Infor’s Collaborative New York City Headquarters
Enterprise software company Infor recently relocated their headquarters from Alpharetta, Georgia to the Flatiron district in New York City.
Working with global architecture firm VOA (now Stantec), a key goal of the new 48,000 sqft space is to create a collaborative environment that matches the core ideas of the company’s software offerings.
“Enlisting the help of design firm VOA, Infor CEO Charles Phillips had a very specific vision to make the new office space as open to innovation as possible. The new collaborative layout brings a social essence to the floor, a core component of both Infor’s product capabilities and the way team members develop ideas. In fact, even Charles embraces this new structure by working on a laptop at an open table (none of the executives have their own offices) and inviting employees to work together to share fresh ideas alongside large, interactive monitors and modern architectural design elements.
Spanning two floors, the 48,000 SF space serves as the main customer sales center and corporate headquarters for the New York team. Upon entering the 4th floor reception, visitors are greeted by a large two-story media wall and a stair that leads to the conference center below. The state of the art conference rooms can be re-configured with pocketing walls and oversized sliding walnut barn doors. An adjacent breakout lounge below a large opening along 20th street provides a spatial connection between the conference center and the open office above.
The building, located at 641 6th avenue, was originally a department store, built over 100 hundred years ago. There were very few windows on the perimeter, and a very deep interior space. Before the redesign, as you can see, the space was a very typical office with poorly positioned offices lacking good ventilation and natural light. The result was more than just an office space, but a customer experience with a good flow of circulation and more natural light than before. In fact, Infor is reporting that 98% of the potential customers they bring to the office eventually buy their software. Charles attributes much of that to VOA’s design and the collaborative effort that went into the design of their new HQ.”
Design: VOA (now Stantec)