BDG / WPP, Detroit, US
The media company’s new Detroit headquarters leans on the city’s industrial and cultural heritage
Words by Pamela Buxton
PROJECT INFO
Client
WPP
Architect
BDG
Size
15,800sqm
Completed
2021
WHEN MEDIA GROUP WPP began its search for a new Detroit home, it knew exactly what it was looking for – a location close to the city’s fast-regenerating downtown, and a large industrial building with inherent character capable of being repurposed to house some 1,700 employees.
It was an exacting brief. Working with design group BDG – one of its own companies – WPP soon settled on the Marquette, a 1905 steel-framed building originally designed to house small manufacturing firms and one of the few of sufficient size and character for the repurposing WPP had in mind. After a project delivery and occupation exacerbated by the pandemic, the transformation is complete as staff gradually return to the office and start to occupy it in the way it was intended.
The pandemic lead to a further increase in the amount of non-desk spaces, with communal areas and break-out spaces a common feature throughout. Image Credit: JUSTIN MACONOCHIE
The Detroit project is BDG’s first North American commission, and is one of a string of new offices it has created for WPP over the world. All follow the same philosophy of reinventing industrial buildings as creative workplaces, whether a ceramic factory (Milan), car showroom (Lisbon), or telephone exchange (Madrid), in what Macgadie describes as ‘a tangible expression’ of that creativity. For WPP, this provides the chance to create a tailored creative environment for their staff as well as enabling a far more sustainable re-use rather than new build approach. In Detroit, this meant relocating staff from the main offices in Dearborn on the city fringes into a prime central location close to the Detroit river.
The Marquette is a handsome, listed brick warehouse, and BDG was keen to retain and reveal the building’s characterful industrial features and generous floor-to-ceiling heights, rather than cover up signs of age and imperfections with, for example, white plasterboard and suspended ceilings. Such an as-found approach is rather less common in the US office market than in the UK, and BDG moved swiftly to ensure that existing promising features such as huge metal fire doors were not disposed of at the onset or covered up.
Despite the change in work environment due to the pandemic, there are still client-facing facilities and conference rooms. Image Credit: PHIL HUTCHINSON
The workplace planning was driven by a shift to agile working from largely traditional office arrangements. On each of the floors up to level eight, staff enter into a communal arrival, break-out area with refreshments, configured differently on each floor. These communal spaces are more hospitality-led in feel than the adjoining office areas, where a combination of hot desks and collaborative break-out spaces replaces traditional office seating arrangements. The pandemic lead to a further increase in the amount of non-desk spaces as it became clear that working patterns were changing for good. A mix of furniture types and styles adds to the variety.
Spatially, the biggest ‘wow’ factor comes in the two floors of communal facilities at the top of the building. Here, visitors arrive at the level nine campus hub, where there are conference and other client-facing facilities as well as a canteen. This double-height space is overlooked by a mezzanine housing training, conference and innovation rooms, with arched windows creating a distinctive backdrop. This is topped by a roof pavilion and terrace.
The 2,235mm diameter lights have a stretched acoustic fabric skin, while integrating HVAC, wifi, white noise speakers and sprinklers. Image Credit: JUSTIN MACONOCHIE
While it was important that the workplaces ‘had creativity embedded in them’, according to chief creative officer Colin Macgadie, there has never been any wish to roll out a single WPP corporate look. Instead, the BDG design team worked with a variety of Detroit leaders and change champions to identify what they felt was key to Detroit, whether the industrial heritage including the car industry, its Art Deco architecture, or its entertainment and cultural heritage, including the Motown music scene and more latterly art and baseball. All these elements were to inform the design response.
‘Authentic is the best way of describing how I wanted it to feel,’ says Macgadie, who was keen that the staff themselves and their activities would animate the building – there was no need to apply additional ‘theatre’ thanks to the inherent qualities of the historic building’s fabric.
Rather than box in the old steelwork, this has instead been celebrated to give authenticity to the building. Image Credit: JUSTIN MACONOCHIE
There are several key features. Firstly, retention of key industrial characteristics, starting with the 3.6m floor-to-ceiling heights and in the lobby areas, the original poured concrete floors, which were repaired. The aforementioned metal fire doors are imaginatively reappropriated, either converted into sliding meeting room doors or as the backdrop for supergraphic floor numbers. The original steelwork is also celebrated, adding to the authenticity of the buildings.
BDG has also responded to the distinctive window arches of the top floors by using the arch as recurring features throughout the office design, for example over the entrance from the WPP lobby areas to the offices of the individual companies. Within the carpeted office area, WPP has introduced one of the most effective elements of the design – 88 huge bespoke circular lighting features referencing both car hub caps, steering wheels or maybe record discs. Not only do these create a striking visual impact both inside and when seen from the street illuminated at night. ‘Your ceiling is your opportunity to express yourselves to the city,’ says Macgadie.
The building’s old metal fire doors have been creatively used as the backdrop for supergraphic floor numbers. Image Credit: JUSTIN MACONOCHIE
Known as Aero313, the bespoke lighting performs a number of important functions, enabling BDG to retain the lofty office dimensions while dealing with practical issues. The 2,235mm diameter lights have a stretched acoustic fabric skin to deal with acoustic requirements, as well as providing ambient and task lighting and integrate HVAC, wifi, white noise speakers and sprinklers. Unable to find a suitable American manufacturer for the bespoke features, BDG worked with regular lighting collaborator Future Designs to create the lights, which were transported from the UK to Detroit ready assembled and craned in through the windows for installation. ‘It feels like they’ve always been there,’ notes Macgadie, approvingly.
Curved linear lighting creates another feature in the ninth floor double height space. In this focal point space, BDG also commissioned a bespoke steel balustrade and encouraged WPP to enlist local artists to create colourful murals. Tiling references Art Deco cues while the city’s passion for baseball is subtly picked up in upholstery stitching inspired by that typically found on a baseball mitt.
The project, a collaboration between BDG’s London and newly established New York office, has achieved a ‘Gold’ LEED rating and is designed to accommodate 1200-1700 staff. It has already proved useful in raising the design group’s profile for creative re-use workplaces beyond WPP with BDG landing a number of key US commissions.
