The Eurasia Group is the world’s premier political risk consultancy with offices in New York City and London. The project, located in London’s hip Farringdon neighborhood, was prompted by the landlord’s desire to relocate Eurasia Group from one of its two floors. Because of this, the landlord covered the cost of construction as a tenant improvement (TI) to help convince the Eurasia Group to move.
To achieve the best possible design in this unique situation, the Eurasia Group hired Soluri Architecture to provide a quick concept design for the proposed move and renovation. Their primary concern was to create a brighter, more open space that would facilitate collaborative work and support their company culture. Because only one of their two floors were being relocated, a particular concern was where to locate the new internal stair that connected to the new floor, while minimizing disruption to the staff during work hours.
Because the new floor was at a higher elevation and received natural daylighting, we wanted to keep that floor as open as possible and to use glass partitions to allow light to penetrate deep into the center of the space. We developed three design schemes with different arrangements of the workstations, conference rooms, reception, pantry, and a connecting staircase.
The approved plan moved the new connecting stair to the rear corner, freeing up the front central portion of the floor that was previously occupied by the stair. As a result the reception was moved to this newly created space on first floor, surrounded by the existing, primary workstations, thus freeing up the new second floor to be fully used as functional space which included conference rooms, the pantry, communal spaces, hoteling stations and more informal working areas.
The new conference room partitions on the 2nd level are built of tempered glass, allowing light to seamlessly flow through the space. At the center of this new second floor, surrounded by the glass meeting rooms, is a large communal seating area – an important hub for the company culture, as the entire staff typically have lunch together every day.
The renovated office has been a massive success for the Eurasia Group. The new floor is used much more than its dark and cramped predecessor, as it provides a light-filled space to meet, work, and socialize. From a business standpoint, this new floor provides a better value to Eurasia Group for same amount of rent due to its higher and more efficient utilization of the space. And on the human level, the new space promotes and engages the company culture much more effectively, bringing colleagues together and increasing collaboration and personal satisfaction at work for employees.