Immersion Offices – San Jose
FENNIE+MEHL has designed the new offices of touch technology company Immersion, located in San Jose, California.
Immersion Corporation continues to and has spent the last 20 years leading the haptic digital touch technology industry. Coincidentally when you walked into their previous space it seemed that their office had been designed 20 years prior. After securing a lease on their new 42,000 empty shell in the heart of Silicon Valley, Immersion asked FENNIE+MEHL for a space that would catch their office up to the 21st century and attract that same century’s innovative tech talent. All while maintaining a breathtaking $70/SF budget, talk about a design challenge.
Because F+M had the pleasure of working with Immersion previously, they knew the firm’s relaxed but competitively driven culture as much as their frugal streak. Their list of remodeling needs was long: inspiring rooms for all-hands meetings, individualized work, conference and sales, labs, R&D, warehousing as well as areas for cooking and eating and team building. In contrast to their previous space which separated each of the team’s from one another, F+M created their space as a playground for the hugely-diverse inter-team cultures, spanning the executive leadership team, the heads-down engineers, the collaborative agile user experience group, and the globe-trotting marketing team. The celebration of all teams is literally written on the spanning All Hands wall in a F+M-custom designed graphic of their mission and vision statement.
What started as a nearly one-acre, single-story, largely windowless space became open and integrated. The low ceilings were removed to expose the volume and bring natural light and views deep into the space. F+M played off the existing architecture to stretch the budget and provide Immersion with a ‘home of their own.’ To bring the culture front and center, F+M created cost-effective yet impactful and inspirational signage throughout the small meeting rooms and large communal spaces which doubles as branding statements, reminding all of Immersion’s importance to the world. A nice touch, indeed.
Design:Â FENNIE+MEHL
Photography: Jasper Sanidad
