Urban Outfitters’ new office space might be one of the nicest work spaces I have ever seen. The 125 year old campus was built from the remains of Philadelphia’s historic navy yard. The 341,000 sq ft space was designed by Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle and has brought all of the employees, who were once spread across six different buildings throughout downtown Philadelphia, to a single location.
The design embraces both the history of the Navy Yard and Urban Outfitters’ modern culture by layering old and new. During renovations, the designers held onto signs of age; timbers were salvaged and made into staircases, rough paint was sealed preserving the rough aesthetic, the architects even sandblasted the steel beams, allowed them to rust, and then sealed them so they could be perfectly set in color.
