International Data Group (IDG) Offices – Needham
Dyer Brown & Associates designed a 125,000-square-foot workplace in Needham, tailored to accommodate the distinct activities and workflows of three business units with innovative design solutions.
For IDG, the leading global market intelligence and data analytics provider to the technology ecosystem, thus 125,000-square-foot workplace on a scenic campus in Needham, Mass. consolidates under one roof the company’s three distinct business units – IDC, IDG Communications, and primary corporate entity IDG – with each division housed on its own floor, custom-designed to accommodate each group’s particular activities and workflows.
Boasting a brand-inspired setting and innovative solutions for employee productivity and wellness, the reimagined interiors also present original environmental graphics and state-of-the-art spaces for video, broadcast and podcast production. Accommodating more than 500 employees, the innovative workplace is the result of a collaborative engagement process between Dyer Brown’s acclaimed workplace studio and a twelve-person client-side steering committee that included representatives from each business unit and several of the company’s executives. The committee articulated a strategic workplace vision to support each division’s activities, goals and workflows, with bold graphic installations inspired by the company’s history, global reach, and perspective.
Occupying three full floors of a Class-A facility with an L-shaped plan, the new workplace dedicates roughly one floor per business unit, with programming tailored to suit the unique culture of each. For example, leaders of the more tech-focused IDG Communications expressed their preference for an open-plan office dominated by clean rows of workstations, interspersed with huddle spaces and collaboration zones, while upstairs on the third floor the corporate umbrella group IDG required an executive board room and enclosed offices.
Uniting the workplace at the elbow of the floor plate are common zones and public-facing amenities, starting with an entrance lobby that also serves as a pantry and break area, offering visitors a glimpse of company culture in action. Some shared centralized services are located together for efficiency and coordination, such as the human resources center, which has offices for all three divisions together on the 1st floor. The workplace as a whole is unified across all three floors through new corporate furniture standards developed by Dyer Brown, as well recurring themes such as open ceilings in common areas and subtler touches like pendants with Edison lamps. The palette of finishes and flexible, ergonomic furnishings also support wellbeing and productivity for every employee.
Also unifying the three divisions is an imaginative and memorable installation of Dyer Brown-designed environmental graphics celebrating the company’s global reach and worldwide operations. Signs indicate distances from the headquarters to other IDG city hubs such as in Paris and Singapore. A list of the company’s international offices appears above banquette seating in the pantry area. Each floor also displays a graphic theme focused on global regions IDG serves, such as Asia and North America, with a major city from each geography inspiring the graphics in common areas and outside conference rooms: One floor’s collaboration space sports imagery of Big Ben, for example, while a similar area downstairs is emblazoned with a map of São Paulo. Reinforcing the distinct business units, a different primary color dominates each floor — blue, burgundy, or green — yet each level also includes references to all the other colors, creating a cohesive and memorable experience
Design: Dyer Brown & Associates
Photography: Andy Ryan, courtesy Dyer Brown
 Offices – Needham){kind=link}