial-software company’s Mountain View, California, campus, the project was many years in the making. It began in 2011, when Clive Wilkinson Architects and WRNS Studio were commissioned to collaborate on a pair of new-builds located on a high-profile corner of the property, visible from the adjacent freeway. The first building was completed in 2016. The second, a glassy four-story, 178,600-square-foot structure with a conjoined single-level cafeteria/town-hall pavilion, was slated to break ground in 2020. “We designed it to be low and loftlike, light and airy,” WRNS partner Brian Milman, who oversaw site planning for the 44-acre campus, says of the LEED Platinum–certified building. “It was conceived as a habitat tied to the ground.” 

Designing a LEED Platinum-Certified Building for Intuit

Midway through permitting the project, COVID happened. Although construction commenced and progressed without pause, the client, forecasting a need for return-to-office enticements, pushed the design team to deep-dive into potential postpandemic scenarios. “Intuit flagged us to pivot and rethink the workplace of the future,” Wilkinson summarizes. Despite uncertainty clouding RTO and how paradigms and policies would evolve, he and associate principal Caroline Morris reasoned that many precepts endemic to hospitality would grow increasingly relevant for the workplace—ideas like experiential spaces, a sense of discovery, zones for gathering and community, indeterminate areas open to whatever occupants want, and places, frankly, for people to be happy. They set about tweaking the initial plans to offer more communal environments and opted for daring choices in color and furnishings. “The big ask was to be bold and playful,” Morris recalls. 

That certainly describes the vibe upon entry. At the ground-level reception, staff and visitors encounter a 20-foot-long desk backgrounded by a powder-coated steel logo wall in Intuit’s signature cobalt. Beyond, a sunshiny-yellow lounge enclosure with a pitched roof, nicknamed the little house, beckons in service of meetings and confabs. Running alongside it, a flight of oak-clad stairs, edged with planters for biophilia, leads to the main conference center (the largest on campus) as well as the scheme’s major design move: a three-story, 40-foot-high atrium. The bright volume is lit from above by clerestories set within a series of angled precast-concrete beams, each 60 feet long and weighing 40 tons. Jutting into the atrium are pods—some angular, some rectilinear, some brightly colored. Long part of Wilkinson’s playbook, these cantilevered, glass-fronted aeries are in fact meeting rooms with a view. 

Prioritizing Flexibility in a Workplace Designed for Hybrid Teams

The sprawling plaza at the atrium’s base channels hospitality via comfy lounge seating in citrus hues by Alfredo Häberli, Ichiro Iwasaki, and Hella Jongerius. There’s also an oak communal table surrounded by an eclectic mix of David Geckeler and Jean Prouvé chairs and a barista station, of course. A perforated-steel statement stair—identical to one in the first building—winds up along the atrium’s south side, connecting the three floors. “Progression through the space is spiral and episodic in order to experience delightful moments,” Milman notes. Various amenities sprinkled throughout the large floor plates further encourage movement and mingling. 

Workspaces are what changed the most from prepandemic plans. Intuit’s hybrid two-days-in policy sparked a need for flexibility and options. Out went benching and dedicated desks; instead, the 1,000 employees are grouped into neighborhoods with unassigned workstations adjoined by stylish lounge areas for collaboration. Other features added during mid-pandemic replanning were two quiet zones per floor and a secondary conference hub, on floor three. The latter is fronted by a multiuse prefunction zone that’s certainly more hotel lobby than corporate holding pen. 

Recent parlance is big on equity and choice. “Introverts can opt for seating away from others,” Wilkinson notes, “and people can take a break with games or in designated reflection rooms.” Or they can escape to one of a trio of libraries, stacked on the top three floors, where a hushed atmosphere prevails. 

