Title: Bloomberg Atlanta News Bureau
Location of Proejct: Atlanta, GA
Project Completion Date: 2017
Firm Name: BLDGS

Short Description: Bloomberg News was seeking to reestablish itself in a fast-growing part of the city, closer to the hub of Atlanta’s economic activity, and within an office setting that reaffirmed its values as one of the world’s leading news organization - authentic, transparent and progressive – while also acknowledging its place within the city and culture of Atlanta. Bloomberg’s objective was to create an environment moving beyond a “standard workplace” to “support the differences and cultural nuances that make the world a more interesting place: creating a sense of arrival, surprise and discovery.”

Architect's Statement: A new office for Bloomberg News in the SW corner of the 26th floor of a 41-story high-rise in Midtown Atlanta. The relatively small 4,000sf interior provides an open office for 15 reporters and a bureau chief, a broadcasting corner (with backdrop of the Atlanta skyline), training, conference and event rooms and a central social gathering space – incorporating Bloomberg’s hospitality ‘Pantry’ - allowing the office to act as a regional hub for larger groups of employees.

The primary design objectives were to democratize views of the city throughout the entire office without hierarchy, and to use geometry, material and color to create a sense of ease and accommodation, conducive to collaboration, conversation and work.

Upon entry, the geometry of the walls reorients the experience from the base-building to the sweep of the city view. The view extends through two primary conference and event rooms – which are acoustically separate spaces but visually remain part of the larger office environment.

The pantry, is the central social program of the project and able to hold 30+ employees for regional events. Its space is created as a void within the surrounding field of acoustic felt baffles, exposing the existing concrete structure as contrast to the newly added casework and wall surfaces.

The baffles are equally about performance and atmosphere – to create a sensory experience that floats below pre-existing ductwork and utilities - and in three geometric zones flood all of the other occupiable areas from the pantry to the building envelope. The baffles create a ‘plane’ that distracts attention from the inherited disorder above, while providing a sound-absorbing, acoustically calming environment within the open office setting. Major interior walls are also lined with felt, and niches created for Bloomberg’s newsfeed displays. The soft acoustics counteracts the reflective expanses of glass and enhances employee comfort, supporting communications between people who feel comfortable having conversation without disturbing their co-workers.

Color is used throughout the interior in intense and subtle ways. The bottom felt strip of numerous acoustical baffles is replaced with varying colors – creating zones of “diffraction” within the baffle system– a range of blues above the open-office benching, greens above the main conference room, and reds/oranges leaking into the smaller conference room. These are intended as liminal color traces that lighten the visual effect of the baffles and help them “swirl.”

The custom steel and low-iron glass wall system was designed to minimally interrupt the continuity of the baffle plane, allowing the baffles to visually flow through the glass walls. This allows these acoustically private rooms to maintain visual participation with the rest of the office and with the city outside while conveying Bloomberg’s values of transparency and democracy with shared and accessible views.