9 minute read
A Sleek Vertical Workplace For 1,000 Employees
By Vilma Barr
The automotive industry’s competitive brands built consumer demand for its products over decades by promoting quality performance, sleek styling, and pride of individual ownership. In the twenty-first century, car purchasing has taken on a separate electronic life. CarGurus, Inc. is a leading global automotive marketplace, operating an internet-based car shopping process through innovative search and analytics technology, to become a major player in the retail consumer car-buying marketplace.
Founded in 2006 by Langley Steinert, a co-founder of TripAdvisor, CarGurus has grown into a multinational, online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles that is building upon its industry-leading listings marketplace with both digital retail solutions. The company started off as an automotive community blog where consumers could post reviews and questions about local dealers, shops, and types of cars. Dealers expressed interest in advertising on the site, and the company changed its business strategy to connect dealers and consumers by putting inventory on the site.
Its services include assisting users in comparing local listings for used and new cars and contacting sellers. CarGurus uses algorithms to analyze and compare prices and features on cars for sale. Users can search for specific cars in their local area and compare listings by price, features, and dealership reputation. Consumers can compare car prices and find the best deals by utilizing proprietary algorithms to analyze vehicle listings and dealer reputations. CarGurus has established a positive corporate image as a trusted source for car shopping both online and in-person.
The company also provides a discussion platform where car enthusiasts and automotive experts can exchange insights, ask questions, and share reviews. It currently operates websites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Germany.
It has consolidated its headquarters into one central location at 1001 Boylston Street in downtown Boston, uniting nearly 1,000 employees who had been operating from various scattered locations across the Charles River in Cambridge into 200,000 sq.ft. located on the top 10 floors of a new 20-story building. The space, with its unobstructed views of the city and beyond in all directions, enhances the workplace experience for the professional and support staffs.
Designed with Flexibility, Collaboration, and Sustainability
Designed by IA Interior Architects, the CarGurus headquarters was created with a hybrid work culture in mind, offering spaces that support all types of meeting scenarios and individual work modes for the diverse talent that it employs. The result is an activity-driven hub comprised of 900 choice work points, 30 collaborative spaces, and central social spaces, all with flexibility into the design to support changing needs.
Amenities are distributed throughout the office floors to encourage interaction. Included are a multi-story reception area, tech bar, barista bar, multiple training spaces, all hands meeting areas, video production suite, and dining area. There are two libraries for quiet focus work, several balconies/terraces, and exclusive access to a penthouse gathering space with two large roof decks equipped with seating for individual or group work.
Designed for LEED Gold certification, the project prioritizes sustainability and a connection to nature. Natural light is optimized for all occupants, complemented by wood textures, natural materials, and diverse greenery, creating varied patterns across each floor.
Brand Experience
“CarGurus is everything automotive,” said Reetika Vijay, Managing Principal, IA Interior Architects. Lighting design was integral to the success of the overall CarGurus headquarters project. Lighting served three roles in the design: providing dimension to the interior; reinforcing the CarGurus brand; and supporting high performance of each space.
“Our design team worked hand-in-hand with CarGurus’ brand team to develop the workplace design to elevate the CarGurus brand,” Vijay relates. “Automobiles were the inspiration. The design language of all lighting selections was contemporary, dynamic, and relating to automotive technology with a sense of speed and movement.”
“The 10-story interconnecting stair is framed by a backdrop showcasing an abstracted curvilinear road-like element, highlighted by color-changing LED lighting. The LED lighting not only brings dimension to the graphic form but introduces the sense of movement and energy to each floor.”
IA created a road trip theme for each floor, giving every level of the CarGurus headquarters a distinct identity. Each floor is themed after one road trip ranging from Milford Road in New Zealand, to the Kancamagus Highway in the U.S., to the Amalfi Coast Road in Italy.
“Lighting was then selected to support design vocabulary representing each particular road trip,” said Vijay. “The open office was highlighted with a continuous linear racetrack fixture wrapped around the footprint. Main circulation through the open office was defined by linear pendants. Each amenity had unique lighting to tailor to the specific amenity while also supporting the floor road trip theme.”
Functional Lighting
Both design and function were integrated to meet CarGurus’ sustainability goals. “We began the design process by completing a thorough walk-through in CarGurus’ existing office space in Cambridge to get a better understanding of lighting fixture solutions and light levels that the teams were accustomed to working under,” Vijay indicated.
With an aggressive goal of LEED Gold certification, the overall lighting power density for the project needed to stay below .54 W/sq.ft. “This requirement forced the team to be very strategic with our ambient lighting choices to balance light levels, wattage, and spacing.
The curvilinear direct/indirect racetrack was critical to the design concept, and we modeled several variations to find the appropriate lumens/ft in both directions that would achieve the target foot-candle range of 25-35 fc throughout workspace zones,” Vijay explained. “The complementary tubes of light in the circulation paths were spaced just close enough to make a statement and provide uniform light levels without consuming too much of the available energy load. We employed recessed linear slot in various size meeting rooms and private offices in targeted lumens/ft to once again balance function, wattage and budget needs,” he stated.
The design team created an efficient base layer of light in open office zones and circulation paths by leaving enough wattage and budget to incorporate the desired layers of light into the unique amenity spaces throughout. “We approached each amenity space by first narrowing in on the feature lighting elements that would best enhance the design concept and validated each would provide adequate task brightness of 20-40 fc depending on the anticipated use of that zone (lounge vs gaming),” Vijay noted.
They are supplemented with floating cylinders as needed to balance light levels as workers transitioned between spaces. The large corporate café on the twentieth floor provided an opportunity to blend a layer of curvilinear racetrack consistent with the other floors, combined with large-scale acoustic fixtures and organic luminous tube forms dispersed throughout to add interest throughout the floor.
The pandemic presented the designers with a unique opportunity to rethink the role of the office in CarGurus’ culture, leading the project team to quickly pivot towards unassigned workspaces. The resulting floor plan is a dynamic collaboration hive, full of choice work points, robust collaborative spaces, and central social hubs, with future flexibility built into the infrastructure to support changing needs. Through thoughtful design and strategic planning, IA Interior Architects succeeded in creating a space that not only meets the functional needs of CarGurus’ growing team but also inspires and supports the pioneering spirit of the company and that of the employees who contribute to a successful organization.
Management’s objective for their central corporate office to create a supportive workplace that embodies CarGurus’ mission to empower people to reach their destination was paramount in the brief to the design team.
Employee wellbeing was embraced from multiple angles throughout the project, with diversity, equity, and inclusion steering many design decisions. Robust mothers’ suites are located on multiple floors. Every floor has comfortable wellness spaces and single-use restrooms, and the workstation design empowers individuals to modify their workspaces to meet specific needs, whether through configuration or adjustment of a task light. Ergonomics and acoustics are thoughtfully addressed throughout. Quiet areas for introspection are balanced with more active spaces that support socialization.
A roadway-like circulation path rings the space, creating a sense of motion through a repetitive lighting gesture. Establishing destinations and ease of navigation was critical to the spatial and experiential design. An intuitive wayfinding strategy incorporates CarGurus’ primary brand colors—red and blue—paired with a neutral base palette of warm woods, crisp whites, and soft greys to create consistent odd and even floor schemes. The spatial design draws inspiration from the ultimate road trip, with an overarching planning concept based on topographical forms one might experience on a drive.
Visual interest and variety are brought in strategically with a geographic floor theme. The individual themes manifest themselves in the spatial design and architectural finishes of the floor amenity, as well as within the graphics, a grab-and-go food pickup area, an interview suite, a boardroom, and many more.
