Stock photo and image company Shutterstock has recently moved into an 85,000 square-foot office located in New York City’s iconic Empire State Building. The new office space was designed in collaboration between Shutterstock’s team and Studios Architecture.
When we began the search for a new office space in 2012, we analyzed data about where our employees live to determine the ideal location for the new HQ. Moving to Herald Square saved employees an average of 3 minutes of commute time. We analyzed 50,000 hours of meeting time over 7 months to determine the right size and number of conference rooms. 61% of meetings had 4 or fewer people. While not surprising given our agile company culture, this stat emphasized the need for lots of small breakout rooms and just a few large conference rooms.

Employees voted on everything from meeting room names to game room themes (and then designed them). Meeting rooms on the 20th floor are named after the world’s great innovators (Jobs, Earhart, Einstein). Conference rooms on the 21st floor are named after architectural landmarks (Taj Mahal, Pantheon, Statue of Liberty). Game rooms include Wonderland and 8-Bit and feature gaming consoles and a ping-pong table.

Our new office is free flowing and open, with lots of corners and hallways to duck into. We welcome cross-team interaction and serendipitous encounters over lunch in the sprawling cafe. A 4K video screen displaying content from our video library can be found in the lobby. Real-time data screens display social and site analytics throughout the office.

“Wormholes” provide live feeds into domestic and international locations, and “robots” can frequently be found around the office. As a global company with customers in 150 countries, we have employees speaking more than a dozen languages in the office. Other features include a yoga/meditation room, massage rooms, a steampunk-themed secret library, extensive gallery space, a mother’s room, and a research lounge for meeting with customers and contributors.

Design: Shutterstock’s inhouse team and Studios Architecture
Photography: Bilyana Dimitrova / courtesy Shutterstock

http://officesnapshots.com/2014/03/24/inside-shutterstocks-new-empire-state-building-offices/