Strong brew: Heineken HQ spurs innovation through interaction [slideshow]

Heineken USA’s new headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., consolidates the beer maker’s corporate offices from two other locations. Spector Group, the primary interior architect for the redesign project, focused on two primary improvements: the expansion of the company’s bar and social zones, and the enhancement and densification of the existing 60,000-sf bi-level office space.

Employees and guests enter the building and are immediately greeted with a palette of simple, raw materials—brick, wood, and white walls and ceilings. These materials are offset by modern design elements located throughout the expansive bar, “insperience” hub, and reception area.

To create an open work style, the dedicated office spaces were converted to meeting and team rooms, each of which is fitted with colorful graphics that showcase the Heineken portfolio.

A centrally located café is meant to increase the sense of community among employees. Platforms at the base of the intercommunicating stairway provide casual breakout spaces.

Also on the Building Team: Cuoco Structural Engineers (SE) and C+F Consulting Engineers (MEP).

The Harvard studies on the unintended effects of open office defines it as space where 'one entire floor was open, transparent and boundaryless… [with] assigned seats,' and the other had 'similarly assigned seats in an open office design, with large rooms of desks and monitors and no dividers between people's desks.'