expertise > Architecture > Visionary Design
ExxonMobil Energy Center in Houston, Texas
The Devon Auditorium in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
BHP Headquarters in Houston, Texas

Visionary Design

All aspects of Pickard Chilton’s work are animated by the belief in the transformative power of research-driven design to deliver high-performance buildings that create measurable value for our clients, produce an engaging and productive environment, and build better communities. Research is an integral part of our design process, and the firm invests in explorations that significantly expand our ability to serve the needs of our clients.

From cutting-edge technology to new and innovative structural materials, state-of-the-art visualizations, and high-performance enclosures, Pickard Chilton’s studio-wide research effort proactively seeks to strengthen competencies, broaden the studio’s portfolio, and increase the firm’s thought leadership. These explorations have consistently allowed us to efficiently deliver architecture of exceptional value, resilience, and performance.

To best inform how we serve our client’s immediate needs, we leverage the knowledge, interests, and creativity of the entire studio. We also weigh these decisions on how they may impact their buildings as well as their organizations in the years ahead. Our creative solutions are often anticipatory and inherently flexible to allow for unknown future technologies and materials, as well as the repurposing of these spaces for next-generation uses.

Related Work

Here's how to push the next generation out of the house and back into the office with outdoor amenities, spaces that fit all work styles and connections to their surrounding communities.

The workplace is changing. However, the origins of the changes we are now seeing in workplace design and strategy are fundamental, and actually predate the pandemic. Regardless of industry, the use of the workplace to attract and retain the best talent has been driving this movement across the country and the globe for many years. For companies to compete at the highest level, they need the best and brightest employees to support their vision and goals.

Read more at Interiors and Sources 

We know the built environment can affect mental health—but how can we make sure that impact is positive?

We spend most of our lives in buildings, from our homes to our workplaces and “third spaces”—social surroundings that are separate from home and work. It’s not surprising that the buildings we spend so much time in have an impact on our wellbeing. In addition, health and wellness—including mental health—are a growing focus area for building owners and managers who are looking to make sure the built environment is having a positive impact on the people occupying it.

“The pandemic is obviously something we’re all continuing to think about, live through and engage with every day, and that has shined a brighter spotlight on wellness in general,” said Stephen Harris, principal of Pickard Chilton. “Folks are also seeing mental health as a more substantive component of the wellness equation, so it’s becoming more recognized that the built environment has major contributions to make to either the success or detriment of mental health.”

Read more at Buildings 

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, buildings faced an unprecedented need for access to fresh air. We developed a solution allowing tenants to install air porches for a private outdoor experience

東京ミッドタウン八重洲が2023年3月10日グランドオープン! 生田絵梨花さん出演WEBCM公開中。

▼東京ミッドタウン八重洲公式サイト

https://www.yaesu.tokyo-midtown.com/

3月10日からは

★生田絵梨花さんによる館内紹介「YAESU STYLE MAGAZINE」を東京ミッドタウン八重洲公式サイト内で公開!

★生田絵梨花さんによる「30秒エスカレーターラジオ」を館内エスカレーターで放送!

Street view of the PG&E historic complex

Architects and real-estate developers are pioneering concepts to entice workers who will permanently split their time between home and office. Here are the innovations you’ll see in coming years.

 

Workplaces that look like your living room; flexible, multiuse spaces; outdoor terraces. Today’s new hybrid work styles are reshaping the office buildings of tomorrow.

Leading architects and real-estate developers are pioneering concepts aimed at workers who are splitting their time between home and office, and they predict these innovations will become mainstream in the years to come.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal 

2+U is a Class-A office tower, envisioned as a first-of-its-kind urban Village, located in one of the most strategic locations in downtown Seattle.

Proposed entry to 1633 Broadway, a multi-family development

Pickard Chilton was recently named a finalist for Metals in Construction magazine’s international design competition.

For the 2023 edition of its popular annual design competition, the magazine invited participants to explore the conversion of a large outdated commercial office tower to an innovative residential use. The aim was to address and draw attention to the concurrent trends that office vacancy rates are at an all-time high and that the environmental carbon impact of the construction industry is appropriately being further scrutinized.

As its subject tower, the brief identified a 1970’s New York City office building, the Paramount Plaza, located at 1633 Broadway in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. The brief contemplated the reconfiguration of the large office floor plates to residential units as well as a reimagined and enhanced ground-level experience which would consist of various retail spaces, a large public plaza, and two existing Broadway theaters: The Gershwin and the Circle in The Square.

Transforming the tower program from commercial to residential presented the unique opportunity to consolidate and reduce the footprint of the building’s core infrastructure. However, daylight analysis of the resulting floor plan demonstrated the primary challenge: the center of the tower receives inadequate natural daylight for residential use. In addition, the significant lease depths of the existing commercial floor plan created challenges to providing market-appropriate unit layouts.

To resolve these issues, floor plates were strategically carved to allow ample natural daylight to reach the center of the building and the enclosure wall was offset from the perimeter of the floor. The resulting floor layout provides the unprecedented and unique opportunity for every unit to have a spacious exterior balcony, or their own “urban back porch”. 

After examining numerous options for the best use of the center of floor plate, the final design proposed “The Hub,” an amenities-rich experience that rises through the new core of the entire tower to create a vibrant social spine for the building’s residential community.

With more publicly-oriented spaces and amenities located within the podium, specific fee-based venues and activities can be opened to the greater public to provide nominal income opportunities to offset potential rent increases for building residents.

Furthermore, the dramatic post-Covid work-from-home shift has significantly impacted both workplace and home environments. As such, the tower’s new residences are generous, allowing ample space for families to feel comfortable yet have rooms that can serve as private work areas.

At the ground level, direct access to the subway system below is celebrated and announced with a series of large glass doors that open, eliminating the boundary between the plaza and the dynamic space within. Access to the subway, a grocery store, a community center, and other public amenities activate the site and continuously draw in visitors. Lastly, The Gershwin and Circle in The Square theaters are enhanced, bringing additional excitement to the block and district. Their entrances are accentuated with new entrance canopies to attract and welcome the public.

Nyberg: Pickard Chilton

What does a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi, the Exxonmobil Office Complex in Houston, the Wells Fargo Headquarters Campus in Des Moines, and an Uber Skyport have in common? They were all designed by the international architectural firm, Pickard Chilton. The prolific company designs all over the world and includes many buildings to note, such as the potential Google headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. On Nyberg, the three principles of the firm, all originally from the Midwest, talked about how they came together and their projects through the years, as well what lies for their future.

The concept design for a Mega-Skyport, Uber’s next generation aviation transport system with six landing pads.

Pickard Chilton and ARUP collaborated on the concept design for a Mega-Skyport – Uber’s vision for a next-generation urban aviation transport system - The Uber Sky Tower.

Design proposal for 35,000m2 next generation workplace in Amsterdam that incorporates an innovative three volume design.

Next Generation Workplace is a 35,000m2 multi-tenant building and an amenity-filled ecosystem for creative collaboration and building community internally, located in Amsterdam.

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We are passionate about our clients, our work, and the positive impact of every building we design. If you have a difficult design challenge, contact us to create a solution that realizes your vision.