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But, Vibrant is a poster child for how to pivot midway through the design process and draw up a new plan — one that meets its need for flexibility and lures workers back with features like modular walls, cozy nooks, wellness rooms, dimmable lights and other soothing design elements.
“They wanted this hybrid-remote environment, which is the trend these days,” said Steven Andersen, a partner at Montroy Andersen DeMarco who helped design Vibrant’s new headquarters.
The $10 million buildout wrapped up earlier this year, and the result is an airy workspace filled with plants and ergonomic Herman Miller furniture, with some pieces from Danish designer Hay thrown in. Custom wallpaper by 71 Visuals covered in exclamation points — Vibrant’s logo — makes the office’s entrance, well, vibrant.
Eighteen-foot ceilings on the 19th floor of the Financial District office tower — which Rudin went into contract to sell to Bushburg in April, but the deal hasn’t closed yet — help give the floor a capacious feeling. Plus, Andersen boosted that feeling with a baby blue color palette and cloud-like light fixtures that appear to hover overhead.
“It’s a very calming space,” Anderson said.
A grid of about 80 desks occupies roughly half of the 19th floor. They are assigned to Vibrant’s mental health counselors in pairs working opposite shifts, which seems to work to maximize desk area without making the open office a total free-for-all.
Private offices for the organization’s executives are on the 18th floor, along with other smaller conference rooms and private phone booths lined with noise-dampening materials, according to Andersen.
“My advice to other similar organizations planning new offices is to have their representative frequently present at the construction site,” Carleton Archer, Vibrant’s vice president of operations, said in a statement before the organization unveiled its headquarters.
Modular walls on the office’s 19th floor make it possible to entertain lavishly, and Vibrant can push them all open to welcome a large crowd — which it did in February to throw a big party to mark the office’s opening. When Vibrant’s employees returned to work the next day, the space was easily transformed back to its default state.
A big feature of the office includes its numerous stations to get a cup of coffee, maximizing social encounters that can be sorely absent in other offices, Andersen said.
“The coffee stations support everybody and make people socialize in a work environment,” Andersen said. “I think that’s what’s missing with a lot of office projects where people don’t come to work.”
