Inspirations for Quartz’s new office
“Glitch moments” and other visions from the architects
Quartz is moving to a new office. We’re documenting it here because many of our questions apply to other growing startups. Our introductory post explains more about what we’re up to. Follow our publication for updates.
Our new office is being designed Desai Chia Architecture, led by Kathy Chia and Arjun Desai. They recently worked on an expanded space for Betaworks, the startup studio, which we really liked. And so that’s how we found ourselves meeting with Kathy and Arjun to review their vision for Quartz’s next headquarters. What follows are my notes from recent meetings with them along with most of the images they presented.
They began by identifying inspirations for the design. There was, of course, the mineral quartz (at left). They also pointed to Polynesian stick charts (middle), which were once used to navigate the complex network of islands, and a wall drawing by Sol LeWitt (right).
Quartz staff refer to the company’s culture as “quartziness,” but defining it has become more difficult as we grow. Some kind of map of the company, like the Polynesian stick chart, is increasingly helpful. Likewise, they felt Quartz resembled LeWitt’s work because it is a structured grid with unexpected deviations. Staff enjoy overlapping with people in the company they don’t always work with and want an office that encourages that.
Kathy, Arjun, and their colleagues had spent several days interviewing some of the Quartz employees who work in New York. They also reviewed feedback from a survey of the entire staff. Using that commentary, they developed a sense of a “Quartzy” office, drawing on some beloved elements of our current space that people said they wanted to retain.
Most of all, they felt that a Quartzy office would naturally combine spaces for working and meeting, rather than keeping them separate. Kathy said, “All offices have working areas and meeting areas, but what Quartz wants is a ‘Quartz zone.’ Sometimes it’s more working, sometimes more meeting.”
Kathy and Arjun outlined some tenets of the working spaces and offered some images for inspiration. We have always had an open plan office, but some of the other tenets, like flexibility of the layout and connections to employees outside New York, could stand to be improved in this new space.
They talked about a variety of meeting spaces, from private to public, small to large, and formal to informal. It was clear from the inspiration images that the line between working and meeting could easily be blurred.
And then back to the question of Quartziness. They referred to “glitch moments” — unexpected quirks and interactions — as a beloved aspect of our current office that they wanted to retain. Some of those include Friday evening cocktails, horticulture, books about design, a maker space of sorts, and a breakaway group of employees who brew their own coffee. These could find their way into the new office as “Quartzy spaces.”
So, finally, it was time to look at the actual space and how these ideas might manifest themselves. They presented two broad plans for the office, depending on how much desk space we need. Yellow indicates the Quartzy spaces, and blue represents meeting rooms. The town hall area in the top-left corner is intended to be a pantry and eating space most of the time, but could also be used for events and meetings of the entire staff.
To orient yourself, this is the fourth floor of 675 Avenue of Americas (better known as Sixth Avenue), which runs south to north. We have rented the southern half of the floor. An atrium runs through the entire building; that’s the empty white space in the middle. You enter the space through a narrow vestibule near the middle, off the elevator bank and alongside that atrium.
We liked the whole concept. Next comes the process of assembling more detailed plans and designing the spaces, particularly the Quartzy ones. We’ll share those as they come together in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, we’ll be writing about other questions, issues, and plans related to the new office in this new publication on Medium. Follow it for updates, and feel free to respond to this piece and others with any thoughts.
