Architecture

TITLE:  Clarks Americas Headquarter Office

DESCRIPTION:

An expression of the Clarks brand, this workplace inspires creativity and fosters collaboration.

TRANSCRIPT:

Tammy Diorio:  Everything about what Clarks wanted to do was mix the old and the new to bring our heritage, but make it modern. We were in an old mill building. It was very industrial, which we liked, but as we grew we were very disconnected. That impacted how we could, uh, work together and collaborate. We were using a lot of space, but not very effectively. We didn't have a lot of open areas to gather and feel like one company. We made a strong effort to try to make this new building something that Clarks could be proud of and also bring Clarks into the future.

Steve Basque:   It's all about that connection. The atrium brings people into the space and then we ascend up the stair, or you get off the elevator, and you can see work being done in all of the spaces around the atrium.

Tammy Diorio:  I think the biggest change is that our product was not displayed in the best way in the old building. We worked together to really develop new spaces to showcase the product and for the designers to design the product.

Steve Basque:   The hand craftsmanship of the product and the attention to detail was probably the most important thing that we've tried to focus on. That it doesn't have to be old to be crafted.

Steven Kelly:     We understood Clarks history. You, you've got a shoe company that has been around for almost 200 years. They've got the highest grade technology available to you. They're still taking wood blocks and putting it on the wood lathe like they did 100 years ago and then machine by hand with files to perfection. So it's a great story that combined their history with their present with an eye to the future.

Tammy Diorio:  The employees have stopped me in the hallway just saying how much they love the building. They love the collaboration.

John Daine:        For us, as the model makers, it's been a vast improvement. We've got the north light, which we didn't use to have. We used to have to close the light out with blinds because of the direct sunlight in the summer.

Patrick Grace:    As a designer, what we need is definitely lots of natural light, which we are provided with here. It's nice that on each floor on each end there's a convenient little kitchenette that we all have access to with coffee. And it's great because you run into people that you may have had the opportunity to run into in the previous building. That has been a great, great change.

Donna Leung:    Now that we've been working in this building for about six months, it really has reinvigorated everyone to work more closely together because the open nature of this building really fosters creativity and collaboration. We can go off into a little nook and come up with creative ideas, brainstorm ideas.

Gary Champion: It's a really well thought out, well-designed building. Usually it takes some time to get familiar with the new surroundings, but when we walked in, it was immediate and you can see a significant difference in the way we operate our organization just by moving into this building. Terrific!