“Changes over the next decade will be physical, health, and cultural changes: access to daylight and ventilation, hoteling workspaces, video and content creation studios, chef dining experiences, variety of conference and huddle rooms, which leads to greater well-being, reduced health costs, reduced attrition, absenteeism and presentism,” said Jon Pickard, co-founder and principal of architecture firm Pickard Chilton.
Located in Bethesda, Maryland, Avocet Tower, despite being a transit-oriented space is already promising to have a lasting impact on the city’s new business landscape. With building elements like AI-powered smart glass and a Dedicated Outside Air System (DOAS), the mixed-use office-hotel hybrid combines bold architectural compositions from Pickard Chilton with high-tech finishes, putting occupant wellbeing at the forefront of its timeless and elegant design.
By Michael J. Crosbie
The success of the creation of a contemporary work of architecture depends upon something typically not discussed in design education, rarely considered in criticism or theory, and frequently missing in most writing about the profession and its legacy: human relationships. The reality is that architecture, for better or worse, is the result of interactions that transpire between scores of people involved in bringing a design from embryonic state to execution in three dimensions, to live in the fourth dimension: time. With complex projects, thousands of people might be involved: clients, architects, consultants, and project teams gathered around a shared goal of realizing a new work of architecture.
Executives of New Haven-based architectural firm Pickard Chilton like to say the company “punches above its weight. That may be one reason the firm not only weathered the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it thrived during that time. From March 2020 through May of this year, Pickard Chilton added contracts to design new headquarters or redevelop existing buildings totaling almost 11 million square feet. That’s in addition to the approximately 19 million square feet of projects it already had under contract. To put that in context, the company calculated there is about 10 million square feet of office space in Hartford, so Pickard Chilton’s contracts equal three Hartford’s worth of space.
New Haven, Connecticut-headquartered global architecture studio Pickard Chilton has announced that it will lead the design of a freeway-abutting, 38-story new office tower in downtown Dallas. Dubbed Field Street Tower, the Hillwood Urban-developed high-rise, at 600 feet, will stand as the tallest office tower to join the skyline of Texas’s third most populous city in 30 years. Per Pickard Chilton, the glass-sheathed structure will serve as a “new centerpiece of the city’s skyline.”
Reflecting on what we have all recently experienced, our physical relationship with the workplace has out of necessity become more fluid. However, we believe that this pandemic will be the catalyst that will accelerate positive change in workplace design.
This piece was co-authored by Jon Pickard, principal and co-founder of Pickard Chilton and Mark Gribbons, principal and design director at IA Interior Architects.