It all adds up to an evolution of the activity-based work Wilkinson’s firm has long espoused. “No one knew what the end result would be; it was an optimistic and ambitious endeavor on our client’s side,” he says—yet the new HQ is “the type of environment we’ve been promoting for years, offering multiple settings that give employees some say in how they work.” Morris chimes in: “Work is complex, but people are complex.” Confirmation that the teams got it right? Another pivot is pending to bring the interiors of the first building up to the newcomer’s standards. 

Walk Through the Intuit HQ in Mountain View, California

CLIVE WILKINSON ARCHITECTS: SASHA SHUMYATSKY; BEN KALENIK; PERKIN MAK; SARA NELSON; JUAN FEBRES-CORDERO; BEN HOWELL; JUAN GUARDADO. 

WRNS STUDIO: BRYAN SHILES; SAM NUNES; PAULINE SOUZA; MOSES VAUGHAN; RODNEY LEACH; BRIAN MULDER; ASHISH KULKARNI; ERIN BUTLER; GEORGE RUIZ; MEGHAN LUSCOMBE; ROSS FERRARI; DARYL TOY; SIVAN HECHT; NATHAN HYMAN. 

STUDIO FIVE DESIGN: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. 

CREATIVE PLANT DESIGN: INTERIOR LANDSCAPING. 

EGG OFFICE: CUSTOM GRAPHICS/BRANDING. 

REG: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. 

ARTLIFTING: ART CONSULTANT. 

HOLMES STRUCTURES: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. 

INTERFACE ENGINEERING: MEP. 

BKF: CIVIL ENGINEER. 

NORTHWESTERN DESIGN: MILLWORK. 

RUDOLPH AND SLETTEN: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT CAESARSTONE: COUNTERTOPS (ATRIUM, RECEPTION). 

ANDREU WORLD: SECTIONALS (ATRIUM), ROUND SIDE TABLES (ATRIUM, RECEPTION), COMMUNAL TABLE (HUB). 

ARPER: OTTOMANS (ATRIUM). 

VITRA: LOUNGE CHAIRS, STANDARD CHAIRS (ATRIUM). 

MUUTO: STOOLS, NERD CHAIRS (ATRIUM), SECTIONAL, HIGH-BACK CHAIRS (LIBRARY), BLUE CHAIR (HUB). 

PENTALQUARTZ: DESK SOLID SURFACING (RECEPTION). 

VICCARBE: OTTOMANS (RECEPTION, LIBRARY). 

STYLEX: SECTIONALS (RECEPTION, OFFICE AREA). 

GEIGER: LOUNGE CHAIRS (LITTLE HOUSE). 

THE RUG COMPANY: RUG. 

NORMANN COPENHAGEN: COFFEE TABLES (LITTLE HOUSE, HUB). 

ASPLUND: COFFEE TABLE (LIBRARY). 

JB3D: MURAL FABRICATION (CAFETERIA). 

FORTH+BACK: GRAPHIC. 

CERTAINTEED: CEILING BAFFLES. 

FSORB: CEILING PANELS. 

WCI: TABLES. 

HOWE: CHAIRS. 

HAY: WOOD CHAIRS (HUB). 

MILLIKEN: CARPET. 

DAVIS: SOFA. 

THROUGHOUT ARMSTRONG WORLD INDUSTRIES; NORTON INDUSTRIES: CEILING GRILLES. 

ARCHITECTURAL GLASS & ALUMINUM: CURTAIN WALL, ALUMINUM FINS. 

VIRACON: ARCHITECTURAL GLASS. 

WALTERS & WOLF: PRECAST-CONCRETE WALLS. 

CEMEX: CAST-IN-PLACE CONCRETE. 

SHINNOKI: PANELING. 

NORTHERN WIDE PLANK: WOOD FLOORING. 

MAHARAM: ACOUSTIC PANELS, RUGS. 

BENTLEY MILLS: CARPET TILE. 

DUNN-EDWARDS CORPORATION: PAINT. 

PLANTERS UNLIMITED: PLANTERS. 

JLL; KBM HOGUE: FURNITURE SUPPLIERS.