As the WFH movement continues to reshape city business districts, commercial real estate companies face pressure to demonstrate the ongoing merits of exemplary office space. With the help of London architecture firm MoreySmith, CBRE’s UK Advisory Services group has more than risen to the challenge. Opened in January, its new 2,000-person headquarters in London’s west end makes for an especially energizing home base. Granted, under the company’s new hybrid working model, many employees may now be out of the office as much as they’re in it.
In turn, the building focuses on supporting CBRE employees with the amenities that they need the most: not necessarily dedicated desk space, but rather fluid and open environments conducive to collaboration. The office also places particular emphasis on employee wellbeing, integrating workout facilities, a courtyard café and a library, as well as an inspiring sculpture by artist Fernando Casasempere. Overall, it’s a design concept that seems to say, “If you’re going to come into the office in 2022, let’s make it count.”
A total reimagining of Henrietta House, the West London building that CBRE has occupied since 2011, the project actually evolved from a conversation that CBRE and MoreySmith began long before the pandemic, back in 2017. As the client originally started to navigate the idea of a flexible workspace, it approached the architecture firm seeking to install employee lockers. “But when I looked out the back of the window, there was this big void over top of the old loading bay,” says MoreySmith Principal Director Linda Morey-Burrows. “That’s when I thought, wait — could we come up with something amazing instead?”
By working with the property owner, Lazari Investments, CBRE secured approval to introduce a new 3,762-square-metre rear addition (bringing the total net area to 13,517 square metres) and to rework the first two floors of the building’s facade with a fresh retail frontage. Inside, they arranged spaces around a couple of large atriums and central staircases that form a social hub at the heart of the expanded building.
Glazed bricks help the new addition to harmonize with the existing structure and its surroundings. “We wanted to keep that ‘back of London’ look, but in a contemporary way. Now, people can’t actually remember what it was like before,” says Morey-Burrows. In another major architectural move, the firm reclaimed existing service facilities to create the rooftop library.
Despite all of these social areas, the office still fuels employee productivity, too. “If everybody comes in on the same day, there are enough places for all of them to work. Floors two to six are actually allocated for specific teams, so it’s not hot-desking — everyone has a place to go,” Morey-Burrows explains. (A client lounge on the first floor even provides dedicated co-working space for visiting clients looking to make CBRE’s office their own.)
But the real draw of the new configuration lies in its role as a lifestyle hub, complete with everything from quiet zones and family rooms to a cycling studio with change areas and shower facilities. The building’s focus on wellbeing also extends to its sustainable design strategies. An emphasis on natural light and greenery is complemented by outdoor terraces on the first and seventh floors, while materials like reclaimed timber and cork cladding were chosen for their renewable and biodegradable properties. Already on track to receive BREEAM Excellent, the building is also submitting to become WELL Certified Platinum.
A significant step up from the simple stop-gap solution that CBRE initially sought, the end result supports a fundamental rethink of how the company works. Evidently, when it comes to devising a flexible workspace for the future, it pays for a company to be flexible to its architect’s suggestions.
“Renovating an existing building is hard work, but all of the things that you have to do also mean that there are more layers of interest and more character when you’re finished,” Morey-Burrows says. “And now that it’s finished, they’re definitely not having any trouble getting people to come back to work.”
CBRE expands its existing office building to create a future-forward work environment focused on collaboration and wellness.