Title: TIAA Corporate Campus
Location of Proejct: Charlotte, North Carolina
Project Completion Date: N/A
Firm Name: IA Interior Architects

Short Description: TIAA partnered with us to create a state-of-the-art facility that modeled a forward-looking workplace. The design intent was to create a campus enabling employees to feel connected regardless of business units and hierarchy.

To accomplish this, the firm worked with workplace strategists to address any challenges that TIAA was facing. Our Experiential Graphics Design (EGD) team ensured that the brand was showcased through artwork, unique digital displays, and eye-catching graphics that reflect TIAA’s culture locally and regionally.

The new Charlotte campus will house a number of amenities and bring an array of opportunities to the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Architect's Statement: The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) is a Fortune 100 financial institution founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1918. With over 16,000 employees it serves the retirement, insurance, and investment needs of those in academic, research, medical, cultural, and governmental fields. As part of TIAA’s enterprise-wide modernization initiative, IA Interior Architects was engaged to renovate and design the TIAA Charlotte campus as a model of forward-looking workplace innovation that will enable a similar shift in workspace experience across the company's portfolio. The six-building campus occupies nearly 1 million square feet.

In 2020, during the final phase of planning the robust workplace strategy, the pandemic’s impact on how people work became critical. To address that challenge, IA and TIAA partnered and developed a hybrid work philosophy and design for the campus that aligned with job roles within a framework called Work for My Day. For the diverse community of TIAA associates, the framework explains the new workplace model that will boost individual and group effectiveness while expressing TIAA’s guiding principles through spaces designed for wellbeing, discovery and the retention and attraction of top talent.

The campus design enables a cultural repositioning and experience that breaks down barriers between business units and hierarchy while facilitating collaboration and connection. Throughout the campus, the TIAA spirit and brand are clearly reflected through concise messaging, unique digital displays, and regionally-inspired graphics, comprehensively applied from entry gates through all floors and buildings by the IA Experiential Graphics Design (EGD) team.

Destinations and indoor and outdoor work areas encourage associates and teams to interact, communicate, and build relationships, uniting the campus. Individual and collaborative space types allow associates to choose how and where they work throughout the day. These options ensure an energized and engaging platform that promotes wellness while increasing productivity. Work settings with integrated technology at both quiet and active zones accommodate different work modes and allow for physical and cognitive user needs. Integrated custom scenarios designed by the IA lighting team respond to and transition between a host of lighting requirements across the complex to easily balance the needs of formal workspaces with the softer light typical of breakout and communal areas.

The Atrium, architecturally impressive with a rotunda skylight, is the heart of the campus and the initial stop for visitor check-in. By relocating the reception desk, IA reinvented the space to create a hospitality-inspired concierge-type experience. Digital screens take advantage of the vast volume of space to create a 360-degree experience of continually running ambient graphics that convey TIAA’s innovative energy Adjacent to the atrium is the main campus conference center and auditorium, intended to bring associates together from across campus for large meetings and events.

The design includes key on-site amenities such as the newly renovated Carnegie Food Hall, where the name, logo, and unique branding for each food stall, created by the IA EGD team, celebrates a variety of cuisines offered in a setting of seating arrangements for dining, meeting, socializing, and respite. Here, a telescoping wall enables an indoor/outdoor experience, providing access to fresh air for outdoor dining, collaborating, and socializing, with a panoramic view of the newly activated courtyard.

In addition to the Living Well Health & Wellness Center and new on-site pharmacy, TIAA has introduced a campus fitness center to encourage health and wellbeing. Outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment and personalized health coaches, the inspiring space features the intuitive wayfinding implemented throughout the campus and at outdoor walking trails, which includes the renaming of buildings after TIAA leaders and pioneers, reminiscent of college campuses, to generate a more memorable experience.

Aesthetics pay homage to the facility’s Charlotte location. The use of color and graphics across the campus establishes unique identities and connections. Modular brand-messaging panels tell the TIAA story at the commons on all floors of every building. A system of color-coding per floor and pattern-coding specific to each building and inspired by the region’s natural surroundings, along with engaging experiential graphics as wallcoverings, glass film, cut felt panels, and feature walls, aide identification, and navigation.

The holistic design effectively communicates what TIAA does, celebrating company values and TIAA associates, who are inspired to make a difference in serving clients from a space that promotes personal safety, wellness, and sustainability to nurture body and mind. The new workplace is planned to evolve beyond today—TIAA is committed to making changes as the needs of the workforce change.